The 7 best Shibuya-kei tracks of all time
Shibuya-kei
A Tokyo record-shop aesthetic rather than a sound: early-nineties Japanese bands raiding sixties French pop, bossa nova, film scores and library music from the import bins of Shibuya, and reassembling them with total precision.
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Pizzicato Five / Twiggy Twiggy
Maki Nomiya deadpan over a bossa rhythm, strings and a break. The group that defined the whole look and sound, and knew exactly how arch they were being.
Cornelius / Star Fruits Surf Rider
Keigo Oyamada's Fantasma is a collage record of extraordinary density — Beach Boys harmony, hardcore, video-game bleeps, all edited to the frame.
Flipper's Guitar / Aoi Sora
Oyamada's first band, essentially a Japanese Postcard Records act. Where the whole movement begins, and they split after three albums.
Pizzicato Five / Sweet Soul Revue
A Philadelphia soul arrangement, a Tokyo vocal and an advertising campaign. Shibuya-kei was always comfortable being commercial and never pretended otherwise.
Kahimi Karie / Tokyo
Whispered French-influenced pop, produced by Cornelius. Karie sings so quietly the arrangement has to come to her, which is the aesthetic in one gesture.
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Kyoko Koizumi / Nantettatte Idol
An idol record from before the scene existed, and one of the crates it dug in. Included to show the tradition Shibuya-kei was both quoting and escaping.