In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (6): Tommy heavenly6/Tommy february6

Crazy stuff. This is the lead singer of the J-pop band The Brilliant Green with her solo stuff. Kawase Tomoko started off with her solo alter ego Tommy february6, the name coming from her nickname and her birthday. It's brilliant 80s pop music which came out in tons and tons from production studios in Europe. To me it sounds a lot like the stuff produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or Dieter Bohlen (anyone remember C.C. Catch?). I hated that sound back then but it seems with a change of language it really gets into my ear. She released two albums under that name (a self titled debut and another one named "Tommy Airline"), both with lots of hit potential. The mixture of Japanese and English phrases are well balanced and she even does a coverversion of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You".

And just when you thought it can't get anymore weird she pulls off another stunt and changes her image completely. Now calling herself Tommy heavenly6 she now plays rock music. Apparently she changed her whole image on a television show after performing as Tommy february6. The heavenly6 thing was put up for two albums (again a self-titled one and the follow up named "Heavy Starry Heavenly"). Sometimes this is a bit too poppy but there are some good rocking songs on those records as well.

What I find very fascinating about this is the rapid change of her image. I believe I have never experienced an American or European poptar change their appearance so fast and unexpected. True, there have been image changes every now and then but that was mostly because the perfomer was lacking success at that time and was trying to give his or her career a boost by doing so. This could be seen when all those boygroup guys went solo after their "band" split up. But this is unheard of over here.
The Briliant Green are back together again it seems as they contributed a song for the now showing drama series "Tantei Gakuen Q", an adaption of a manga novel. So we might not hear new stuff from both Tommys in the near future.

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (2): Uinona

I will always be grateful to a good friend of mine who spent the past two years in Tokyo as an exchange student. he introduced me to a lot of new bands I had never heard of before and without him I had never had the chance to ever catch a glimpse of. One of those numerous (okay, I'm exaggerating, but there really has been a lot of them) bands is Uinona, a two-piece from Japan. Now my Japanese isn't that good but from what it looks like on their homepage the band seems to be a) on a hiatus or b) out of order. Which is rather sad because the records are really great.


First there is the self-titled mini album that was realeased in 2001. Wonderful popmusic with amplified and distorted guitars. Nice tempo for the songs as well. And, and this always hooks me up, this wonderful Japanese accent on the English vocals. The recording sounds a lot like it was homemade with a computer, at least on some songs. Both of the members, Yabe Kanako (vox) and Yoshida Tsuyoshi (vox, guitar, etc) sing on a lot of those songs and this makes it sound really good.


Next up is their first full length album simply entitled "1" (2002). That one totally follows the path the chose for the first release. A little bit better produced yet still very enthusiatic and simply wonderful. The version for the song "Show Me The Way" is different from the one they did for a compilation that was put out in the US called "Minty Fresh Japan Compilation Vol. 3" and in my opinion the one on the album sounds a little better.


Last up is what seems to be the final release of Uinona. A mini album called "One More With Feeling" (2003). Again it features wonderful pop songs with the usual instruments, very catchy. And again all songs have English titled but at the same time most of the lyrics are in Japanese. Something that is very common for Japanese pop music.

All in all I think that the music of Uinona sounds very colourful. When you listen to certain kinds of music you can always compare them to certain colours. And Uinona definetely sounds like very lively and fresh colours. I mean, just look at the covers of their records and you'll get the picture.

These are two links for songs on their website. Enjoy and find out for yourselves.

Uinona - Once In A Moment
Uinona - Show Me The Way