i discovered plasticzooms sometime last year, in the video produced by the reality show. they were one of the japanese style innovators photographed by living legend araki.
they provided the soundtrack of the video while very appropriately modeling raf simons’ minimal designs for jil sander.
recently, i’ve started researching this indie gothic post-punk band based in tokyo. spending too much time browsing tumblrs, fb pages and blogs resulted in me developing a mild crush on androgynous sho azakawa and adding plasticzooms on my favourite band list.
they were a total surprise: fast, raw and intoxicating, with lots of european new wave influences. but their style does vary quite a bit across the two well-produced albums: remix-heavy charm (2009) and eclectic starbow (2011). there are heavy guitars but also quieter, melodious tracks as well as samples of dark electronica.
sho seems to be in charge of a large part of the creative load: music, lyrics, visual identity, style, etc. their videos are by long-standing collaborator yu wakatsuki. whatever they’ve been doing is working as their dark bewitching stuff featuring sho’s endearing japanese-accented english is my soundtrack now.
the band has just released this morning a new list with a series of upcoming live gigs and i’m so frustrated: it’s impossible for me to be there…
but i do have some good news: i contacted sho and he agreed to an interview. i’m very excited!
also, we talked about getting together next year when i’ll be in tokyo, so watch this space!
photo and video credits: plasticzooms
3 comments
Martine says:
Nov 29, 2012
How do you get “innovator” from a bunch of very typical black wearing art school types? Oh well..its not like the Japanese are exactly known for innovation. More like ripoffvation.
little-aesthete says:
Nov 29, 2012
we are each entitled to our own opinions. if we start counting the bands influenced by joy division, we’ll be here counting until next morning, right?
THE VERY TALENTED SHO ASAKAWA - little aesthete's blog says:
Jan 28, 2013
[…] asakawa is the creative back bone of plasticzooms. they are a very interesting post punk japanese band. i really like their stuff and i plan to […]