Miki Sawaguchi is a fairly well known AV idol from Japan (although, personally I have yet to see any of her films yet), she is perhaps most well known for her, well... as the album title goes, Big Boobs. Aside from being just an AV idol though, she has branched out towards many other projects, appearing as a regular cast member on shows like YOUNG and Gilgamesh Night and focusing on musical endeavors such as this one.

Besides being a busty porn star, why should the Japan-obsessed, seedy and strange of us care even the slightest about her outside of that career? Well, for experimental music fans, the words Alchemy Records and Jojo Hiroshige may spark a considerable amount of interest. Sawaguchi has on many times collaborated with the legendary Hijokaidan.

Tampon Tango was a Japanese film released in 1975, blurring the line between porn and cult flick. I'm actually not sure what it is trying to be as the plotline and visuals are too bizarre to be a straight porn, but the actual sex scenes are too vanilla to actually turn someone on.

The film revolves around a pornographer and several of his actors and actresses. One of the women mentions interest in setting up a scene where tampons are forcibly inserted into a girl's vagina as this kind of scene has 'never been done before.'


From there the film delves into a blurry of oddball scenes consisting of penis guitar playing and women placing explosives in their lower regions. I don't want to spoil all the scenes, so I'll keep it at that.


Now from all of this, you must think that this is the greatest film ever. Well, while there are no doubt some amazing and unique scenes in this film, the consistency of them is where this movie falls a little flat. In between some of the more memorable scenes are some flat-out boring and not to mention, extremely long sex scenes. A true test of endurance. Even for those of you nipponphiles with an extreme case of the yellow fever will most likely be bored to sexual numbness watching these people go at it. It is almost as if they were a pair of awkward virgins going at it for the first time. Prepare to be flaccid.


However, we are at least allowed to exit on a good note. An absolutely outlandish group sex scene that never seems to end until we see a release of confetti and topless middle-aged Japanese men waving batons. Fucking punk rock.


To be completely honest, I really didn't care for this film as much as I thought I would, only for the sake of one's curiosity did I upload this film, and don't we all want to satisfy those curiosities? I don't think anyone has bothered to upload Tampon Tango in the past (besides a few elitist torrent sites) so I thought I would save anyone the trouble of trying to track this one down.

The scenes that are memorable are extremely so, but the consistency is what kills it. The actual sex scenes are way too long and drawn out, and if those were shortened just a bit I think Tampon Tango would be a flawless cult classic. Most likely there will be more who enjoy this than I did, although I have to say, I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like Tampon Tango.... ever.

Peace,
Garrett

I believe I posted an EP of their's earlier, but I thought this album deserved a post as well, so to reintroduce this group....

group_inou consists of two people, imai (track producer) and cp (vocals). group_inou combines video-game like instrumentation with an almost punk-like approach to hip-hop. The groups' music is extremely feel good, but also rings in with a sort of nostalgia in their chiptune sound that makes guys like me weep bittersweetly.

I never really cared for much Japanese rap before, most of it I feel is an embodiment of Western culture, most of it being typified by people who are influenced by white youth who in turn themselves are trying to embody black culture. So basically, Japanese people trying to act like white guys who are trying to act like black guys. This may be a bit generalized, yes, but I feel that group_inou is one of the few rap groups I have heard from Japan that actually sound purely Japanese. I mean, how many cheesy Engrish hooks can you hear in group_inou's music? Not any really.


With that being said, group_inou is something unique, something amazing, but something that may not be appreciated among everyone due to it being quite unorthodox, especially in comparison to Western rap. But for those who are open to something a little different, perhaps even challenging to your current perception of rap, then group_inou will more than likely win a place in your heart. FAN has become one of my favorite albums from Japan.


Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/groupinou
Official Site: http://g-a-l.jp/group_inou/

-Garrett

Thieves of Zozo is comprised of two people, one going by the name Abampere, and the other, Tiger De La Vega. The name, Thieves of Zozo, is a Final Fantasy reference, although I will have to admittedly say that I have never played the series (except for Final Fantasy X for Playstation 2, which I hear isn't all that good....) I think Zozo's musical landscapes differentiate far from the general feeling that Final Fantasy provokes. Thieves of Zozo's music is cold, and industrial, but those adjectives aren't meant to be synonymous with a lack of emotion. The ambient drones of Zozo can be categorized with a sense of disconnection, like the swirling mechanical mess of Tsukamoto's cyberpunk efforts. Along with swirling electronics and keys, we get some excellent minimalist percussion that perfectly blends along the edges of the ambiance, bleeding into it and creating something transcendent of its original parts. Think something like Burial meets Blade Runner.

A fairly unknown gem of cute techno-pop produced primarily by Yasutaka Nakata (capsule) along with Hayashibe Tomonori (Plus-Tech Squeeze Box), Imai Kentaro (Aprils), and Okuda Hidetaka (Sucrette).

Originally released in 2005 as lollipop, it quickly went out of print and was recently re-released last year, remastered, re-arranged, and with brand new tracks. Don't bother searching for a download of the original album though, it's essentially the same but without tracks 1, 7, and 9 (which are pretty much interlude tracks at that).


Most of the sound can be categorized as purely shibuya-kei, comparable to much of capsule's earlier work. Despite so many different produces appearing on this album, the sound is fairly consistent. Track 8 is a cover of an Aprils song.