WeAreAwake.org

No discussion about Japan would be complete without a discussion of P5!!! Here's some info about them on yahoo:

http://launch.yahoo.com/ar-261695---Pizzicato-Five

Godfathers of the Shibuya-kei scene, Tokyo kitsch-pop deconstructionists Pizzicato Five originally began taking shape as far back as 1979, when university students Yasuharu Konishi and Keitaro Takanami first met at a local music s...

Their music varies but a lot of it is a cross between jazz, blues, pop etc.
Anyone who watched Beavis and Butthead saw their odd video for Twiggy on that show.
In fact that was my first exposure to P5. And probably for many people in the US! MTV did play that video at other times too.
Back when MTV used to play videos.

Here's a site with a good article and further expands on what their sound is:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro ... -9545.html

It's too bad Pizzicato 5 broke up. Of all the music that came out of the Shibuya-kei scene, they were the only ones that really left an impression with me.

A lot of fans seem divided on P5's progression. The music started to take a change with Playboy & Playgirl and only became more experimental and analog. Most of the people I've talked to liked the earlier stuff (seemed a lot more electronic, "dancier"?) while I personally enjoyed what came out of Fifth Release from Matador and Ce et la du Japon (their final album not released stateside). Do you have a favorite album or time period of theirs?