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September 14, 2019 9:30 AM   Subscribe

Doopee Time

The Doopees are a fictional vocal duo created by cult musician Yann Tomita, and Doopee Time is their first and (so far) only full-length album. If Burt Bacharach got really high while watching twentieth-century Japanese children's programming, he would probably hallucinate something like Doopee Time. It has been variously described as 'cosmic kitsch', 'belligerently experimental', 'a joke, until it's not', 'blissful, melodic, and frankly gorgeous', parodic, sentimental, sincere, and 'fucking great'.
posted by Panthalassa (6 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Incidentally, if you're like me you were probably thinking of a different Tomita.
posted by ardgedee at 9:33 AM on September 14, 2019


It's no Third Reich and Roll, but will do in a pinch.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 9:44 AM on September 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Discogs says this album came out in 1995. I don't know if they were considered part of the Shibuya-kei scene but they're squarely in that wheelhouse and timeframe, sharing the same both-ironic-and-earnest fascination with lounge music, pop ballads, and 1960s show tunes, edited with heavy splicing and sudden tonal shifts.

If you like Pizzicato 5, you might appreciate this in terms of being a half-parody, half-homage -- substituting Maki Nomiya with a pseudonymous cast of idol singers, the producer being fully self-aware of the impression they were making.

Doopees followed this album with an EP, Dooits!, that's also on YouTube, and apparently there was even a one-off reunion performance a few years back.
posted by ardgedee at 9:55 AM on September 14, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm still listening to this. There are some long noodly bits, but there are also tracks like "Time and Space", a solid motorik jam that would be comfortable sharing a split single with Stereolab or Ectogram.
posted by ardgedee at 10:13 AM on September 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Aw sweet! Yann Tomita is best Tomita (fight me, the world is full of synth players trained on piano). His "Music for..." records are strikingly outside of the Japanese Electronic tradition and dance among styles very much reminiscent of the KLF's "Chill Out." Sure, "Night on Bald Mountain" sounds freaky with cutoff modulation running throughout, but it doesn't really add to the vocabulary as much as rejecting form and genre lockdowns.

GOOD POST
posted by rhizome at 12:44 PM on September 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is one of those albums that I love deeply and then completely forget about for years at a time. Thanks for reminding me that I should be listening to it all the time!
posted by phooky at 1:48 PM on September 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


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