2022: The Year of Floating Pupa
Pupa is a Japanese group that consists of Yukihiro Takahashi, Tomoyo Harada, Hiroshi Takano, Ren Takada, Hirohisa Horie, and Tomohiko Gondo. They put out their debut album, Floating Pupa, in 2008. It is a wonderful album of indie pop that brings to mind The Postal Service, amongst other groups. We mean this in a best way. Pupa is not a MySpace phenomena that helped fill the vacuum left by the Postal Service, but instead the coming together of many skilled musicians that wanted to offer their take on this sound.
Yukihiro Takahashi is probably the best known member of Pupa. He was previously in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as releasing some wonderful solo LPs such as Saravah! And Nueromantic. Tomboy Harada is a Japanese actress and singer, who has been putting out LPs since 1983. American audiences may not be as familiar with the likes of Hiroshi Takano, Ren Takada, Hirohisa Horie, and Tomohiko Gondo, but they each are quite talented musicians. This led to Pupa being referred to as a J indie supergroup.
With the boom of City Pop, American audiences are much more accustomed to Japanese music now than they were in 2008 when this was originally released. Much in the way that City Pop hit a sweet spot for new music that felt familiar, Pupa could start a trend for a Japanese indie boom in the US. Tracks like At Dawn and New Order that are just waiting to be included in many different types of DJ sets.
You can tell we’re really excited for this LP to arrive and we’re excited to share it with all our customers. We’ll have to wait until late March for the physical release of Floating Pupa, but in the mean time, you can keep those YouTube rips in your regular rotation and hopefully mention this LP to a friend or two to help get the word out.
One last note: We wish this Pupa LP was cheaper too. It sucks that we have to price it this high, but the other choice is not to stock it. We really do think it is a worthwhile purchase for the music it contains. If your motivations are more cynical and you want to have it for credibility or to flip it, it is still good enough of an LP that it should be worth your while.
Yukihiro Takahashi is probably the best known member of Pupa. He was previously in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as releasing some wonderful solo LPs such as Saravah! And Nueromantic. Tomboy Harada is a Japanese actress and singer, who has been putting out LPs since 1983. American audiences may not be as familiar with the likes of Hiroshi Takano, Ren Takada, Hirohisa Horie, and Tomohiko Gondo, but they each are quite talented musicians. This led to Pupa being referred to as a J indie supergroup.
With the boom of City Pop, American audiences are much more accustomed to Japanese music now than they were in 2008 when this was originally released. Much in the way that City Pop hit a sweet spot for new music that felt familiar, Pupa could start a trend for a Japanese indie boom in the US. Tracks like At Dawn and New Order that are just waiting to be included in many different types of DJ sets.
You can tell we’re really excited for this LP to arrive and we’re excited to share it with all our customers. We’ll have to wait until late March for the physical release of Floating Pupa, but in the mean time, you can keep those YouTube rips in your regular rotation and hopefully mention this LP to a friend or two to help get the word out.
One last note: We wish this Pupa LP was cheaper too. It sucks that we have to price it this high, but the other choice is not to stock it. We really do think it is a worthwhile purchase for the music it contains. If your motivations are more cynical and you want to have it for credibility or to flip it, it is still good enough of an LP that it should be worth your while.