We all need to relax right now. Doorbusters have ended, the work week has begun, and if you still think those leftovers will taste good you better throw them out before I say “Rain Dragon Records has a new release available on their Bandcamp called Boogie Idol” three times in a row as fast as I can. Or else.
Hold up, Hydro. What’d you say? So you’ve never heard of this little underground net label? Well, check ‘em out, because they’ve got vapor, they’ve got funk, they’ve got post-video game, they’ve got post-vapor, they’ve got e-juice, they’ve got starter packs; almost all of it available for free or with a 99 cent price tag. Aesthetically, their Bandcamp page reminds me of shopping inside a mall in a Pokémon city or flipping—9 cards at a time—through my vast collection of rare Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. You get me. The trans-Pacific Tokyo-Vancouver exchange heats up on Boggie Idol. Think smiling mailman on the sidewalk, free sushi, yummy mall Wifi, bamboo shoots, grainy anime, coffee breaks in a peaceful skyscraper, cherry-blossom scented hands, small paintings above toilets, retro meets digital, dragons snoring inside the trunk of a tree, smiling Tokyo girls, undergrad Japanophiles. Wrap all of that up in seaweed, put it in a jar, cast it out into the ocean, and wait for the return. Wait inside a hotel room, wait inside an internet dungeon. Wait outside in the rain like in 1989 when you didn’t know the usefulness of umbrellas yet. Fly to Tokyo and Europe and back, drinking Sapporo over the American continent like as if 1492—and, subsequently, Thanksgiving—never happened. And remember to boogie while on the plane!
More about: Sato Dai, Tanaka Asuka
