Shibuya-kei is a genre – or more properly, a sensibility – that arose within Japanese pop music in the 1990s. Shibuya-kei borrows from Western pop music from prior decades and arranges it into luscious harmonies. It’s familiar to the Western ear, but still radically different enough to feel as a unique presentation. The genre is a beautiful yet elusive expression of plunderphonics.
I’m going to offer a particular definition of plunderphonics: “arranging deep meaning through sounds obtained from other creative works.”
In my mind, the flagship work of Shibuya-kei is an album titled “Fantasma”. By extension, the best artist: Cornelius. There’s too much that needs to be said about Cornelius, whose real name is Keigo Oyamada (Oyamada Keigo is how Japanese people would say it. Family name first then given name).
“Fantasma” is an exploration, an intimate experience that orchestrates electronic instruments with found sounds. It all fits together so cleanly, so precisely, so as to create a sense of awe.
The first entry in this masterpiece album is Mic Check, the above track.