Hayase Yukako

I don't know too much about Hayase Yukako. Archived here on Youtube is either two separate Laserdisc "albums" or a single double-laserdisc. Music is of varying style and quality, from Idol to fusion and some more esoteric material. Definitely continuity between clips, but no narrative to speak of. The album Love Your Life from 2008 is here. Working on finding the older stuff.

This is the second laserdisc album I've written about here, with Dip In the Pool's Dipping being the first. Do any listeners know if this was a common thing in the 80s and early 90s? An interesting format!

Unique vibe to "Sadist", jittery fusion funk mixed with paranoid, haunted house backing vocals. Great video effects in the clip.


"Suiyoubi Madeni Shinitaino" is another successful video, a mysterious presentation of lonely spaces both domestic and public.


Here's an ice-cold clip to close out disc one, "Trois Quarts". Hayase kills herself at the end! This track's Francophilia is in keeping with not only the album (the first track is titled "Last Year at Marienbad") but with Japanese Idol music of the time in general. The second disc (or album?) is much more cheerful (almost "island-fusion") and uptempo.


Fantastic synthesized voice and new age pop on "Anata No No Ga Shiru" from laserdisc number two, which seems to take place in a desert or maybe some tropical island.


Do readers want me to create an artificial album by ripping tracks from the Youtube videos? I'll try to get around to it eventually but if enough folks want me to I'll make it a priority.

Dip in the Pool - Dipping

Here is Dip in the Pool's 1991 Laserdisc-only album/music video collection Dipping. The volume is a bit low, so turning up your speakers may be a necessity. Other than that, the quality is good for being ripped from Youtube videos which are ripped from a Laserdisc.

Dip in the Pool - Dipping (1991) (Japan)

The videos from the LD are on Youtube here.

Dip in the Pool

In doing what little research I could for a post I'm planning about mid-80s Japanese video-countdown show Music Tomato Japan, I came across this video for Dip in the Pool's "Ritual", a song composed for the 1987 Brigitte Lin/Tony Leung film Lady in Black.

The core duo is singer Miyako Koda (who also acts), and Tatsuji Kimura on keyed instruments (I'm not sure who's playing the stringed koto-like instrument on "Ritual"). While Dip in the Pool have a full discography and have been successful, information in English (and maybe in any language) is limited. This bio is the most comprehensive on the internet as far as I know, even though the discography may be incomplete. This Myspace page is fan-created I'm assuming, but it has some mp3s to listen to. Youtube is also useful.

While most of MTJ's content is derivative and immediately familiar, this track really stands out. It's haunted, sparse quality reminds of Cocteau Twins, but I feel like that's not a very useful comparison. The simple, compartmentalized elegance of the song is perhaps akin to Art of Noise's sublime "Moments in Love", although more tightly structured as a verse-chorus-verse "song". The video itself is literal, depicting not only strange rituals (the various egg routines, dipping the stuffed monkey into the water glass) but music-making itself as ritual, with some of the most pointed and meaningful "playing" I've ever seen depicted in a music video.



Enjoy this song and video, info and download for Dip in the Pool's 1991 Laserdisc-only album Dipping will be posted tomorrow afternoon. Limited overview of Music Tomato Japan to follow in the following week or so.