Double Famous

On their fourth album, the self-styled “urban nomads” make the world their own

Courtesy of Speedstar/Victor

The overseas travel boom, immigration, the Internet—these are only a few of the factors that have brought increasing kokusaika (internationalization) to Japan’s music scene. While many aspiring players still travel abroad to imbibe everything from the Indian sitar to Mongolian throat singing, it’s now easy to sample—just as it is with Tokyo’s food scene—the world’s musical flavors without leaving town.

And like mukokuseki ryori (literally: “food without nationality”) in which flavors from Asia coexist with those from Latin America, musical styles sit easily side by side on the new album by ten-piece Tokyo collective Double Famous.

A Hawaiian slack key guitar melody gives way to rollicking horn lines; bongos beat alongside an accordion; a cover of Afrobeat classic “Bukom Mashie” is followed by a quote from Latin jazz-funkers War.

To take but one example, trumpeter Shuichiro Sakaguchi describes his composition, “Diamond Black Piranha,” as follows: “From Havana to Buenos Aires, from New York to Jerusalem, from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo...textures made of fragments of sounds that float in wandering fantasies.”
For reference points, think of Ry Cooder, the John Lurie Orchestra, Marc Ribot’s Prosthetic Cubans, and others who appropriate so-called “world music” and filter it through a prism of urban sophistication.

What could be a recipe for discord or glibness works not only because of the musicianship of Double Famous’s members, but because they don’t step all over each other. Almost every member of the band contributes a song to Brilliant Colors, and the others work together to make each part cohere.
The genesis of Double Famous dates to 1991, when multi-instrumentalist Takuji Aoyagi and original bassist Sen unearthed a bin of obscure African and Central and South American records, and began to spin them at events they called “Brilliant Colors” at cozy Shimokitazawa student hangouts like Zoo and Slits.

At the same time, Aoyagi and Satoshi Kuribayashi had a ukulele duo at university that they called Double Famous, a name that derived from the brand of ukulele they were using, Famous. Recruiting further members from Afrobeat, ska, reggae and jazz circles, the group reached its current incarnation as a ten-member band by 1993.

Making distinctly noncommercial music, Double Famous made its way onto the proverbial vinyl in 1998, but by that time the group already had a strong word of mouth reputation. When their indie debut Esperanto arrived, it signaled their ambitions to create what they describe alternatively as mukokuseki ongaku—“new wave world music,” or an “urban nomadic sound.”

With Japanese increasingly open to music from beyond the dominant US and UK pop spheres, Victor’s Speedstar imprint saw Double Famous’s potential and inked a deal. At Speedstar, the group found a home alongside one-time Shibuya-kei idol-turned-eccentric UA, who used the band on her album Turbo.

The limited number of venues where a ten-member group can play in Japan, and the narrow commercial viability of an outfit like Double Famous, mean that most of its members have second careers. Aoyagi, for instance, is better known as the leadman of rock group Little Creatures, while trumpeter Sakaguchi is the director of Daikanyama club Unit (where Double Famous had their CD release concert last month), and bassist Jiro Takagi is also a graphic designer (for Double Famous’ CD jackets, among others).

All these outside endeavors and influences are just more ingredients that Double Famous can throw into their pot. And when they do come together, as on Brilliant Colors, the stew is likely to be all the tastier.

Brilliant Colors is available now on Speedstar International/Victor Entertainment.

Would you like to comment on this article? Send a letter to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp .