Blog - Latin Panic! Ah... UGH!
Latin Panic! Ah... UGH!
I had a quite busy weekend!
Yesterday evening, we went to Jean Snow's for a fun sukiyaki party. We chatted all evening while listening to Jean's music selection, and we also watched a Fukawa Ryō video I had brought.
After getting full, the night was still young and I had planned to meet a fellow Montrealer of the music scene, who was in Tokyo for a week, for promotion and meet-ups with Japanese labels. His name is Jean-Robert Bisaillon and he's the founder of SOPREF (Société de promotion de la relève musicale de l'espace francophone), a non-profit organization helping out independant artists.
We met up in Shinjuku and went to Oto, where was being held Latin Panic! for the last time. Latin Panic! is Paradise Yamamoto and Comoesta Yaegashi's recent unit, bringing back mambo hits and putting them in a club context, a combination that sure works for me! When I was little, my parents used to listen (and also play) a lot of songs that fall in the mambo, cha-cha and similar categories, so I know a lot of the songs that they spin.
The event had the two members and a few helpers taking turns on turntables and live percussions, giving a quite entertaining show. The club being tiny, percussions were placed on a side of the dance floor, between columns of speakers, inches away from the enthusiastic dancing fans.
I was very happy to hear "Pachinko" (the hit original song by Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys, Paradise and Comoesta's 90's mambo unit), and also to see the hilarious moves that go with the lyrics.
Click the thumbnails for larger images.
While chatting with Jean-Robert, I found out that he was a former member of French B, a band mostly active in the late 80's/early 90's. I remembered hearing the band's name, and also certainly seeing their videos on MusiquePlus, but it's only later when I searched the Web and heard a sample of their hit "Je m'en souviens" (click the speaker for a short clip) that I realized having heard the song spinning a lot back then!
Later in the evening, I had the chance to talk with Paradise Yamamoto a little bit, and I told him that I really want to eat gyōza at his Ogikubo restaurant, 餃子王 (gyōzaō, "gyōza king"). I mentioned that I am subscribing to newsletter and told him my name, and he surprised me saying "ah, you're from Nakano right?" (the form to subscribe to the newsletter provided a space for comments where I had mentioned where I live)!
He was very nice and autographed my CD, drawing a cute caricature of himself and also a "gyōza member card", numbered 00001! Now I just have to find out whether it really allows me access to his member-only restaurant...!
What a nice evening!
Posted on February 8, 2004 at 21:48 | Tweet
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Latin Panic!
Patrick went to the final Latin Panic! event (featuring Paradise Yamamoto and Comoesta Yaegashi) at Oto in Shinjuku Saturday night, and wrote a post about it, with lots of pics. I'm jealous that he'll now be able to go to Paradise Yamamoto's member-onl...
February 9, 2004 at 12:06
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It's a shame Paradise Yamamoto wasn't wearing his shirt with frills!
Oh, and for the first time I realized that when you click on the pop-up pictures after opening them, they automatically close.
Posted by Jean on February 9, 2004 at 11:56
Yeah I really wanted to see him in that outfit... too bad. However the video played on the TV at the bar was of a full-fledged Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys show, with the costumes. :)
Paradise sure kicked ass at percussions!
And yes that's a feature for closing windows easily. Who wants to have to carefully move their cursor to the corner of the window if the only thing to be done with it is "close"? :)
Posted by Patrick on February 9, 2004 at 12:05
What a great night out !
What is the autographed CD in the picture, maybe the Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys "Twin Perfect Collection" or something else ?
I finally got the Tokyo Latin Mood "Top Ten" CD and it is very good (very kitschy and fun, there are a couple of lambadas too among the various cha-chas and mambos !!)
Hope that they will release something by Latin Panic on CD sometime !!
Mauro
Posted by Mauro on February 9, 2004 at 17:48
The CD is a 2003 re-release of two older compilations called "nangoku no yoru" and "zoku nangoku no yoru", compiled by Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys. Both compilations are re-released on a same CD.
I haven't yet listened to this re-release, but I had heard "zoku nangoku no yoru" before, it's sort of Hawaiian-style Japanese music, of the 70's I think... All artists are Japanese but went to study music in Hawaii, so their stuff doesn't end up sounding much Japanese at all except for the lyrics. Interesting stuff though but not quite mambo (as for what I heard anyway).
That's cool about the Tokyo Latin Mood [Deluxe?] CD! I currently only have the series of 6 singles in my collection, and I really need to grab that full-length sometime! Did all songs from the singles end up on "Top Ten"? or is it completely different stuff?
At the event, Comoesta spinned a new track and said that it's from an upcoming release a bit later this year, but I didn't get whether it would be an album and whether it's his solo stuff or with Latin Panic!.
I'd also like more Latin Panic!, the 12" released a year or two ago is great (they played a few songs from it at the event)!
Posted by Patrick on February 9, 2004 at 18:00
That definitely is Deluxe, sorry !
I only have two of the six singles (thanks to you !) so I cannot answer for sure but if you check the jpophelp.com website you can find a scan of the cover complete with obi and tracklist; mind you, the picture is a bit blurry but probably you will be able to read it with your spanking new glasses ;))
I am really frustrated with Comoesta, I'd really love to hear a full album from him but he seems to be doing only (very good) bits here and there these days !!
Posted by Mauro on February 9, 2004 at 19:12
Yeah, I agree about Comoesta. Have you heard "BGM Vol.1 for Modernica" yet?
Now if only 5th Garden would get back together for good. :)
Posted by Patrick on February 9, 2004 at 21:10
Hi. i heard my first track by the " Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys", but i am unable to find any websites selling the cd's. Could you recommend somewhere on the net i can buy them. thanks. gary
Posted by gary on November 2, 2005 at 01:37
The best you can do is to get the 2002 2CD release that contains all their songs. It can be ordered from Amazon Japan.
Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys "Twin Perfect Collection"
http://amazon.co.jp/o/ASIN/B00005V1P0/chipple-22/ref=nosim
Posted by Patrick on November 2, 2005 at 10:35