Blog - Switched On! -Side B-: live report

Switched On! -Side B-: live report

Last night was a party called "Switched On!" (event MySpace), of a series organized by Motocompo and friends. This is usually held in Kichijōji, but this time they were invited to do it at Shibuya Home. I went there looking forward to Motocompo, of course, and also Hazel Nuts Chocolate and Momokomotion.

First on stage was a young unit called Candles (MySpace). The girl-boy unit played French-pop influenced whisper vocal songs with club beats, with touches of 8-bit sounds and vocoder. They were accompanied by 2 cute dancers. Their sound reminded me of Les 5-4-3-2-1 and Misswonda. Quite good! They played about 5 songs.

Candles formed in 2007 and debuted last year with an EP out on Universal. Hear more samples on their discography page.

Next up was Hazel Nuts Chocolate, aka Yuppa-chan, accompanied by Motocompo's Dr.USUI like last time I had seen her. She wore some sort of bear hat that must have been way too hot in a place like that! Like always she was very energetic, singing while walking and jumping around, sometimes settling down a bit to play fat keys on her KORG.

She did a selection of her more upbeat songs such as "Love Piece Icecream" and "koi wa kyurukyuru", and also 2 brand new songs! She's been working on a 3rd album forever, and she still couldn't tell when it will be finished.

She was followed by Momokomotion, the new unit of Momoko (formerly of Futon), a Japanese who's based in Bangkok and seems very active with the local art scene, even co-running a small gallery and live space. Her set was supported by the two of Motocompo, and girl drummer Reiko-rin. The sound was rock but with new wave and electro influences, of course reminding of Futon.

Then there was a DJ set by Yuppa-chan, while waiting for Motocompo to get ready.

And last up, Motocompo! It was the first time I saw them although I had heard their music a little bit before, and seeing their great set I wondered why I hadn't seen them earlier. They were definitely the most picopico set of the evening. I really enjoyed their robot moves and their crowd interaction.

They appeared to closed their set as they always seem to do, but then they ran back to the front and said that this time they had a surprise! They started saying that it's Shibuya Home's 1st anniversary and how they are good friends of the owners, and then a cake showed up... but surprise, it was for Momoko and Chiho who both celebrate their birthday on March 3rd! They were even born the same year!

They then sang Hazel Nuts Chocolate's "Hello" all together. It was a double surprise, as Yuppa said that she didn't even know they'd do this song at the end. :)