TENTENKO
Toothpaste Records launches with the eponymous debut album from synth pop solo artist Tentenko.
The former member of the notorious Japanese punk Idol group BiS has featured on dozens of collaborative and solo releases in her homeland but this is her first international release. Released worldwide in September 2018, the album was universally praised by critics and fans and made the “Best Albums Of 2018” lists at VICE/Noisey, Vinyl Factory and Sister Ray.
This album is Tentenko’s ‘Pop’ album, yet infused with her stylistically-varied musical influences. Side one kicks off with the double-punch of “Kiken Na Highway”’s electro throb and the techno-kayo synthpop “Good bye, Good Girl”, then takes a robo-funk night flight on “Yakanhiko”, detouring into almost mariachi-bashment on “Jirou” and ending up twinkling amongst the constellations in the Logic System collaboration “Star Train”.
Side Two’s new wave Devo-esque “After School Sympathy” collapses into the Shintaro Sakamoto-penned surf-pop “Nantonaku Abenai” before the marriage of crunchy electronica and candy pop that is “Car Passenger Seat School”. The album closes out with the electronic chamber pop of “Ice Floe Of Children” and an inspired cover of Ikue Sakakibara’s techno-kayo 80s hit “Robot”.
