FLIPPER'S GUITAR

Flipper's Guitar were a Tokyo-based Japanese pop duo Keigo Oyamada and Kenji Ozawa. The band were influenced by the chirpy sound of British 80s pop groups like Haircut 100, Exhibit B (who they later sampled from*) The Style Council and Aztec Camera, as well as the fashionably eclectic sounds of early 90s Britain, from indie dance to acid jazz. The sonic experimentation of Brian Wilson was also evident in some tracks, Oyamada was later to state that his greatest influences were "the three Bs - Beck, The Beatles and the Beach Boys".

The group were an important part of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene in the 1990s, and Oyamada went on to produce work for Pizzicato Five and his one-time partner Kahimi Karie.

The band were never shy to wear their influence on their sleeves, and their song titles often either name-checked their Anglo idols — Goodbye Our Pastels Badges, Haircut 100, Colour Field — or aped them — The Quizmaster from Doctor Head's World Tower treads the line between inspiration and plagiarism of Primal Scream's "Loaded", much like the rest of the album.

Following the demise of the band in 1993 the two members pursued solo careers, Ozawa releasing the album "The Dogs Bark But The Caravan Moves On" under his own name, and Oyamada recording under the name of Cornelius. It was as Cornelius that Oyamada gained a minor cult following outside Japan, as well as remix work for the likes of Blur, Beck, and the Manic Street Preachers. · close