Sound of Music By Pizzicato Five
Some look into the face of American popular culture and see the deep dark abyss of lowest-common-denominator commercialism. Tokyo duo Pizzicato Five, however, peer stateside and see the sparkling disco-ball inferno of souped-up drag-race hyper-enthusiasm, a kitschy retro-futurist youthquake, and a high-fashion, heavy-plastic glob of fun. The ever-changing group masterminded by Warhol-wannabe Yasuharu Konishi and fronted by Twiggy-disciple Maki Nomiya has borrowed, sampled, and stolen its way through an irresistible melange of Esquivel's bossa nova cocktail swing ("Rock and Roll"), Bacharach's jazz pop ("Fortune Cookie"), chewy psychedelic bubblegum ("Strawberry Sleighride"), cartoonish Jackson Five Motown ("Happy Sad"), and Dee-Lite's frenetic disco house music ("The Night Is Still Young").--Roni Sarig