Motocompo (TOKYO)

Combining a pure, unironic pop sensibility with a strong grounding in underground music, Motocompo are one of Japan's premier technopop artists the last ten years. Architects, along with bands like Polysics, of the late 1990s "Tokyo New Wave Of New Wave" movement, they updated the quirky 1980s pop of the Plastics, Hikashu and P-Model to something that recognises the influence of the last 20 years of American and European electronic music. From their minimalist 1999 debut, "Desktop Romancer", through a series of increasingly sophisticated albums and EPs, Motocompo have successfully straddled the divide between mainstream and underground, playing with the likes of new wave supergroup NiNa (featuring Yuki from Judy & Mary, Mick Kahn from Japan, and Kate Pierson from the B-52s) and J-Pop idols Halcali, as well as indie contemporaries such as YMCK and Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, and at the same time working with overseas artists such as the UK's DMX Krew and Swedish Grammy award winner Andreas Tilliander. All these influences combine to create intelligent electronic pop music that draws on the best of Japan's classic technopop past, but is in no way constrained by them.