Flipper's Guitar
Flipper's Guitar (フリッパーズ・ギター) was a Tokyo-based indie pop band led by (and later a duo of) Keigo Oyamada and Kenji Ozawa. The band was influenced by the chirpy sound of British '80s pop and new wave/post-punk groups like Haircut 100, Exhibit B, Orange Juice, the Style Council and Aztec Camera, as well as the fashionably eclectic sounds of early '90s Britain, from alternative dance to acid jazz.
The group was an important part of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene in the late 1980s to early 1990s, and Oyamada went on to produce work for Pizzicato Five and his close friend Kahimi Karie.
The band wears their influence on their sleeves, their song titles often citing their British artists' influence — "Goodbye Our Pastels Badges", "Haircut One Hundred", "The Colourfield", etc.
Following the demise of the band in 1991, the two members pursued solo careers. Ozawa released the album The Dogs Bark But the Caravan Moves On under his own name, and Oyamada began 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.
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