FLIPPER’S GUITAR – SLIDE (1990)

lyrics and music by THE DOUBLE KNOCKOUT CORPORATION

Haven’t had much time to translate recently because of finals, but I was able to find some time to throw this one together after putting it off for a while – I wanna try and get in a holiday-y mood and translate some Japanese Christmas songs, so I figured why not start with one of my favorite Japanese bands in general, Flipper’s Guitar? I mean, it sounds the part, what with those jingling bells.

Translation and notes under the cut:

FLIPPER’S GUITAR – CAMERA! CAMERA! CAMERA! (1990)

lyrics and music by KENJI OZAWA & KEIGO OYAMADA

Flipper’s Guitar are one of the pioneers of the Shibuya-kei genre, a sort of jazzy, breezy kind of pop music that became popular in Japan and the 90s, eventually influencing the early work of bands like CAPSULE, among others. Their work is influenced by 60s pop and jangly british bands of the 80s, including the Style Council and Haircut 100, whom they named a song after. This song comes on the cusp of their first major style change, when they dropped three members and started moving towards slightly more experimental, techno-influenced sounds, eventually being reworked on their second album, Camera Talk.

Translation and notes are under the cut: