Kojima Mayumi | Omokage

Listen to the title song

Get it all here.

I originally posted this CD in June 2010, soon after having found it at a used CD place in Tokyo. I'm reposting now because I hadn't previously put the whole thing together in a single zip file (or rar, as the case is now), meaning anyone wanting it had to grab each song individually.

Obviously, such a finding is outside the purported parameters of this blog; but I posted it because I had earlier found Kojima Mayumi's Ai No Poltergeist at P-Tunes and Video, the much-alluded-to mom and pop Chinese media store on Chrystie Street in Manhattan's Chinatown pictured in the header image of this blog.

From her LastFM entry:

"Kojima Mayumi’s maturation over the years has been exciting to watch, as she evolved from the cutesy, almost childlike persona of the nascent years of her career to the confident, sultry diva we’ve seen this side of the millennium.

"That it was this cute playfulness that contributed greatly to the charm of her early material cannot be doubted, but gradually she moved away from that as her musical appetite increased in its avidity. It wasn’t just the strengthened influence of jazz, an important element of her repertoire from the very beginning, but also a newfound enthusiasm to incorporate styles as wide-ranging as rockabilly, reggae, Americana, and cha-cha to her own music.

"The girlish elements never disappeared completely of course, and traces can still be heard in albums as recent as 2003’s Ai no Poltergeist (“Koi wa Psychedelic”) or the following year’s Pablo no Koibito (“Chairo no Kobin”). But at the same time it would’ve been senseless to characterize that as her musical centerpiece."

Video from Ai No Poltergeist

Kojima Mayumi | Me and My Monkey on the Moon

Listen to "セシルカットブルース" ("Cecil's Blues Cut")


Listen to "あの娘の彼" ("That Girl of His")

Get the 21-song retrospective aqui.

Well, lookee here: It's a fabulous collection of 1990s singles and rarities from one of our all-time favorite Shibuya-kei artists, Kojima Mayumi. I found this lovely item in Shibuya itself, almost certainly at one of the smaller indie used CD places dotting the Tokyo neighborhood's outskirts.

I'm currently cooling my heels with family in Corvallis, Oregon, where I'll be boxing up the "literally thousands of" (actually more like 20 or 30) Cambodian, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese CDs I found last week on Foster Road in Portland. If I find any of the covers online I'll go ahead and post while I'm here; but pretty much, if I do manage to post over the holidays, I'll be limiting myself to items like today's offering: Stuff I've already got on my computer but, for whatever reason, haven't yet shared with y'all yet.

Mayumi Kojima | Blues de Cecile

Reupped by popular demand here.

While Blues de Cecile lacks the sophistication and musical intricacies of Kojima's later work, it's pure Shibuya-kei rockin' fun. Rarely listed among other Shibuya-kei stalwarts like Flipper's Guitar and Kahimi Karie, there's no question that Kojima draws from similar roots: namely 50s and 60s music from the Americas and Europe. When she was 18 years old, while still in high school, high on 50s American pop, she recorded her first demo, securing a contract soon after. Though she's recorded some of the most thrilling pop music to have come out of Tokyo in the last 15-odd years, the well-meaning folks at Pitchfork have apparently been too busy following every mutton-chop-sporting, three-word-named band from Sacramento to Eugene, to have noticed. 

Not that it's entirely their fault. Now 40, Kojima hasn't put out a record in more than two years, not since 2010's Blue Rondo. I was fortunate enough to have stumbled onto tonight's record in 2010 in Tokyo--in a cramped but well-stocked used CD store in, you guessed it, Shibuya.

And now you can say you were fortunate enough to have stumbled upon it here.

Mayumi Kojima | Love of a 20-Year-Old (1996)

Listen to the first track of this blistering early Mayumi Kojima album

Get it all here.

Long-time visitors of the bodega not only know the special place this singer holds in our heart--they also know why. (Newer visitors need simply listen to the sample above.)

I'm so wiped out that I can't possibly write up a properly thrill-packed intro for this one ... but, just having found it, I couldn't wait to pass it along to you.

Mayumi Kojima | Ai No Poltergeist

Reupped at 320kbps here.

I found this fabulous Japanese import at P Tune & Video Co (see the header image of this blog--that's the place) on Chrystie Street in Manhattan's Chinatown in late 2009. I knew nothing about the artist, but soon became obsessed with her, tracking the rest of her complete output -- more than a dozen albums and EPs -- on a trip to Japan in 2010 and then later, through various Japanese-focused blogs from South America to Asia.

This was one of the first albums I posted to the Bodega and for a very long while, it was the most popular in terms of grabs. Reupped in case you missed it the first time around.