#fpm

Something has awoken in me, I'm afraid 🥹

Luxury (LP)

Fantastic Plastic Machine, 1999

Tomoyuki Tanaka:

Since last spring, HALCALI’s “Otsukare SUMMER” has been enjoying a mysterious worldwide viral boom. And now, the song has appeared on the hugely popular content series thefirsttake.jp, which is famous for inviting only major hit songs and artists.

Back in 2003, when Haruka and Yukari were still a middle schooler and a high schooler, we recorded this song after school while eating snacks together. Through a funny twist of fate, I ended up not only composing and producing the track, but also writing the lyrics and even doing the demo rap vocals myself. I wrote the whole thing in just one night before the recording session — a flow packed with nonstop Showa- and Heisei-era-style puns and wordplay. So it’s incredibly moving to see this song now being loved by young people all around the world.

Thankfully, I was also invited to appear alongside them as the backing DJ. But I thought it might be questionable for a man on the verge of turning 60 to crash the stage and tarnish the still-charming presence of these two, so I respectfully declined.

I was very, very excited to make this post! Halcali was probably one of the things that got me SUPERRRR into shibuya-kei so I really do adore it! It was 2002 and Haruka (Halca) and Yukari (Yucali) noticed a flier to become a female hip hop unit and… they were chosen (obviously)!

By 2003, HALCALI had released their debut single, “Tandem”, which entered the Oricon chart!

Now here comes the part I was REALLY excited about… HALCALI BACON (2003) is literally one of the coolest albums I’ve ever heard. HALCALI decided to leave behind mainstream J-pop and made a unique mix of rap and pop (also called bubblegum rap). It reached #5 on the Oricon chart, which made HALCALI the first female hiphop group to be in the top 10 in Japanese history! It has a total of 12 tracks:

1. Intro. Halcali Bacon

2. タンデム

3. ギリギリ • サーフライダー

4. 鳴呼ハルカリセンセーション

5. おつかれSUMMER

6. ハルカリズム "CANDY HEARTS"

7. Conversation of a Mystery

8. Peek-A-Boo

9. Hello,Hello,Alone

10.スタイリースタイリー

11. エレクトリック先生

12. 続 • 真夜中のグランド

This album was a big advancement in shibuya-kei, in my opinion. It was one the things that kickstarted the sort of hip-hop sound that you can find in many shibuya-kei tracks!

Many of these songs were produced by legendary shibuya-kei and rap artists which of course includes FPM (come on, we've already gone over this LOL)! I PERSONALLY think this is their best album, but of course that is up to the audience! HOWEVER, if you're going to listen to any of their albums, I think this would be the best pick of all!! I don't think any other of their albums convey the same mood that HALCALI BACON mastered, which is very sad :(

The albums to come weren't bad but they were just distant to what halcali had laid out with their debut album. They released a couple more albums, singles, etc before disbanding in 2013.

My top pick is…

I CAN'T choose a favourite song! I literally can't! Instead, I decided I will tell you about a song I believe deserves more attention: “Kono Sekai ni, Kono Ryote ni”, from the single “Strawberry Chips” (does this technically count as christmas music? LOL!) Of course, I also super mega recommend you to listen to HALCALI BACON!!! It's literally phenomenal!

P.S. I really didn’t know where to include this but the name HALCALI comes from mixing Halca (Haruka) and Yucali (Yukari)!!

Another bonus is that there is actually a tumblr blog dedicated to HALCALI! I totes recommend you check it out if you're interested! The user is @fuckyeahhalcali :)))

Reliving something from 2020 because hehehehe-