It Came From Japan #1: Taffy

Japan - the land of the rising sun. Also the land of manga, sushi, sumo wrestling and Hello Kitty. Oh, and some pretty fabulous music. Forget the fact the Japanese gave the world the dreaded karaoke, they've also brought us some fine pop music over the years. To celebrate this, I'm going to do a short monthly series featuring a different Japanese band I'm rather fond of, and today it's Taffy.

Taffy are based in Tokyo and have a sound that could have hailed from mid-90s Britain. While there are elements of classic-era indie bands like the Primitives, and shoegaze stuff like Ride, Taffy's main points of reference seem to be Britpop. In fact, if this lot had been around c.1996, they'd have fitted in so well with the likes of Catatonia, Sleeper, Echobelly et al. They even admit to having more of an affinity to the UK than their homeland, singing in English rather than Japanese. Singer Iris is in fact a fluent English speaker.

Taffy tour regularly and have recently been on the road promoting their new EP 'Darkle' which came out just last month. They have also put out two studio albums and a b-sides & rarities compilation. And in the very un-Japanese monikered Ken, they have probably the cheeriest drummer in rock.

I'm giving you two tracks released as singles - the first is the rather marvellous So Long, the closing track on their debut album 'Caramel Sunset' from 2012. It's got an immensely catchy, earworm of a chorus. The following year, its follow-up 'Lixiviate' contained Taffy's unique take on the Cure's Boys Don't Cry. It's a soaring 6-minute epic that sounds not unlike the way a certain Mr Gedge would have done it. Brilliant.


Soundtrack:

• So Long - Taffy (from 'Caramel Sunset')
• Boys Don't Cry - Taffy (from 'Lixiviate')

The videos: