Cubismo Grafico is Gakuji Matsuda: DJ, remixer, and musician, born Feb. 12 1970, known tohis friends as Chabe. He lives in Tokyo and is one of the top male J-pop artists around today,along with Pizzacato Five's Konishi Yasuharu, Mansfield's Masanori Ikeda, and Losfeld'sMasashi Naka. Pizzacato Five have been around for a long time and are the modern fathers ofthis sound, but it is only recently that male vocalists are breaking out into popularity. Until recentlyartists like Yukari Fresh and Takako Minekawa were the new faces and voices. CubismoGrafico, Losfeld, and Mansfield are almost a united force to me. They have similiar palettes andare all very classy and clever without being pretentious. Pizzacato Five's Maki Nomiya has justput out her first solo album on Readymade records. Soon Konishi Yasuharu's first release asPunch The Monkey will come out. He may join this group of J-pop artists and take his rightfulplace on top of it all - we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, there are some great releases toenjoy at home, and this is one of them. I really love the song "Trip To Rio". It is not a bossa orsamba song like it's title would imply. It is super upbeat with a female Japanese "rapper" doingthe type of vocal I like best in J-pop. It is a non-threatening "Yo" type street tough that remindsme of a miniature dog yipping. Of the 15 songs on this CD 9 are less than two minutes long. Onone of the short songs ("Ya-Ya!") Yukari Fresh guests, on another ("Tonight You Belong ToMe") Hideki Kaji. The 6 longer songs pull their weight completely though. The song "Fairytale OfEscape" is the acid test to tell if you like this whole sound at all. The song is so perfect that if youdo not like it you can rest assured that you need not check out any of the other J-pop I'll evermention. It is an awesome song that Chabe must be very proud of. I can't wait till he tops it onfuture releases!
