On hy4_4yh / Ticckkeee Operation ~ YAVAY

As the current Era of Warring Idols gathers momentum in Japan, it seeks out new hosts around the world, mutating and evolving like a hungry virus in order to survive. In recent weeks, we’ve seen the bizarre “B-pop” inspired shenanigans of Brazilian-Japanese idol unit Linda III Sei. Now, the girls of hy4_4yh (pronounced “Hyper Yoyo”) have set sail for Indonesia and a new frontier in hyperactive sound.

Safeguarding their passage into these strange lands is DJ Jet Baron, aka Mandokoro Takano, formerly of pioneering Japanese nerdcore group Leopaldon. Ever on the hunt for bad taste and Asian trash culture, DJ Jet Baron eventually tuned into the obscure Funkot (“funky kota”) scene happening in Indonesia based around terrifying 180 bpm music that some house music pundits have compared to Happy Hardcore. Back in Japan, Jet Baron became a prophet of sorts, holding sweaty Funkot parties at his Acid Panda Cafe club in Tokyo and getting the music out to the masses via appearances on TBS Radio. Funkot became something of an underground sensation and took up roots in Japan, which have now borne strange fruit and even stranger outfits...

Formed in 2005, Idol unit hy4_4yh (above) were already a crazy and borderline uncontrollable bunch of zany girls to begin with (their live gigs are particularly exhausting), but now they have sold their souls to Funkot in their new song and video “Ticckkeee Operation ~ YAVAY”, arranged by Jet Baron, and the results may just have you thrashing about on the floor and frothing at the mouth.

The song makes much use of the word YAVAY (which most people just Romanize as “yabai”, but whatever… ), which the official hy4_4yh ministry of propaganda claims, “is a new Japanese slang. It's an adjective which means more than CRAZY, COOL and ILL.” The video makes use of the only three known locations that can visually match the fury of the wild Funkot beat: the synapse frying Tokyo Robot Restaurant, the streets of Shibuya, and the Acid Panda Café itself. 

Where Japan will go next in search of new sounds and gimmicks to mine is anyone's guess, but know this: the Era of Warring Idols has gone global and the prognosis is YAVAY.

Comments

[miffy]

In malaysia, this music is what is usually identified as feng tau. And thailand has the same thing too. Sounds almost like dangdut too

All the listeners for this type of type of music are considered the "trashier" part of society.

I guess organic consumer culture is so dead in Japan that they have travel abroad to spawn an "unholy union"

Well, at least this DJ is more respectful to local culture compare to AKB/JKt48 whom seems to regurgitate the same songs except in Indonesian

[Patrick]

Thanks for the comment. Knowing the people behind this record, and the Funkot movement in Japan in general, it's more a matter of them finding the original music funny (in a respectful kind of way) and the attached scene kind of fascinating, trashy (as you mentioned), and somewhat lost in time. I'm willing to bet that at no point has a suit sat around with a Funkot music CD and talked about "organic consumer culture". I think they're just having fun with it. I think we should too.