校庭カメラガールフィーア (Koutei Camera Girl Vier)
In 2014, Jas and his production team ALYT created the idol rap group Koutei Camera Girl (abbr. Kouteca). The original group consisted of five members who rapped lyrics and sang vocal melodies composed by Jas over intricate house and trance music composed by different members of ALYT. The combination of immaculate, sublime beats with the girls’ humorous and youthful energy made for one of the most exciting and promising acts in the underground idol scene.
Over the years, the line-up of members would change, increase and contract. With each incarnation, the producers would tone down the idol-ness giving them a more mature, sophisticated sound. Jas, his label Tapestok Records and ALYT would go on to create more idol acts: Koutei Camera Gal (hip hop oriented), Koutei Camera Actress (with literal actresses), Los An Jewels (trap music based), Special Cheese Menu (wtf/insane goofy trance) and SZWARC (house/emo/trap).
Koutei Camera Girl Vier (vier = four in German) is the fourth incarnation of the group and the most compact yet at only two members—Noki No and Ranna Wei. Although Kouteca’s music has always been ‘club-based’ its focus has gone through major transitions. The beginning focussed on house and trance with ambient, noise and glitch elements heavily influenced by Autechre. In fact, ALYT named the group Koutei Camera Girl so that it’s abbreviation, Kouteca, would rhyme with Autechre.
Since ALYT was a team of producers, the tone and style of music would depend on the particular composer. Masayuki Kubo was by far my favorite composer on the ALYT squad. He is responsible for the majority of music on Kouteca 2’s ‘Night On Verse’ and Kouteca 3’s ‘Dawn by Flow.’ Jas sets the groundwork with magnificent vocal melodies and Kubo imbues them with even more emotion through his incredibly soulful instrumentation.
One major transition was the incorporation of dub and dancehall style rapping that Ramy T Talata managed to pull off. (Impressively given she had no previous exposure to the genre and has a naturally SUPER high pitched voice). And probably the biggest pivot was towards trap music and the heavy use of auto-tuned vocals. Since all members of Kouteca 3 could sing reasonably well (especially Catch My Heart who is phenomenal), they were disappointed with the heavy voice modulation and the transition to trap music led Koutei Camera Girl Drei (Kouteca 3) to call it quits.
Kouteca 3 would be replaced by a group with all new members: Los An Jewels
Los An Jewels lasted from 2019-2021 after which Jas decided to tone down the use of trap and create something a bit more soulful that was kind of a hybrid of Los An Jewels and Kouteca. This new group would be called SZWARC.
SZWARC would undergo some line-up changes including the addition of Noki No and former Kouteca3/Koutei Camera Gal, Ramy T Talata. SZWARC would also incorporate more and more of Kouteca’s songs into their performances. SZWARC would then transform into a somewhat goth-y, dark emo rap group and change their name to SZWARC NEVER (yikes). Eventually, Ramy T Talata and Noki No would be the last two remaining members of SZWARC NEVER.
Note: That’s Jas in the green shirt DJing with Ramy T Talata on left and Noki No on the right.
While SZWARC NEVER was playing its last shows another duo was being groomed called: Idol rap collective intern (ICI)
This duo would consist of members Ranna Wei and Yava Thrill.
Back in February of this year I hung out with Jas at the Tapestok offices and we talked about NMFT 16 and how NMFT 15 was supposed to be the last tour and why I ended up doing one more. I told him that Hammer Head Shark, Nikoん and Sabanoomisony were on the roster for sure and that I’d be deciding between Hitohira and Fallsheeps for the final spot. I made it clear it would be four bands and that’s it, no room for anything else (band or idol). He asked me when I’d be coming back to Japan again (July 18-Aug 5) and that we should hang out.
Jas must have been masterminding a plan to sneak an idol group onto NMFT 16. He knew I loved Kouteca 3. After all, I brought them to Canada three times (NMFT 11, 12 & 14) which ties a record with MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. He also knew I hated trap music and that SWZARC NEVER wasn’t doing it for me. What could Jas do… he thought to himself… THAT’S IT! He would create a new Koutei Camera Girl. A fourth incarnation with only two members so that Steve Tanaka wouldn’t bitch about about having to pay airfare for so many people. Not only that, there would be a plan B! A new version of Koutei Camera Gal (Utegya 2) with original member Ramy T Talata that Steve thinks is dope.
Fast forward to July 21, I’m in Tokyo and I see that SZWARC NEVER is playing their last show but it’s in Osaka. I contemplated going but ended up watching Forbear and Carpenter’s Blue at Shimokitazawa ERA instead. Then I see that… WTF?… Koutei Camera Girl… Vier? is performing at Nakameguro Solfa on July 27. Wait, does ‘vier’ mean four in German (Google indeed confirms). And hold up, they’re performing with Koutei Camera Girl.. Zwei?!?!
GODDAMNIT. I definitely have to check this show out. Maybe if I like Kouteca 4 I’ll bring them to Toronto NEXT year but NMFT 16 is completely finalized and out of the question.
Koutei Camera Gal Zwei performed first during an afternoon show. The duo consisted of Yava Thrill (of ICI) and Ramy T Talata. Not only did they perform classic Utegya songs but they inherited all the bangers from Los An Jewels and Special Cheese Menu. I never really cared for Los An Jewels except for one song that I really like, especially because its MV is so dope:
I also never paid attention to Special Cheese Menu because their music was so hyper and weird but now I high key regret doing so after watching Utegya2 perform SCM’s best songs. I was pretty impressed with Koutei Camera Gal Zwei and let Jas know but he told me I need to come back in the evening for Koutei Camera Girl Vier.
Ahead of the show, Tapestok released a teaser for Kouteca 4’s debut song 「Marscapone」and to tell you the truth I thought it was a bit too poppy and weak… plus the auto-tune.
So to tell you the truth, I was almost satisfied seeing Utegya 2 in the afternoon and contemplated skipping Kouteca 4‘s performance in the evening.
Thank god I didn’t because Koutei Camera Girl Vier absolutely killed it. I was worried that as a duo they wouldn’t be able to pull off the older songs that involved the vocal parts of 3-4 members but they nailed it. Similar to Utegya2 inheriting Los An jewels and Special Cheese Menu’s songs, Kouteca 4 would inherit SZWARC and SZWARC NEVER’s songs.
Kouteca 4 actually started their set off with their trap music classic ‘Be There’
So I’m not a fan of trap primarily because of the use of auto-tune but goddamn this beat is FIRE. And performed live they don’t use auto-tune so it’s an unequivocal WIN.
And although I’ve been semi-clowning on SZWARC and SZWARC NEVER, a few of their songs are actually really good.
And obviously the old classics can’t be beat:
Masayaki F*cking Kubo and his dopeass beats !!
The live no-autotune version of “Marscapone” also slayed.
So yeah, Jas full-on Jedi-mind-tricked my ass and I accidentally said “Sure… yeah… I guess” after he asked “So can you bring Koutei Camera Girl Vier to Canada… in October?”
So that’s how Kouteca 4 snuck onto a tour last minute that was already completely organized for four bands, with posters already designed without them on it and timetables set out to finish perfectly at midnight in Toronto, 11pm in Montreal and Vancouver before they f%cked it all up. You have no idea how hard I tried to think of ways of backing out of my verbal promise to Jas but now that it’s no turning back I’m actually really looking forward to having Kouteca 4 on the roster.
Listening to their four song ep 「Broken」especially through headphones, it’s truly starting to grow on me... ALOT. To be brutally honest, I really miss Masayuki Kubo’s production but Kouteca 4 will still perform his songs live. And if there’s anything I hate as much as trap music it’s probably hyperpop. The last song on the Broken ep starts off full-on hyperpop and I nearly blew chunks… but then 30 seconds in it switches up to dubstep which I also don’t like but they do an AMAZING version of it. I shouldn’t like “捨てられちゃった’ but it’s by far my favorite song on the ep now… even more than the somewhat Kubo-esque 2nd track “見せて.”
Definitely take a listen to ‘Broken.’ For many of you who aren’t as nit-picky as me, you’ll become instant fans of the new music. And even if you aren’t feeling it, take solace and rejoice in the fact their set will contain a lot of Kouteca’s older songs.