Shimantogawa Tomomi - Kanojo Dekimashita (四万十川友 - 彼女できました)

It's a well known made up fact that one in every three Osaka-ites is a self styled singer/songwriter. Another well known non-statistic is that 90% of those one in three is utter rubbish. Blander than a cup of boiled water and soul suckingly dreary. Shimantogawa Tomomi while not the most original singer/songwriter does manage to play around with the tortured lovestruck troubadour cliche and spin it out into an exaggerated caricature. Not that his warts and all take on balladeering isn't sincere but the emotional melodramatics are carried out with a self awareness that borders on self parody.

Shimantogawa who named himself after one of Japan's most famous rivers and is convinced he is the bastard son of the late Japanese rock legend Imawano Kiyoshiro (忌野清志郎) has been performing in Osaka's dingy underground live houses since he was a young teenager. (Even managing a brief stint across the U.S. in 2010) "Kanojo Dekimashita" (Literally "I got a girlfriend") is a self recorded CDR he put out around 2 years ago. The entire album was recorded on a cheap tape recorder in his bedroom so expect lots lo-fi tape hiss but it mostly adds to the rag-tag DIY charm and intimacy of the recordings rather than detracting from them.

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