Jun Togawa

Jun Togawa (戸川純 "Togawa Jun", born 31 March 1961) is a Japanese singer, musician and actress.

After gaining attention as an actress and as guest singer for the Halmens, she began her professional music career in the early 1980s as an unusual idol singer (or possibly a parody of an idol singer). It was soon apparent that her eccentric personality, surreal or disturbing lyrics and extensive vocal range set her apart from the usual bland, cute pop singers that were popular in Japan. Her mash-up of "lolita" voice, straight singing, screaming, and operatics, married to traditional Japanese melodies, militaristic marching themes, and technopop continue to endear her to Japanese "maniac" fans, such as devotees of horror or erotic manga, particularly young women.

In a 2001 interview, influential alternative musician and producer Jim O'Rourke (known for his work with Sonic Youth, amongst others) picked a Togawa Jun cover song album "20th Jun Togawa" as one of his "best albums of the year." Having at times covered his music there is a good degree of mutual respect between them.

Although her deeply un-commercial attitude kept her away from major "pop" success, she survived as an influential and respected underground music figure both solo and as the lead singer of Guernica (1982-89) with former Halmens member Koji Ueno and her most commercial project the Yapoos (1984-1995 and occasionally since). Over the years she has formed many temporary backing bands such as the Jun Togawa Unit to accompany her. Generally the differentiation between her self named bands and the Yapoos is a greater degree of collaboration in the later.

Notable collaborators over the years have been Haruomi Hosono who produced and wrote music for some of her earlier works. Her late sister Kyoko Togawa was an actress who at times ventured into the music world and cross collaborated at times. Around 1990 Jun shared management with Susumu Hirasawa resulting in quite a number of collaborations. More recently she's worked with Yoshihide Otomo and Hoppy Kamiyama.

She recently released a new CD with her current project Jun Togawa Band featuring elements of noise rock, disco, technopop, opera and various other genres, to favourable reviews from many underground music fans in Japan.

Releases

*"Sukisuki Daisuki"
*"Kyokuto Ian Shoka"
*"Uratamahime"
*"Twins (Super Best Of)"
*"Tokyo No Yaban"
*"Tamahimesama"
*"Tamahime Sama"
*"Ura-Tmahime" (with Yapoos)
*"Kyokuto Ian Shoka"
*"Suki Suki Daisuki"
*"Tokyo No Yaban (Best)"

External links

* [http://www.artskool.biz/jem/jt.html Jun Togawa, Guernica, Yapoos, Koji Ueno, Yoichiro Yoshikawa] , an annotated discography compiled by Nicholas D. Kent.
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:be548q9zbtq4~T0 Jun Togawa] at Allmusic.
* [http://www.jrawk.com/Content/T/togawajun/reviews/tamahimesama.html Jrawk review of "Tamahime Sama"] .
* [http://www.jrawk.com/Content/Y/yapoos/reviews/yapoosproject.html Jrawk review of Yapoos' debut album] .