Cymbals | Profile

The Cymbals are a perfect illustration of a band that looked good on paper but which didn’t live up to its initial promise. Like Hermann H. & The Pacemakers, Clammbon and similar bands that emerged from the J-pop scene in the late ‘90s, the Cymbals were heavily influenced by mid-'60s British pop-rock and the pop culture of that era. According to Cymbals leader Reiji Okii, the music of the Who pre-“Tommy” set the sonic template for the Cymbals: bright, catchy and guitar-driven, without being too heavy.The group got together in 1997 after Okii decided to drop out of university, where his major had been English, and recruited female vocalist Asako Toki and drummer Hiroyasu Yano through the network of wannabe musicians associated with their university "music circle,” or club. Okii’s commitment to mid-’60s music jibed with the retro-pop ethos of Shibuya, Tokyo-based independent label/artist-management company LD&K, which signed the band to a management/production deal. The Cymbals signed a record deal with major label Victor Entertainment, which released the band’s first single, “Gozen no Hachiji Dasso Keikaku (8 a.m. Escape Plan),” in June 1999. That release featured two original songs by Okii – the title track and “Answer Song” – as well as a cover version of the Rolling Stones’ “Stupid Girl,” an obscure choice which certainly reinforced Okii’s “otaku” (nerd) credentials. While Toki sang the title track in Japanese, she performed “Answe... Read More

The Cymbals are a perfect illustration of a band that looked good on paper but which didn’t live up to its initial promise. Like Hermann H. & The Pacemakers, Clammbon and similar bands that emerged from the J-pop scene in the late ‘90s, the Cymbals were heavily influenced by mid-'60s British pop-rock and the pop culture of that era. According to Cymbals leader Reiji Okii, the music of the Who pre-“Tommy” set the sonic template for the Cymbals: bright, catchy and guitar-driven, without being too heavy.The group got together in 1997 after Okii decided to drop out of university, where his major had been English, and recruited female vocalist Asako Toki and drummer Hiroyasu Yano through the network of wannabe musicians associated with their university "music circle,” or club. Okii’s commitment to mid-’60s music jibed with the retro-pop ethos of Shibuya, Tokyo-based independent label/artist-management company LD&K, which signed the band to a management/production deal. The Cymbals signed a record deal with major label Victor Entertainment, which released the band’s first single, “Gozen no Hachiji Dasso Keikaku (8 a.m. Escape Plan),” in June 1999. That release featured two original songs by Okii – the title track and “Answer Song” – as well as a cover version of the Rolling Stones’ “Stupid Girl,” an obscure choice which certainly reinforced Okii’s “otaku” (nerd) credentials. While Toki sang the title track in Japanese, she performed “Answer Me” and “Stupid Girl” in her largely intonation-free English. Okii, as the band’s main songwriter, tended to favor English over his native Japanese when writing lyrics, which was unfortunate, given Toki’s generally lackluster delivery and Okii’s decidedly non-idiomatic approach to English lyric-writing. In January 2000 the Cymbals released their first album, That’s Entertainment, which established them as a band to watch. They reached their peak with their excellent second album, Mr. Noone Special, which was released in September the same year. Despite a brilliant production sheen and solid songwriting, none of the tunes on the album was a bona fide hit – a problem that eventually led to the band's breakup in 2003. Toki now records as a solo artist for LD&K, Okii mainly works as a producer (for Toki, among others), and Yano works as a session drummer/producer. Victor released a greatest-hits collection of Cymbals tunes titled Anthology in December 2003 Collapse