Takako Minekawa | Profile Creating a mix of electronica, ambient, bossa nova, and cute Japanese girl pop, Takako Minekawa has cultivated a significant following both at home in Japan and abroad. A child movie and TV star in Japan, Minekawa's first foray into music was in the short lived Lolita, a group she formed with some friends from college. In 1990, she and fellow Shibuya scenester Kahimi Karie made a minor splash with their band Fancy Face Groovy Name. After bouncing around several groups, Minekawa released her solo debut Chat Chat in 1994, followed up by 1995's (A LittleTouch of) Baroque In Winter. Her 1996 release Roomic Cube, an album thematically centered on her own apartment, showed her style starting to gel, displaying influences ranging from Neu and Kraftwerk to French and bossa nova music. The record saw Stateside release in 1997 on the Emperor Norton imprint, inspiring the remix album Recubed featuring Superchunk's Mac McCaughan, Trans Am, Buffalo Daughter, and others. Cloudy Cloud Calculator appeared at the end of 1997, and saw Minekawa further tuning her cute yet sophisticated style. The album was released in the US shortly thereafter, again by Emperor Norton, and Minekawa embarked on a US tour to support it. Another remix album, Ximer (spell it backwards) appeared in 1998, featuring remixes of Cloudy Cloud Calculator songs by Cornelius, Markus Popp, Sukia, Michiko Endo (Citrus) and other able helpers. Cornelius and Sukia also lent a hand on 1999's Fun9 (a play on words that creates the word "funk"), which turned down the twee factor somewhat to allow for some faster and more wigged out tracks while retaining her trademark innocent appeal. In 2000, Minekawa released the Maxi On mini album, which found her still adrift in her world of glitches, found sounds, and soothing coos. Like her previous two releases, Maxi On was also released by Emperor Norton. When not recording or performing, Minekawa maintains a busy writing schedule, having published several books and countless magazine articles. She has also dabbled in painting and clothing design. by Bill Haw
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