With her straight bangs, sixties style minidresses, and a repertoire loaded with French pop, bossa nova, and adventurous sampling, Karia Nomoto bears more than a passing resemblance to Maki Nomiya. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that she is signed to Readymade Records, the hyper-fashionable label helmed by ex- Pizzicato Five mastermind Yasuharu Konishi. Marketed more as Konishi's protege than as a standalone act, Nomoto bears all the hallmarks of a Konishi girl - sweet voice, twiggy legs,...

With her straight bangs, sixties style minidresses, and a repertoire loaded with French pop, bossa nova, and adventurous sampling, Karia Nomoto bears more than a passing resemblance to Maki Nomiya. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that she is signed to Readymade Records, the hyper-fashionable label helmed by ex- Pizzicato Five mastermind Yasuharu Konishi. Marketed more as Konishi's protege than as a standalone act, Nomoto bears all the hallmarks of a Konishi girl - sweet voice, twiggy legs, and a look that is somehow simultaneously naive, sexy, and of course very very stylish. A model from age 19, Nomoto made her debut covering the track "Noichigo" on a 2002 Pizzicato Five tribute album, followed up the same year with "Non Non Ningyo" on a label sampler. She released her first EP, Girl From R.e.a.d.y.m.a.d.e. in 2002 under her present name of Nomoto Karia, the Konishi-produced record making a splash among the stylish set. Her first full-length, Karly, appeared in summer 2004, containing more of the same go-go pop music that has become a Konishi trademark. In the liner notes for Karly, Konishi writes that with the release of this album, he can finally say his final goodbyes to Pizzicato Five. While he may be saying goodbye to P5 as a unit, he certainly hasn't given up any of his influences - 60s London, French yeye bubblegum pop, bossa nova, spy movies, and anything else that is retro cool - and Nomoto is, if anything, a further crystallization of these influences.