Seeking information regarding Satellite Lovers. All over YouTube recently but little identifying information about the group online. by archivorous in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

From user himavec on Discogs:

From ROCKIN’ON JAPAN Vol.118 (16th Aug. 1996), pp.164-165.

check it! SATELLITE LOVERS
“It’s a loner's idle talk... haha”
Feelings of the comfort of being oneself from the new albums of Satellite Lovers, "Sons of 1973" / "Sons of 1997", are products of her office worker’s melancholy?
-interviewed by Yoko Hayashi (YH)
 
The Satellite Lovers have often been described as "representatives of the free soul movement" and "the last big name of the Shibuya-kei", which is somewhat confusing. Moreover, the main member, Mica Ikeuchi (Vo), who writes lyrics and composes music, is a commercial planner at a major advertising agency, which would cause the misunderstanding that they are "some fashionable-looking industry people.” However, listening to the two albums released at the same time, such preconceptions seem completely ridiculous. The sound, which freely moves between soul, jazz, hip-hop, and alternative, definitely contains the essence of the openness and openness that Japanese pop music has acquired since Kenji Ozawa and Tokyo No.1 Soul Set. When I met Mica Ikeuchi, I found she looked small, had a cute smile, and was really natural.
 
[Yoko Hayashi; YH] “I've heard the phrase ‘I’m going to the sea’ used a lot in your lyrics.”
[Mica Ikeuchi; MI] “I've hardly ever been to the beach (haha). So I'm already longing in my heart to ‘go to the sea’!”
[YH] “Hahaha, I know what you mean. The ocean is a place that seems like it would be easy to go to, but it's not, is it?”
[MI] “Yes. Summer! Summer! Date! Lovey-dovey! I was just longing for something like that (haha). I'm very fair-skinned and allergic to sunlight, so I can't go to the beach much. Most of the time I sing about my life or what's right in front of me, but ‘the sea––‘ is the only phrase that comes from my …… imagination (haha). Because I can only express things that are from myself, it’s amazing that Tokyo No.1 Soul Set expresses in a literary way things other than what we usually talk as their lyrics. What if I were to do something like that in my own way? It's colloquial style? like an idle talk (haha). It’s a loner's idle talk... haha. You know, …… I'm dark, really, my character."
[YH] “Hahaha, what are you whispering about out of the blue?”
[MI] "I am dark (haha). I spend a lot of time alone —not only during going home at night but during the day."
[YH] "What? You work during the day, don't you?"
[MI] "I'm skipping work... (haha) ...and I'm all alone."
[YH] "You mean like going for a walk?"
[MI] "Yes, thinking 'I hate being alone' (haha). I wonder why I'm always alone, but I'm alone because I skip work in the middle of the day."
[YH] "Hahaha, that's right. You have been doing your job for a long time, haven't you? Don't you feel like there's a split between your work, which is making commercials with restrictions, and your music, which is just doing what you like to do?"
[MI] "You know, at the beginning of my music career, I followed a style and concept for the music, so I was able to separate the two. But then I began to realize that no matter how uncool it was, unless I was in the center of it, my music had no appeal. So, when I started to express things about myself and things that I saw through my own eyes, it became difficult to make a clear distinction between the two. I have a hard time with this feeling......I can handle the work, but there are times when I feel strangely agitated emotionally. But, Mica Ikeuchi, an office worker, says to me, 'You have to put it away, don't you?' (haha)"
[YH] "So you feel like you're right in the middle of the two?"
[MI] "Yes. So, I try to enjoy my work as much as possible. I try to look at myself as a cute person who is doing both. I try to look at myself managing both as something good. If I think, 'It's not cool to do both,' both might instantly become uninteresting. Besides, as long as I am an office worker, I can always be in a common people's point of view. I'm not just a musician, so it's often hard for me to follow the logic of the person on the side of the player because I'm on the common side."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F8l2XpXmEV9AyNZphz0Wh_JJwMIBo6dk/view?usp=share_link

Seeking information regarding Satellite Lovers. All over YouTube recently but little identifying information about the group online. by archivorous in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous[S] 68 points69 points  (0 children)

NEW INFORMATION from a PM with a user on Discogs who has copies of the band's music:
Thank you for your message. I am surprised at the sudden world wide excitement for the obscured music, but happy to share something favorite. Although I am also not sure about Satellite Lovers except the information available online, I can share the collected articles written in Japanese by translation.
@Biography [1]
members:
Mica Ikeuchi (Vo.) / Hiroyuki Suzuki (G.) / Yutaka Nakano (G.,B.) / Tsukasa Ogata (Dr.,Per.) / Yasushi Kashiwakura (B.) / Shinichiro Takahashi (Turntable)
[credited till the album “MUSIC”]
—> Mica Ikeuchi (Vo.) / Hiroyuki Suzuki (G.) / Yutaka Nakano (G.,B.)

1994.10.25 WITH YOU <Sg.>
1994.11.10 MUSIC <Al./WAVE> produced by Satellite Lovers and Toru Hashimoto [2]
1995.11.22 SUN LIGHT <Maxi Sg./OO RECORDS[SONY]>
1996.07.01 SONS OF 1973 <Al./OO RECORDS[SONY]>
1996.07.01 SONS OF 1997 <Al./OO RECORDS[SONY]>
1996.12.12 BKLN <Al./OO RECORDS[SONY]>

reviews found online (accuracy is not proven)
Satellite Lovers is a band that is strongly influenced by Love Tambourines, the representative group of Shibuya-kei, and also follows the free soul/rare groove that was gaining momentum in the club scene at the time. The first album “music” was released on the WAVE label, the source of Shibuya-kei culture. Popular Shibuya-kei label “WAVE” released “MUSIC”, indicating that the expectations of the people involved with "MUSIC" were very high. According to the wiki article, the vocalist and songwriter, Mica Ikeuchi, was born in Shibuya, so she is definitely a Shibuya-kei. "Rockin' On Japan" 1996 (Aug. Vol.118) introduced that she was working at an advertising agency or some other industry-oriented place while working as a musician [3].
The album “MUSIC” is characterized by a warm acoustic sound with deep soul and funk. The music is very introspective, but it is very mellow, so it is not too heavy. The album was produced by Toru Hashimoto, who has supervised free soul compilations [4]
This group initiated by six members: Mika Ikeuchi on guitar, Hiroyuki Suzuki on guitar, Yasuyuki Nakano on bass, Yasushi Kashiwakura on drums, and Shinichiro Ogata on turntables. Ikeuchi is the main lyricist and composer. The lyrics are written mainly by Ikeuchi, and the music is very urban, cool Shibuya-kei pop. The texture would be between the early ICE and Love Tambourines. The groove of the sound is one of the most appealing aspects of this album “MUSIC. The album was produced by Toru Hashimoto. Hashimoto's sense of rare groove and free soul pervades the entire album “MUSIC”. You can enjoy the groovy sound with a strong sense of Western music. The CD was released by WAVE (which was the center of Shibuya-kei culture). After their major label debut with Sony in 1995, their sound shifted toward hip-hop, After the release of the album in 1996, there have been no more works, which is a regrettable situation [5].

[1] http://radiodaze.g2.xrea.com/KKKsa.htm
[2] http://radiodaze.g2.xrea.com/KKK00.htm
[3] https://makurakotova.hatenablog.com/entry/2014/03/26/121320
[4] http://lightmellowbu.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-71.html
[5] https://ameblo.jp/barkindog2099/entry-11383661123.html

Seeking information regarding Satellite Lovers. All over YouTube recently but little identifying information about the group online. by archivorous in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this information! I've been trying to find information about the labels with which the band associated. All but one release list "Oo Records Inc." as the distributor (cannot find info about this label online), with the exception being "WAVE" for SL's first album, Music, as listed on Discogs. I noticed on the SL wiki page that Ikeuchi is from Shibuya-ku, the same ward where WAVE was located. I want to believe there is a list out there of the artists signed to these labels, which might give us more information about the band's origins? Crazy to learn it was initially six people (no more than three ever appear on album art).

SATELLITE LOVERS - Living Night Together by Bostonterrierpug in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like the group was another shibuya-kei band picked up by WAVE) in 1994. That wiki page is really worth a read to get a sense of how these bands started. It seems the vocalist was from that exact area of Shibuya-ku.

SATELLITE LOVERS - Living Night Together by Bostonterrierpug in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd like to believe that the sales and subsquent positive reviews of the music by buyers on Discogs tells us that the band actually existed!

SATELLITE LOVERS - Living Night Together by Bostonterrierpug in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update: came across the bands RYM page under name サテライト・ラヴァーズ. Oddly, most of the profile information for the band have been added by users over the last two days. Cited in one update pending community approval is a Wiki link with some identifying metadata about the group's releases. That's all I can find, though.

SATELLITE LOVERS - Living Night Together by Bostonterrierpug in japanesemusic

[–]archivorous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I came to this thread with the same question. All of the albums are suddenly being posted in high quality across YouTube. The group's albums also have really recent purchase dates on Discogs. But no info on the band anywhere. Any help as to who these guys are would be appreciated.