Pastoral retreats generally do not seem conducive to the production of great pop music. Even the Band's extended stays in Woodstock were more about bacchanalian revelry than quiet contemplation. Sensuous hooks and driving beats seem to relate more to the rough and tumble urban world than to any serene images of Walden's Pond.
Thus it is a bit surprising to find Shuntaro Okino retreating to the back woods of Kawaguchiko to create his pop masterpieces. As the cool, sardonic front-man (think of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker) and main songwriter for Venus Peter, Okino crafted frenetic punk pop that still zings with the speed and tumble of bubble-era Tokyo.
On cuts like "Every Planet's Son" and "The Trip Master Monkey," Venus Peter melded dance beats a la Primal Scream and Beatlesque hooks that predated Britpop, or at least Japan's early-'90s obsession with it.