Ni-Hao!

Three girls meet in Kyoto while studying music and Chinese. Showing an early fondness for primary colours, they rename themselves Green Leo, Red Ariko and Blue Yukari and shop for colour-coordinated ’70s sportswear accordingly. They release a clutch of EPs of jumpin’ good music for spazzy parties called Red and Blue on Seiichi Yamamoto’s Ummo Records, which are eventually gathered together on the Tzadik compilation Keep On Jumpin’. Another mini-album entitled New-Hao! follows in 2006 in which the trio abandon their bass-bass-drums set-up for a keyboard-driven disco direction. Despite receiving limited airplay owing to their risqué, sexually liberated lyrics and thoroughly onchi contrapuntal rhythms, the trio are endlessly sampled by unimaginative disc jockeys across the globe.

Damn! It seems we’ve done it again: utterly confused ’70s disco queens Musique with Kansai area alternative queens Ni-Hao! who actually look like this:

Ni-Hao! produce the kind of multi-part vocal gymnastics and booty-shaking bass-rock that either delights or irritates depending on your margin of tolerance towards exuberant Japanese child-women. An all-action trio bestowed with the kind of rhythmical telepathy that usually only elementary school girls can muster, they make music as maddeningly catchy as this, a pop remake of their old favourite Look At That (Peach):

Japan Onchi finally broke its Ni-Hao! live hymen last Summer in a grungy basement in Shibuya whose name we have conveniently forgotten. To our surprise drummer Green Leo was absent, although Red Ariko kindly gave us a compensatory 33% discount on the door. The remaining two members made up for her absence by ripping though an irrepressible version of the Jackson Five’s ABC aided by a male roadie on drums who possessed the spirit, if not the waistline, of Ni-Hao!. In fact, unbeknown to us at the time, drummer Leo had just officially handed in her green jersey of resignation, leaving only bassists Ariko and Yukari, also of Limited Express (Has Gone?).

Although they don’t appear to have updated their official website for around two years, Ariko and Yukari have been blogging furiously since August last year. In her 2008 New Year message, Ariko admits that the previous year has been one of enormous change: the departure of Leo and the arrival of an unexpected new member, Yukari’s newborn son who entered into the world just last week!

You may, if you wish, follow the course of Yukari’s pregnancy and childbirth online in minute detail and know everything about the band’s daily life in Ni-Hao!’s blog. Everything, that is, bar the reason for Leo’s departure and whether or not Ni-Hao! have plans to record again.

Leo, meanwhile, has reverted to being plain old Reo. While we can’t shed light on the reason behind her departure from Ni-Hao!, we did pick up a homemade CD-R recently of her as-yet unsigned new band ULTRA Jr, formed with Limited Express guitarist JJ and old-school Japanese punk Hide on bass. Second track Red Bicycle manages to capture the best of both Limited Express and Ni-Hao!’s frenetic attack on your refusal to dance:

ULTRA Jr - Red Bicycle