Queen of Japan is a German music trio from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany, known for its synthpop sound and

cover versions In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of hits from the 1970s and 1980s.

Career

Queen of Japan's 1999 debut EP ''Mercury Rising'' (a reference to Freddie Mercury) features new wave-sounding versions of

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

songs and is probably the basis for the group's name. The trio's versions of "

I Love Rock 'n' Roll "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album ...

" and " Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" (originally hits for

Joan Jett Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American singer, guitarist, record producer, and actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and per ...

and Rod Stewart, respectively) appear on several different compilation CDs. Their version of " I Was Made for Loving You" (a hit for

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

) was featured on the award-winning short movie ''Icicle melt'' starring

Greta Scacchi Greta Scacchi, OMRI (; born 18 February 1960) is an Italian-Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films '' White Mischief'' (1987), '' Presumed Innocent'' (1990), '' The Pl ...

. Some of their cover songs, such as "

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

" (written and originally recorded by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

) and "Wanted Man" (written by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

for Johnny Cash) infuse an electronic sound into songs which previously had a different style. They have also covered songs by

Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit version of "Tainted Love" and their pla ...

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

, Marvin Gaye, Duran Duran,

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or som ...

Klaus Nomi Klaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona. In the 1970s Nomi immersed himself in the East Village ...

and Frank Zappa. Forced Exposure CD reviews Remixes of Queen of Japan's work have appeared on a CD by

DJ Keoki George Lopez (born October 23, 1966), known by his stage name DJ Keoki or Keoki Franconi, is a Salvadoran-American electronic musician, among other genres, DJ. Born in El Salvador and raised in Hawaii, Keoki began advertising himself as "superst ...

. Their music has also been featured at

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and appears on two CDs of music thereof. One reviewer writes:

Queen of Japan ..manage to inject their brand of sleazy sexuality into this revivalist template. I can’t say this is original stuff, but in all its worrying energy and zany spunk, it’s actually quite a lot of fun. At times it even reminds me of Blondie (which is a good thing!) if their over-reliance on cheesy
retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...
sounds was curbed slightly, they might even stumble across a decent track every once in a while.

A review for the CD ''Foreign Politics'' describes:

You'd think that after the success of the sex-citing cover CD ''Head-Rush'', (an album of full of electric-socket boogie-nights versions, which could be mistakingly 'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''described as electroclash) ..the glitter-spangled threesome ..would carry on playing the high-voltage karaoke-sex-machine for a generation who grew up between ''Saturday Night Fever'' & ''Flashdance'', ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' & ''Alien (film), Alien'' ..But Queen of Japan are not just your run-of-the-mill cheeky anarchistic electro-karaoke dandies ..but are insteadA tour de force in discology."

Identity

As is often the case with artists on the

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

scene, the identity of Queen of Japan is more complex than casual inquiry reveals. Neither their official website nor their page on My Space explains it. It is, however, an "open secret" and is discussed in interviews and on other websites. Credited group members are Koneko (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

), Jo Ashito (vocals,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

) and Jason Arigato (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

). Their website features the following description "translated from the

japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

by arakiha miho":

The band naming their persons queen of Japan was not always in the threesome they hold to their beating hearts today .After many tours of hard sexual energy and costume change the queen of Japan became known well across country and town never giving in to a life of modest no glamour ..Schools will replace sexual theory lessons with headrush album in order to save the money of tax pay. Queen of Japan influence politics and reforming. Everybody loves everybody and fun and feeling.

Despite the name of the band and the Japanese-sounding names (actually stage names) of its members, the group has no direct connections to Japan and no member of the trio is of Japanese ethnicity. Catriona Shaw (a.k.a. Koneko, Miss le Bomb), a

Scot The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

and the youngest member of the band, is the lead singer and was hailed as a "new exceptional singer". The first Queen of Japan CD "Mercury Rising" only features Platzgumer and Shaw as a duo. Her vocal talents are also featured on the CD ''Miss Me'' credited as "HP:CS" (Hans Platzgumer:Catriona Shaw) as well as with Electronicat. Electronicat, ''21st Century Toy'' Dancetracks Digital Hans Platzgumer (a.k.a. Jo Ashito, Separator), is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born musician and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and lead guitarist/backing singer. He is co-founder (with Andi Pümpel) of the Grammy-nominated

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

band HP Zinker in the late 1980s and is member the punk band '' Die Goldenen Zitronen'' (founded 1986 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

) since the late 90s. More recently he has collaborated with other artists and released music under such codenames as Convertible, Aura Anthropica, Cube & Sphere, Fingerfood, and Shinto. Forced Exposure, ''Miss Me'' Sonomu: Queen of Japan Albert Pöschl (a.k.a. Jason Arigato), Queen of Japan's bass player and co-producer, is from Bavaria and has a diverse portfolio as a musician and music producer. He has worked as a sound technician for various bands including

Chicks on Speed Chicks on Speed is a feminist music and fine art ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, after members Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan met at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Though Chicks on Speed reached cult status t ...

and ''Die Goldenen Zitronen'', which is presumably where he and Platzgumer made their acquaintance. He joined Queen of Japan in 1999, one year after they had formed.

Discography

Queen of Japan's music is mostly available via European

independent record labels An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...

. Some of their work was originally released on

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s (facilitating their use in dance mixes through traditional, non- digital DJing methods) but were later released as

compact disk The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in October ...

s. This discography is compiled from information on Queen of Japan's website and, like the information there, does not differentiate between original release dates and dates of re-issue. * ''Mercury Rising'' (1999) compact disk, label: Angelika Koehlermann * ''I Was Made for Loving You'' (2000) 12" vinyl record, label: Hausmusik * ''Physical'' (2001) 12" vinyl record, label: Echokammer * ''Cool Cat/Total Eclipse'' (2001) 10" vinyl record, label: Fortina * ''Nightlife in Tokyo'' (2001) LP vinyl record, label: Erkrankung Durch Musique * ''Nightlife in Tokyo'' (2001) compact disk, label: Angelika Koehlermann. Later re-released as ''Tokyo Rising'' in 2006 with added material. * ''Headrush'' (2002) LP vinyl record, label: Erkrankung Durch Musique * ''Headrush'' (2002) compact disk, label: Echokammer. Released in Japan by Sausage Records. * ''Kings, Queens, Wasps & Lust'' (2003) LP vinyl record, label: QOJ * ''Foreign Politics'' (2004) LP vinyl record, label: Erkrankung Durch Musique * ''Foreign Politics'' (2004) compact disk, label: Echokammer * ''Tokyo Risen'' (2006) compact disk, label: Echokammer In addition, many Queen of Japan songs have appeared on compilations. For example, "Mother" appeared only on a

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in th ...

compilation before its inclusion in ''Tokyo Rising'' and "Wanted Man" is among those songs on the tribute album ''Boy Named Sue: Johnny Cash Revisited''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen Of Japan German new wave musical groups Remixers German synthpop groups German disco groups German musical trios