Wonder London - Future Calling

By sizemore Last edited 216 months ago
Wonder London - Future Calling
wonder_london.jpg

Londonist has been playing We Love Katamari all weekend. All weekend. This game is like crackburgers with extra cheese served up on a plate of M&Ms. While we did have perhaps a little too much fun rolling over Tower Bridge and Westminster before tackling Godzilla, by Tuesday morning we had decided that enough was enough. It was time to turn to serious matters and drop the joy pad in favour of something a little more grown-up.

And then the first thing we find in the Financial Times is this:

Japanese pop fans browsing through their local branch of HMV this month are likely to chance upon a CD that might fit better inside a travel agency rather than a music and home entertainment retailer, writes Matthew Garrahan. "Wonder London – Future Calling", a single by Japanese pop star Kyoko, was commissioned by VisitLondon, the body formerly known as the London Tourist Board.

There's then some guff about Americans being wowed by black cabs, but very little detail about the song itself. Google time.

Here's the official website of the CD. Now after clicking into that you're probably thinking the same thing that we were - 'holy crap they've only got 326 to draw a black cab with ears!' 326 (Mitsuru Nakamura) is the genius behind the artwork and graphics for another well worn Londonist Playstation game, Gitaroo Man that caused many a sleepless night and out of tune warbling as we drunkenly attempted karaoke versions of Flyin' To Your Heart'. At this point we don't care about the music we just NEED to own a copy of this single.

Luckily the time difference is in our favour and we've already (fingers crossed) sourced a copy after a couple of frantic phone calls to friends in Japan. In retrospect we could maybe have waited until 9am and emailed VisitLondon, but this is no time for half measures. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro and all that...

gitaroomanost.jpg

If you mess around on the Japanese website you should be able to hear a sample of the tune, but the following link is the best place to listen as you also get the delightful lyrics. It's not exactly Melt Banana, but it's still better than two thirds of the crap they sell in HMV on Oxford Street.

The singer, Kyoko, has a website here. The official 326 website is here and he seems to have held a recent exhibition of illuminated London themed weirdness here.

Last Updated 07 March 2006