Yann Tomita’s Doopee Time & The Greater Yanniverse

An eccentric producer who shaped Hip Hop, electronic music and the outer fringes of J-pop.

Yann Tomita (1952-) is a Tokyo-based musician, composer, record producer, and noted player of the steelpan. Like many young music nerds online, I became absolutely obsessed with the album Doopee Time, released 1995, and wanted to know absolutely everything there was to know about the person who created it. The first thing you need to understand is that while there were other musicians involved and credited, Yann Tomita is Doopee Time‘s main creative force and genius. Doopees is more or less a conceptual solo project rather than a group or band. But he is also so much more than just “The Doopee Time Guy”.  

Where to start?

All new listeners, and those unfamiliar should start here. Doopee Time by the band Doopees, is the culmination of decades of Yann’s work across multiple genres, bands, and styles. The first time I heard it, all the way back in 2013, I’d never heard anything that sounded even remotely close to it. I’ve spent years looking for anything that can capture a similar feeling, and have repeatedly come up empty handed. I’m convinced it is a truly singular work of avant-pop genius. A genuine, once-in-a-lifetime original. Part of what makes the project so unique is the “kitchen sink” approach to genre and style. Its radical disregard for genre boundaries. Reading the genre and descriptor section for the album online is enough to make one’s head spin. It has dozens of categorizations that have probably never before or since been put together, including: art pop, cocktail nation, sound collage, doo-wop, radio drama, plunderphonics, neo-psychedlia, concept album, and much more.

As mentioned above, Doopee Time is technically considered a concept album; but is not really in a traditional sense. There are characters, narratives, themes, plot points, both explicit and implicit. This is one of the reasons I believe repeat listenings of this work are so rewarding. There are lots of little things to pick up on, additional meanings to reveal themselves to you. Consider if you will the opening track, titled ‘What’s the Time? (Some Day, In Time)’.  

Lots of people have hit a fluke home run in their careers, with one great work that towers above all else in their discography. But that is simply not the case here. Doopees released one amazing album, two great EPs and a couple of singles, all worth your time and attention. There are also several side projects and associated acts like Astro Age Steel Orchestra’s album Happy Living (a Tomita steelpan-focused exotica side project), and the rock band Buffalo Daughter. He also handled production/beats on Seiko Ito’s album Mess/Age which was a pioneering work in Japanese hip hop. Yann also has several great solo albums himself! I’m particularly fond of Music for Living Sound, which really strongly gives off Doopees vibes, and An Adventure of Inevitable Chance if you prefer his sound collage and electronic experiments.

But just who is the man himself? And what the hell was he up to prior to the mid ‘90s? The story goes that he became obsessed with the steelpan after first hearing Van Dyke Parks in the ‘70s. He traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to learn how to play. When he returned to Japan, he joined the Water Melon Group/Melon in the ‘80s, and started working freelance as a producer. In 1990, he founded Audio Science Laboratory, his label/studio through which he would use to release and produce most of his projects going forward. Lately, he’s been pretty quiet! He’s 73 years old and still does the occasional live show, (most of which can be found on YouTube) but mostly keeps to himself, or makes an infrequent blog post.

In the past decade or so, Doopee Time has exploded in popularity on online music spaces. Great! But let’s keep that same energy and enthusiasm towards his other works as well. Tomita is one of the most interesting and unique musicians of our time, and he deserves to be spoken of and treated as such.

Playlist

Here’s a playlist I’ve put together for you, filled with some of his core songs and also some hidden gems.