On the 21st of September, Tentenko released her debut international vinyl album, the first release on new London/Tokyo record label ‘Toothpaste Records‘, designed to promote and push interesting Japanese music acts worldwide. In Japan, the record will be released on Alegori. The album, simply entitled ‘Tentenko‘ is a collection of her most noteworthy tracks including ‘Good bye Good girl‘, ‘Kiken na Highway‘, ‘Kuruma‘ and ‘Robot‘ among many others.

Toothpaste Records is a collaboration between Johnny Hartford (from independent record store Sister Ray in London) and Phil Boehm, the founder of studio Alegori (who Arama interviewed before). The following is an except from the PR kit for the ‘Tentenko’ LP release, a small interview between Johnny, Phil and Tentenko:

Johnny: “I first heard ‘Good bye Good girl’ and thought i must get this on vinyl. I kept listening to Tentenko’s music and I had the same feeling each time. This is the record I most want to own that didn’t already exist, so I had to make it! It seemed a natural point to start this label for Japanese artists”

Phil: “I first met Tentenko as a member of BiS while working on the collaboration album with Hijokaidan so when I heard her first solo single “Good bye Good girl”. I was surprised and inspired by this transformation into such a promising solo artist. Johnny and I discovered we have similar tastes and feeling about Tentenko’s music so I’m delighted we can all collaborate for this LP”

Tentenko: “My music is a combination of different styles I love. I like to mix the sound of classic pop with underground music, like combining pop from the ‘Showa’-era in Japan with noise music. Even if we are far away, music has no borders. I am excited to release this album overseas!”

Here is a behind the scenes shot from the album’s cover shoot:

‘Tentenko’ is out now, pressed on bright pink transparent vinyl. It’s a limited press, with only 1000 copies being made available. You can order and listen to it here.

We wish Tentenko and Toothpaste Records/Studio Alegori all the best with this release, and hope that Tentenko will find a bigger international audience with it!