9th July 2025
Hello all :) !! Welcome to this new series, "Lost Labels", where I take a look at some of the many indie pop labels that have faded into obscurity... Today I will be covering Japan's shortlived Duplo Records, please enjoy!
So, where to start with Duplo Records? I mean, there's not much to say... Duplo popped into existence sometime around 1999 and dissappeared just as quickly, likely in the same year. In that short period, the label put out one 7" EP and a two song sampler tape. According to their postage address, Duplo was likely based in the suburban Nerima ward of northwestern Tokyo.
Duplo's most popular release was the Scrapbook (PIECE-01) Various Artists EP. At just 10 minutes long (almost), the EP puts together 4 unique songs from 4 indie bands active at the time: Corniche Camomile, My Coffee Moment, Red Go-Cart and Airplane Rider. Scrapbook wasn't just a simple compilation of existing songs however, as every track was entirely unique to that. The front sleeve, itself reminiscent of a scrapbook, is adnorned with a giant "01" - unfortunetly, there was no 02.
The back sleeve details information on the bands and songs of course, but it also gives a long list of names associated with Duplo Records. Only one of these names stood out to me - Eiji Matsuda, who did sound recordings at Studio JAM for many releases by TiNSTAR Records. Sure enough, Studio JAM is listed under the "thanks" section on the back and we're also told that distribution was handled by TiNSTAR. This would explain why Scrapbook seems to be so common; for such a niche release from a tiny label, there's a healthy number of copies of this EP for sale on Discogs, eBay and Yahoo Auctions.
If you don't know them, TiNSTAR was a Tokyo indie label active between 1997 and 2004. The label released over 50 indie rock releases in their time, and were seemingly quite successful. They even became a sublabel of UK.Project in 2000... I checked TiNSTAR's website to see if there was any mention of the Duplo release, but I couldn't find anything. It's possible that the only caputure on the Internet Archive was too early in 1999... (I thought it was cute that the site was part of the "Japan Indie" webring, though)
Returning back to the subject, Scrapbook itself is a short and sweet little EP. Corniche Camomile's opening track "To Ask The Hard Question Is Simple" is a fairly safe but cute piano driven pop song. It's the type of song that I would imagine in my head when I think "Shibuya-kei". That sounds as if I'm being critical of it, but I actually quite liked it. Corniche Camomile was signed to Channel Records, a similarly shortlived late 90s pop label. This release would be their only appearance outside of that label. The next track, "Seventy Seconds Tea Time" by My Coffee Moment, is similar sounding although with less piano and more a cappella. I find it funny how the sleeve credits Hitoshi Oka for the lyrics, when they ultimately boil down to "ba da ba da da". It's another simple but fun song. My Coffee Moment was quite prolific around Scrapbook's release. Most of their outings were self released, however the did manage a 7" on German label Firestation Tower Records. Although the band is no longer active, some of its members are now part of the neo-acoustic band Sloppy Joe which released an album in 2020.
The B side, in my opinion, is where most of the action happens. I'm probably a bit bias towards Red Go-Cart because they're a personal favourite of mine. Their appearance here was only the second time they had strayed away from their roots at Clover Records. "On The Seventh Day" is a cover of a Fat Tulips song and it is very reminiscent of the original. If you've heard any of Red Go-Cart's early works before, the sound should be recognisable. This would actually be the last of the early Red Go-Cart sound we would hear, as that same year they would release ther first studio album. Red Go-Cart is still active today, playing as recently as last month!
The closing track, "Silence Of Winter" by Airplane Rider, caught me by suprise. It is more neo-acoustic sounding than the others, and the vocalist (Yasutaka Yoshihara) sings with a unique mix of American and Japanese accents. I think it may be my favourite track on the record. I admit that I had never heard of this band before, but now I want to listen to their studio album... released by TiNSTAR, no less!
unfortunetly, there is much less to say about their other release. "Scrapbook Sampler" is a simple 2 track tape by My Coffee Moment. Judging by the name, you might assume it is a sampler for the Scrapbook EP, however this is not the case - both songs are unique to this tape! Unlike its 7" brother, Scrapbook Sampler is very illusive and information is scarce. There are currently no uploads of the songs online, sadly. All I have to go on is the 1 photo and track listing on Discogs... Rather confusingly, the Scrapbook Sampler has the exact same catalog number as the EP, PIECE-01. This makes it impossible to tell which came out first. If I was to guess, I would say that maybe the sampler came first, and when Scrapbook released Duplo reset the catalog number because it was their first "proper" release? But I can only speculate...
And then, just like that, Duplo Records dissappeared. Its bands went on to release more music on other labels in the following years, as mentioned before. It's hard to tell what the people behind Duplo itself went on to do, as many people with the same names exist online and it's difficult to verify if they are the same.
If you've got anymore information on Duplo Records you'd like to share, email me at chuolinemail@proton.me. I'll be sure to add it to this article!
Thanks for reading!
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