Find The Singer

January 2, 2007 6:48 AM

Asking for a friend: Here is a music mystery I need help to solve: There is a band from Japan called Buffalo Daughter that, in 2003, released an album called Pshychic, which consists of 5 tracks:

1. Cyclic
2. Pshychic A-Go-Go
3. Chihuahua Punk
4. S.O.I.D.
5. 303 Live

This is more or less a pretty great techno-rock, somewhat "avant-garde" album.

Now, when I got (downloaded) this album, there were 4 other tracks interspersed between the original 5 (not sure of the order):

Syaikikku
Chihuahua Punk Part 2
Pshychic (Rido Track)
Soid

Each of these tracks is a captivating bossanova song featuring a fantastic - and I mean FANTASTIC - female vocalist; the songs are completely stylistically different that the main 5 tracks, and sound like Tom Jobim or Stan Getz. I am reasonably sure that the woman is singing in Portugese. I have googled these track titles, and can find no useful info at all to answer my burning question: Who is the singer?

To help you in your quest, here is an mp3 of my favourite of the 4 mystery songs, called Syaikikku. Go forth and find that singer.

posted by KevinSkomsvold to media & arts (27 comments total)

This entry on Discogs.com identifies the vocalists on Chihuahua Punk Part 2 as Ami Matsamura and Kurion Yamamoto. Maybe one of these is the woman you are looking for?
posted by cosmic osmo at 7:11 AM on January 2, 2007

Oops. Chihuahua Punk (sans "Part 2"). Maybe that won't actually help.
posted by cosmic osmo at 7:12 AM on January 2, 2007

It's not them. I just listened to the song (thx for that, btw) and it is Portuguese and I can tell you that the person singing is Brazilian. It's not like when Miho Hatori (from Cibo Matto) used to sing in Portuguese, this is a native speaker.

I googled some phrases from that song and got nothing, so that song at least doesn't seem to be a cover.

You got me interested, have no answer for you yet, but I'll run it by a couple of friends and see if someone recognizes her. Perhaps you could post another of the songs to see if googling phrases from that helps ; )
posted by micayetoca at 7:23 AM on January 2, 2007

Thanks for the answers so far! This is so far outside my scope, any help is appreciated.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:45 AM on January 2, 2007

Meanwhile, this is the page last.fm has for that song you put here (that song specifically, not BD in general, this is the one for the band, and there are several people writing there).

It shows 98 people who listen to that song in their computers and it has a "shoutbox" where you can leave a message. Perhaps you could ask there as well. One of those "Buffalo Daughter listeners" might be a hardcore fan and know all the details about that recording.

My theory is that it is a mistake, that the Brazilian singer is completely unrelated to Buffalo Daughter and it was mistakenly tagged. I'll keep asking anyway.
posted by micayetoca at 7:48 AM on January 2, 2007

I think it's Elis Regina.
posted by umbú at 7:51 AM on January 2, 2007

No, now I'm not sure. Gal Costa?
posted by umbú at 7:53 AM on January 2, 2007

It's definitely not Elis Regina nor Gal Costa. Nor Marisa Monte or Maria Bethania or any of the most famous Brazilian singers you can name off the top of your head.

Sorry if it sounds rude, but if we start typing famous names randomly the list could get really long and we would be nowhere near finding who the singer actually is.

Now, a quick derail if I may, while we find the singer. KevinSkomsvold I took a look at your profile and that took me to your band's site. It's quite cool, you should consider posting A Few Good Men to MetaFilter Music, mate, I think people there would like it. Back to the search now.
posted by micayetoca at 8:03 AM on January 2, 2007

I'm pretty sure it's Gal Costa. She has like 40 albums, and for some reason none of the lyrics are showing up in google, so I'm not sure what the name of the song is.

www.galcosta.com.br
posted by umbú at 8:10 AM on January 2, 2007

Why are you sure it's not Gal? The singer has her really crisp diction, and when I compared it to some mp3s I have, it sounds like a match to me.
posted by umbú at 8:11 AM on January 2, 2007

I think the name is "Buffalo Daughter"?
posted by DudeAsInCool at 8:29 AM on January 2, 2007

Sorry for placing my thought process in successive posts, instead of mulling it over first and then posting. This is driving me crazy because I recognize the voice!

You're right, micayetoca, it's probably not Gal, but I wasn't just randomly throwing out names. I was listening to tracks I have, and comparing them to try to find a match.

Kevin, could you post another track so that we'll have more to go on?

I promise not to post again unless I'm more certain.
posted by umbú at 8:31 AM on January 2, 2007

Why am I sure? It doesn't sound like her to me. It does, to the extent that Brazilian female singers of that jazzy type sound alike, but I really don't think it's her.

In my opinion it sounds more like Miucha, though I don't think it is Miucha either. I really don't think it is any of those famous names.
posted by micayetoca at 8:37 AM on January 2, 2007

Thank you for your kind words, micayetoca.

umbu, I'll check with my friend and see if he has another track available.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:04 AM on January 2, 2007

To me, it sounds like Bebel Gilberto.
posted by msali at 9:50 AM on January 2, 2007

Maria Rita - daughter of Elis Regina and Cesar Carmago Mariano - or Paula Morlenbaum?
posted by Zeedog at 9:54 AM on January 2, 2007

It's not Maria Rita...
posted by mykescipark at 10:32 AM on January 2, 2007

Ooo oo oo! Try 411song.com! I've used it before with some fairly obscure rock music and it nailed it every time. It's a pay service, but your first ID is free.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 3:00 PM on January 2, 2007

Rolling Stone did an article on the band listing the players:

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/buffalodaughter/articles/story/5927524/live_buffalo_daughter

Maybe it's one of these two: SuGar Yoshinaga or Yumiko Ohno
posted by DudeAsInCool at 3:28 PM on January 2, 2007

My theory is that it is a mistake, that the Brazilian singer is completely unrelated to Buffalo Daughter and it was mistakenly tagged.

I agree. I've got most of the stuff BD has done, and to my knowledge they've never recorded anything that sounds like this, much less four tracks of it. My guess is that this song is not BD, but tracks from another CD that was mis-tagged as the first four tracks from Psychic by CDDB or the like. Other than the "part 2" on the end of "Chihuhua Punk", the track titles look to be romanizations of the Japanese names for those tracks. For example, the song list here has "Lead Track" (the English word "lead" is written "ri-do" in Japanese, thus "Rido") on the end of the title for the first song. "Syaikikku" is also just the romanization of "Psychic". I don't think these are meant to be different song titles at all, just different ways of writing the same ones as on the Buffalo Daughter album.

In short, I think this song is completely unrelated to Buffalo Daughter. They have definitely done some production/collaboration with other people, and plenty of compilation tracks and EPs and such, so it's not impossible for this to be them, but a search through their discography on amazon.co.jp doesn't turn up anything that looks Portugese, nor any non-Pshychic tracks that match the song titles you posted. Given this, I have a strong hunch that the mp3 tags are not the correct title & artist for the songs. I hope somebody else can help you with the name of the singer!
posted by vorfeed at 5:16 PM on January 2, 2007

Gah, the curiosity was killing me, so I went ahead and 411song.com'ed it myself. The song you posted appears to be Tango by Morelenbaum²/Sakamoto. Assuming that the service is correct, this is the only non-Jobim-penned song on the album.

Zeedog called it, too.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 5:43 PM on January 2, 2007

Here is another sample called Chihuahua Punk Part - 2.

So are we of the belief that the vocalist was/is Jaques Morelenbaum?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:16 PM on January 2, 2007

No, Jaques Morelembaum is a guy, it would be Paula Morelembaum. But it is his album, this one and the song is Tango, as 2or3whiskeysodas said.

That was quite impressive, 2or3whiskeysodas.
posted by micayetoca at 6:51 AM on January 3, 2007

Funnily enough, the second song you posted is not from that album, but from this one, by the same guys. The second song is called Vivo Sonhando.
posted by micayetoca at 6:55 AM on January 3, 2007

Thanks, micayetoca, but seriously, all praise should be directoed to 411song.com. All I did was call the number and hold my phone up to my computer speakers as it played the posted mp3. Seconds later the artist and track information was texted to me.

Best of the web for sure. Maybe an FPP is in order.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 7:06 AM on January 3, 2007

I didn't realize it worked like that before. When you posted it in the thread I thought it was some sort of forum where you posted the song (or a description) and people would tell you what they know. Damn, it is impressive. I think it is FPP material.
posted by micayetoca at 8:13 AM on January 3, 2007

Thank you all!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:58 PM on January 3, 2007