The Story





The Seatbelts


Who Are They?

Keyboards-Yoko Kanno
Voices- Tim Jensen, Mai Yamane, Steve Conte, Gabriela Robin, Hassan Bohmide,
Synthesizer Manipulating- Keishi Urata Drums- Yasuo Sano
Bass- Hitoshi Watanabe
Guitar- Tsuneo Imahori
Percussion- Mataro Misawa
Saxophone- Takuo Yamamoto, Osamu Koike, Masato Honda, Shigeo Fuchino
Trumpet- Shiro Sasaki, Tatsuya Shimogami, Masanori Suzuki, Toshio Araki, Yusuke Hayashi, Kouji Nishimura
Trombone- Satoshi Sano, Gakutaro Miyauchi, Satoshi Kawano, Hideaki Nakaji, Yoshiaki Hashimoto
Flute- Hideo Takakuwa, Kazuhiro Iwasa, Mika Hayashi
Tuba- Kiyoshi Sato

"THE SEATBELTS" - led by the sound producer Y.K.- are very hot & COOL & anarchy & peace & hard & soft & potato-like band. In 2048, immediately, they got famous in The Music Scene. It is said that the name of them came from their unique style of performance-all members wear the seatbelts for safety while they are playing. The members of "THE SEATBELTS" have the extraordinarily diverse styles of music, which gives a wide variety to their own sound. However, personal information about them has been completely concealed. Producer Y.K.likes to refer to the standard tunes which many "SPACE-JAZZMEN" in GANYMEDE use as bases for improvisation as "THE TRADITIONAL GLOBAL FORM". That Y.K. is the leading interpreters of this form is a fact which Y.K. has proven since she first attained prominence on The Solar System Music Scene. These recordings of their First Album "COWBOY BEBOP" are from what could be called Seatbelt's "A bar of sweet-potato paste period" I don't know what the name of this period really means. "Tank!", the first tune in this Album, was ranked #1 in "The Solar System Music Hit Chart" in 2056. This tune really established Y.K. as a great sound producer as well.

During late Forties and early Fifties, "THE SEATBELTS" traveled around the planets for concerts named "Digging my POTATO tour". Recently, I came across an interview with Y.K. "We really enjoyed playing in large audience. We could stay safe during our play, because we all wore SEATBELTS, as you know. Then we got relaxed and it was fun. "She continued with laughter, "there was only one thing we couldn't enjoy on this tour... that's sea-rats meat in GANYMEDE." She is planning to release new album named "Vitaminless", "COWBOY BEBOP-NO DISK" in future. I'm really looking forward to listening to her New Works soon.

Notes by THE DOG in Back Yard (2071)