Toshinobu Kubota drops a lickle bussdown jam, with “1, 2, Play”

Toshinobu Kubota aka Pinocchinegro, the Japanese man who wanted to be a real Black boy is back with two new songs.

 
Toshinobu Kubota hasn’t released a great deal of music over the past few years. His last studio album was Beautiful People back in 2019. But he saw the songs being performed on Music Station for the past 6 years, what was on the Oricon, and even looked at the song he released in June and said ‘This shit ain’t 黒 enough for me. I need to do something about it’. So, he slicked them edges back with his treasured tin of Dax Wave & Groom, tied his top knot and got to work.

And he got me y’all. “1, 2, Play” is good. “Left and Right” is fine. But “1, 2, Play” is where it’s at.

Me getting older has redefined ‘old’. But me also being Black, nobody in my family over 30 looking their age, and living in the UK and seeing hella white people who look 17 years older than they actually are has warped my perception of people’s ages. All this to say — Toshinobu Kubota does not look 62 years old. He could easily pass for somebody in their forties. I wanna see his 23andMe results.

Toshinobu Kubota - 1, 2, Play | Sony Music Labels

It’s such a shame that “1, 2, Play” was released in the middle of Halloween month and not at the peak of Summer. But seasonality in music is fucked, and has been for years now. Summer songs don’t release in the Summer. Winter ballads have seemingly gone extinct in Japan. And there are so few festive and festive-adjacent songs released in the run up to the holidays.