Halcali on Takeyama Teacher

After reading Sony's statement that Halcali may appear on Takeyama Teacher "as pigs", thoughts turned immediately to the PR stunt from hell, with Halcali on TV trying to retain their dignity while running around in little snouts and curly tails.

In the end, of course, that's not what actually happened; thank God that the pigs referred to by Sony turned out to be animated. What we actually get instead is a charming, funny, and confident Halcali, and (although not a Halcali original) we're also treated to what will probably turn out to be the only new Halcali recording before Christmas, Gatochou.

This is basically what happens in the clip. The shows host, comedian 'Cunning' Takeyama, walks in on Halcali's Gatochou recording session, tries to get included in the recording in some way, gets rejected then finally ends up on the recording by...well watch to the end to find out.

If you want to skip through all the nonsense though, the song starts around the 6-minute mark, although there are some clips of Halcali in the studio before then.

Although the song is essentially unrelated to them, it does sound somewhat like an unused track from the Ongaku No Susume sessions. While I've always thought that Halcali sound more comfortable rapping than singing, I think they do a particularly good job here. Listening to them sing again, it's impossible not to speculate about what direction the post-OTF Halcali are going to go in, although as the days tick by and still no new single/album news, I hope we aren’t being too optimistic about getting a new release before Christmas.

There’s been a definite recent attempt by Halcali's PR to get their name around again though, and judging by their recent record sales, it's appearances on popular, well watched TV programs like this one that's exactly what they need.