Japanese pop culture has always been a curious stew of Western and Asian influences.

They have a history of sifting through the record bins, clothing racks and movie aisles of American culture and lifting what they like. Unfortunately, the things that they often leave behind are sometimes essential to Western understanding.

After a decade or so of this sort of admiration and, at times, odd mimicry, the land of the rising sun has figured out how to crack the code. Recently they've gained the ear of American labels and, more importantly, consumers with a new strain of pop that draws from familiar roots.

This breakthrough has its heroes. Bands like Cornelius, Guitar Wolf, Pizzicato Five, the Boredoms, cibo matto (who now reside in NYC) and Buffalo Daughter have led the charge from the realm of the quirky and unapproachable to a more palatable middle ground for timid Western record buyers.

Perhaps the most engaging of the these acts is Buffalo Daughter. The Tokyo three-piece, which recently signed to Beastie Boy Mike D's Grand Royal imprint, is composed of SuGar Yoshinaga (guitar, vocals), Yumiko Ohno (vocals, bass) and MoOog Yamamato (sampler and turn tables).

The band drew first blood in the US with a 1996 GR seven-inch called Legend of the Yellow Buffalo, a strange but winning noise project that served as a warning shot for what was to come. What came was their first US full-length, Captain Vapour Athletes, a masterful funk bricolage that articulates their talent for melding musical styles. Their follow-up, this year's aptly titled New Rock, showcases an almost chemical knack for combining the organic with the electronic -- creating a rare tension that bubbles up throughout.

Currently touring in support of New Rock, Buffalo Daughter has perked up critical ears and shown their mettle as live performers. A strong showing at last year's CMJ Music Conference and a highly-attended performance at South By Southwest '98 (on a bill that also included labelmate Sean Lennon) has proven that Beck isn't the only one who can take a sample-laden studio product on the road and make it sing.

Before a recent show at the Double Door in Chicago, Buffalo Daughter was eager to talk (without the benefit of a translator) about, among other things, the genesis of the band's signing to Grand Royal -- a pairing which they are apparently quite pleased with.

"We like the Grand Royal record label," Yumiko states simply. "We went to the Luscious Jackson concert in Tokyo, and we just wanted to give our CD to Jill [Cunniff]. She sent a fax to me saying she loved our music. She sent our CD to Mike D and everything happened."

These somewhat serendipitous beginnings make sense for a band puzzled together from so many pieces. There is a degree of randomness in what they do and their influences reflect that. The album churns with hale hooks and fetching melodies derived from myriad sources.

"We are not interested in mainstream music," SuGar states. "Sure, we like artists like Pavement, but we don't listen to Prodigy or Chemical Brothers. We like more independent, underground kind of music. I like drum'n'bass stuff. We all like krautrock like Kraftwerk and Can."

As is true with almost all of the recent crop of Japanese bands, Buffalo Daughter's lyrics are clever regurgitations of American pop culture. Stand out tracks on New Rock, like "Autobacs" and "Socks Drugs and Rock'n'Roll," house waggish, heavily accented prose in a synthesis of block rockin' beats, chunky guitar riffery, tonal jazz progressions and more. Perhaps the most enjoyable and radio-ready track from the album, "Great Five Lakes," which was recently translated into video by Evan Bernard (Bis, Tibetan Freedom Concert, Rancid), begins in a slow nursery rhyme cadence and segues into a loping guitar part, punctuated with odd samples, a funked-out Moog line and electronic bleeps.

"In New Rock we take every kind of music and combine them," explains Yumiko. "Like drum'n'bass, hip-hop, rock n' roll and electronic music."

"To us it is natural to do those sort of things," SuGar interjects. "We listen to every kind of music everyday so maybe we naturally mix everything together. We want to play simple and effective. That's why every kind of music, all types of hooks, are in our music."

The band has lent their considerable talents to a number of projects recently, including remixes for Shonen Knife, Bis, Alec Empire (Atari Teenage Riot), Stereolab and Towa Tei (Deelite), as well as commercial scoring. Buffalo Daughter is blissfully unencumbered by the American "sell-out" stigma as it relates to commercial work ( they've scored for a Japanese Listerine spot, video games, soundtracks and films). Rather, they see it as an extension of their art.

"Of course we do commercial work for money," explains SuGar. "At the same time, we enjoy creating music for some purpose. We always play music for ourselves. We play music because we want to do that. When we make commercial songs, we have to do something particular to match with commercial film. It's also interesting to us -- but not so different actually."

Though their place in the American pop scene is undecided and potentially limited to critical acclaim and indie-sized records sales, the group feels like there is more potential state-side for their vision.

"Our reception in Japan is more underground," explains SuGar. "We think we can't be mainstream in Japan because our music is very different from Japanese pop. Actually, we don't even listen to Japanese pop music. We listen to American and British pop."

Though there seems to have been a fundamental shift in American musical sensibilities that created a gap for music like Buffalo Daughter's, they seem unconcerned with the reasoning behind it and content to simply enjoy it. When asked what merits this new openness, the otherwise silent turntablist, MoOog minced no words:

"Because we're good!"

For more information on Japanese pop in the U.S., check out J-Pop.com

BRANDON BARBER