After some personnel changes in the late 1980s, the band gained international fame as a duo consisting of Konishi and vocalist Maki Nomiya.
With their music blending together 1960s pop, jazz and synth-pop,[5] the group were a prominent component in the Shibuya-kei movement of the 1990s.
Pizzicato V began in 1984 when university students Yasuharu Konishi and Keitarō Takanami first met at a local music society conference.
Inspired by the advent of sampling (De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising is said to have been a major influence), the group put together a sound which would help start the burgeoning Shibuya-kei scene.
The band began to get increasing exposure via the theme songs it recorded for television dramas (a common practice for pop bands in Japan), achieving widespread fame with the 1993 single "Sweet Soul Revue", which was featured in a major spring advertising campaign for Kao Corporation (Kanebo Cosmetics) and as the theme song to the 1995 Pauly Shore film Jury Duty.
In December, the single "The Night Is Still Young" (東京は夜の七時, tōkyō wa yoru no shichiji) (literally, 7 p.m. in Tokyo) became another smash hit after it was used as the opening theme of the children's television programme UgoUgo Rūga Ni-gō.
Shortly before the release of the next album Overdose in the same year, Keitarō Takanami quit the band, leaving Konishi and Nomiya as the only remaining members.
It included songs from each of the three EPs in very different forms: "Darlin' of Discothèque" is shorter and instrumental, "A Perfect World" is a lounge-style rearrangement sung by guest vocalist Mieko Hirota and the new song "20th Century Girl" is based on the B-side "Room Service", originally written by Masumi Arichika of TV Jesus.