Haruko Kuwana — Downtown
from Moonlight Island (1982)
More Japanese disco bliss. Here Haruko Kuwana covers the 1975 classic ‘Downtown’ by Tatsuro Yamashita’s short-lived pop group Sugar Babe. But she sings it in 英語 kids: Downtown Saturday Night…
I would love to track down this album.. hit me up if you have it! (Mas disco…)
Testpattern — Techno Age
from Après-Midi (1982)
Gorgeous technopop from Japan… half video game soundtrack, half zen meditation.
Tipped off to this masterpiece by YingYangs.
Haruomi Hosono, Suzuki Shigeru, Tatsuro Yamashita — Passion Flower
from Pacific (1978)
Aw yeah. Three incomparable instrumentalists, one sparkling disco rhinestone. You might call this elevator music. But it’s the kind you’d hear as you breeze out of the elevator at your Hanalei Bay resort, hiding behind your Ray-Bans, and someone hands you a coconut with a straw in it. Oh yes.
Jiro over at the fantastic Ying Yangs hooked me up with this album and I thank him warmly from my cabana.
Urban Dance — Alienlover
from Ceramic Dance (1986)
This…is the FUTURE. Well ok actually, it’s 1986—incredible Japanese techno-pop that sounds like it could have come out yesterday. What is up with those crazy guitar loops? Amazing stuff, really.
Urban Dance is headed by Shinobu Narita, who handles electronics, guitar and vocals. And as many trailblazing projects are, this EP was produced with help from Haruomi Hosono.
Read more here, in Japanese. WaxMask has the follow-up album to this EP.
Trippple Nippples — Golden Road (Oli Chang Remix) (2012)
More beautiful sounds from the Tokyo dream team, Trippple Nippples, re-imagined by remix wizard Oli Chang. (you can hear the original on the Trippple Nippples soundcloud)
I was lucky enough to catch the girls’ Glasslands show last month, an audio freakout with a jaw-dropping stage show to match. Catch them if you can… (bring earplugs)
In this past week the High Highs’ Oli Chang has dropped half a dozen amazing new remixes over on his Sndcld. Don’t miss his redo of Empire of the Sun’s “Walking on the Sun” and Millionyoung “Replicants” - all stripped naked and repainted with piano and atmospherics. Absolutely lovely.
Oh, and speaking of the women of Tokyo’s Trippple Nippples… I can’t wait to tell you about #MEGABLAAG SXSW 2012. Sayin’. Shhhh. Here. Shhhh.
Jimmy Takeuchi — Soulful Strut
from R&B Drumming (1969)
Jazz drummer and drum break king Jimmy Takeuchi’s take on the smooth jazz classic ‘Soulful Strut,’ recorded in 1968 by the Chicago jazz group Young-Holt Unlimited. [original here]
There are some nice breaks in this version, but the thing that really sets Takeuchi’s version apart is, of course, the VIBRASLAP. Niiiice…
The Tigers — Seaside Bound (1967)
This is what 1967 sounded like in Japan. No doubt that ザ・タイガース (Za Taigaasu, sounded out) are some fucking cool cats… look at that cover!
Moreno Veloso — Um Passo a Frente
Here’s a perky cover of Gal Costa’s ‘Um Passo a Frente’ by Moreno Veloso, who is, as you may have guessed, the son of Caetano, and has released several albums on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label.
But I’ll be honest and admit the real reason I’m posting this—the host. He is a riot, mustachioed and suave, and he speaks Portuguese with Moreno to boot. This is quite an interesting little project he has going, mostly with South American artists. It’s called On the Shelf, and it’s a Tokyo-based production in which musicians perform from the “narrowest stage in the world” — a bookshelf! Check out his other videos too.
Sandii — Drip Dry Eyes
from Eating Pleasure (1980)
This is wild — disco-reggae from Japanese/Hawaiian singer Sandii and synth wizard Haruomi Hosono, who produced and arranged the album. (Most of the playing here is by Hosono and his bandmates in Yellow Magic Orchestra.) The wardrobe styling on the cover is apt for the album’s title, I suppose… lettuce cups?
Feel like I’ve been through a washing machine
I’m all washed up and ready to drown
You just locked me in, and took me for a spin
With your drip dry eyes…
EeL — Little Prince Loves You
from Little Prince (2004)
The faint of heart might want to keep their ears away from this tooth-chattering mindf*#$ of J-pop breakcore. Or at least keep the headache meds handy.
Hatsumi Shibata — Singer Lady (1975)
70s glamour at its finest — Japanese diva Hatsumi Shibata sings disco.
Thanks to Hashim B. for hooking me up with this track. I’ve been having a terrible time finding any albums by Shibata online… if you can help please let me know!
Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys — One Fine Day (Madame Butterfly)
from Let’s Go Classics (1967)
Behold the majestic harmonies of Giacomo Puccini, as interpreted by a Japanese surf-rock guitarist bedecked in breeches and a wig—Takeshi Terauchi. That’s him to the left of the conductor, with the beautiful white Mosrite guitar.
By no coincidence, The Ventures played a set of custom Mosrites, which you can hear on their 1963 album The Ventures In Space. Terauchi was supposedly struck by The Ventures tour of Japan in 1962, and began surfing electric currents himself with prodigious use of his whammy bar.
Here’s Maria Callas doing the operatic version of ‘One Fine Day’ (Un Bel Di’ Vedremo).
Yanokami — News
Here’s a magical video, also featured in the dublab post. This is a collaboration between Akiko Yano and Rei Harakami… thus Yanokami.
Rei Harakami — come here go there
from [lust] (2005)
I was surfing the dublab mp3 blog the other day and came across the writeup on Rei Harakami’s passing. I hadn’t heard of him prior to reading the post, but since then I haven’t been listening to much else. I’ve always loved the Cornelius albums Sensuous and Point but didn’t realize other Japanese musicians were playing with electro-acoustic sounds in the same way.
Harakami was one of them—an electronic music sorcerer, conducting an orchestra of raindrops, a percussion section of ice crystals, and bouncy-ball pizzicato basslines.
I hope you’ll enjoy the sounds of Rei Harakami as much as I do!
Kan Mikami — 馬鹿ぶし (baka bushi aka ‘Rude Idiot’)
from Mikami Kan No Sekai (The World of Kan Mikami) (1971)
Japanese blues troubadour Kan Mikami sings as if you were cutting his heart out…slowly, meticulously, while he bleeds. (Look at the cover) This song, the first track on his debut album, is the most produced, with flutes and pizzicato plucks, but his seething vocals don’t hide behind the graceful instrumentation. The demons are alive in his voice, as it wavers between smooth lullaby tones and chainsaw rage. As an ode to a ‘Rude Idiot,’ it works quite well.
If you track down this album, also don’t miss the track おど (odo). He shrieks the way you would if someone hammered a pin under your fingernails.
There is a wonderful, extensive interview with Mr Mikami at Psychedelic Noise from Japan and NZ. Here are a few highlights taken from that interview.
When did you first pick up a guitar?
Mikami: Must have been in 1965, but I didn’t know how to play then. I’d just look at it and polish it.
What did you think when you first arrived in Tokyo?
Mikami: I thought of the word “violence”. It was as if the city was controlled by violence. The countryside is really pastoral, and I understood the relationship between man and nature. And then you come to a city, and suddenly violence is the real power. Like when the traffic light changes and everyone sets off at once in the same direction—when I saw that I felt like I was being chased by someone. Like there was someone following me and someone controlling it all.
Do your children listen to your songs?
Mikami: Yeah, occasionally. My son really likes them, but my daughter always looks like she’s about to burst into tears.
Out of all the songs you’ve written, which do you think are the best?
Mikami: Maybe ‘Odo.’ That’s the only song that I’ve ever taken to perfection—the only one where I’ve thought that I don’t need to sing this anymore. When I played it in the trio in Yokohama with Haino and Aketagawa, it was like I could see the song flying up to heaven. I knew that I’d never be able to sing it any better than that. It’d be fucked up to sing it any more. It was really like a kaleidoscope. … I realized that songs really do have a proper end, that they do live their lives and then die. Singers can’t suddenly become popular after they’re dead, can they? Once you die it’s over—that’s especially true for musicians. A musician dying is the saddest thing of all—because you’ll never be able to hear that sound again…
