Haruomi Hosono

Patrick; Dleone's correct about the ReR connection, I grew up as a Recommended Records fanboy, buying anything they'd put out... Though I didn't finally hear Wha-Ha-Ha until researching backwards from the first Haniwa All-Stars record, which blew my mind in the early 90's. My interest in Senba's early Haniwa records & Wha-Ha-Ha is precisely because they're so eccentric & hard to figure out. I don't imagine they're particularly representative of early 80's JPop.

the yesasia site is listing this album in hosono searches, the title is killing me... have you heard it?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=FHCF-2344

The easiest way for me to get this stuff to you is through Soulseek. My name on their is Magazine, so message me if you use that program. The only other way I can think of is YSI, which will take a little while (though it's not too much trouble really).

B'angelo has some requests too. Whatever you guys request, I'll get it to you some time this weekend (or now if you have slsk).

Cochin Moon, way closer to mid-70's Cluster than I would have ever expected (though I do prefer Cluster). A surprise, even given Dominque's Tangerine Dream reference -- definitely in the 70's trance/synth records pantheon.

Bon Voyage & Tropical Dandy much more tin-pan-alley than electronic, but Paraiso is off-kilter, lays the way out for the first YMO. Omni Sight Seeing, thumbs up if you like late YMO. I like Hosono's solo mainstream pop records much more than Sakamoto's, no contest.

Miharu Koshi's Boy Soprano, wow.

And the Mishio Ogawa & Chakra stuff is eye-opening after a lifetime of Haniwa fandom. Chakra's much more straightforward / less quirky, but I'm very happy just to be able to place Haniwa in context with, well, _anything_.

Boy Soprano, the Mishio Ogawa debut, & Cochin Moon are the three I ordered online after hearing the mp3's.

Am I correct that this has Sakamoto on it?

I dunno though... even though his pop is weirder than Sakamoto's, Sakamoto's pure experimental albums (B-2 Unit & Esperanto) are 1000% more bizarre and advanced than Hosono's, those albums are timeless.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1004088657/code-j/section-videos/

(this should probably go on the noise board's wha-ha-ha thread but too late)

Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars

BTW, what exactly did Andy Partridge do on B-2 Unit?

I dunno Matthew, you heard Esperanto?

You mean that electric guitar in the right-channel that's barely audible and sounds as if it's unplugged? If so, that's...odd.

I dunno Matthew, you heard Esperanto?

Most of it — I just re-listened again this morning (have about 6 tracks downloaded). Assuming they aren't remixes, I'd say it's good but no B-2 Unit — lots mallet-y textures and ambience. But if you think I'm missing something, maybe I should re-download to verify that I'm listening to the right tracks.

ha, I first heard it with "members of the Vas Deferens Organization" too. My member was Eric

news you can use: japanese CDs are too damned expensive

I am beginning to miss the days when people were relatively certain they were talking about the same record. A few days ago at a dinner party someone put on something interesting, and when I asked what it was he said it was the new Boards of Canada. He didn't believe me when I told him that it wasn't, he just brought over to his iPod to show me the tags.

I put on Omni Sight Seeing last night, that is definitely my favorite Hosono pop album, every song...

And I first read that as "tripping on acid with members of Van Der Graaf Generator.

I am beginning to miss the days when people were relatively certain they were talking about the same record.

No kidding — but I think Dom's "news you can use" is the culprit in this instance. And actually, that's one of the 2 tracks I don't have. Still, p2p's are great for finding rarities...

Is there a good Hosono comp, btw?

I had both Matt and Eric in the room, with running commentary and interpretive facial expressions. THAT is a proper introduction to Cochin Moon, let me tell you.

http://s33.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2CE5XMURV2R7N2CTJUHM631DW7

The MONAD Albums: These 4 ambient-like albums came out around the same time in 1986 and form a sort of set. They were reissued as a boxed in 2002

Coincidental Music
1985 Monad cd: 30CH-143, TECN-18037, TECN-15337

A sampler of un-released music for movies, TV, commercials and installation 1982-85. This is a good album to hear Hosono's vastly different styles of compositions, though the content is so varried it makes incoherent listening as a whole without programming your CD player.

1. Lichtenstein's 0.31 (recorded 11 Oct 1984)
2. Pietro Germi (re-recording version) 5.30 (recorded 7 July 1983)
3. Normandia 2.36 (recorded 11 July 1984)
4. The Man of China 1.50 (recorded 24 April 1985)
5. Sayokoskatti 4.45 (recorded 8 May 1982)
6. Mazinger "H" 3.14 (recorded 10 March 1984)
7. The Plan 0.31 (recorded 20 June 1985)
8. Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo (re-recording version) 1.31 (recorded 22 Dec 1984)
9. George Don 1.01 (recorded 7 May 1984)
10. Bio Philosophy 4.40 (recorded 8 May 1984)
11. Memphis, Milano (re-recording version)10.27 (recorded 10 Aug 1982)

Mercuric Dance
1985 Monad cd: 30CH-144, TECN-18038, TECN-15338

All synth with a bit of percussion, though rather monochromatic. Recorded 1983-4. For a modern dance ensemble. A video version was once availablet. (Emotion BEB-33)

1. Sunnyside of the Water
2. Mercuric Dance
3. Formation of the Venus
4. Down to the Earth
5. Fossil of Flame - Fifty Bell-Trees
6. Prepared Quartz
7. Sea of tau
8. Windy Land
9. To the Air

Paradise View (Soundtrack)
1985 Monad cd: 30CH-145, TECN-18039, TECN-15339

An album of very interesting, sampled and re-assembled Okinawan music with an emphasis on gamelan-like sounds. I got a chuckle when a Village Voice film critic commented on the wonderful, authentic Okinawan score ("authentic" Hosono and his K250 that is). In the film, Hosono plays a supporting role as a sensitive, but out of his element Japanese grade school teacher transplanted to Okinawa. The big in-joke is that one of the teenage girls in the story has a YMO shrine in her room and seems quite infatuated, yet has no apparent interest in her school teacher and his resembalance to a YMO member. This was the first Okinawan language feature film and according to the IMDB co-stars Jun Togawa though when I saw the film quite some time ago I didn't know what she looked like or had a translation of the cast list.

1. The Image of a Paradise
2. The Image of a View
3. Mabui Dance
4. Yuta's Pray
5. Atti
6. Wheels on Fire
7. The Truck on the Sea
8. Roochoo Jazz
9. The Paradise View

The Endless Talking
1986 Monad cd: 30CH-159, TECN-18040, TECN-15340

If you can't stand repetition, then "Endless" is the operating word here. This was for an Italian art installation. 13 bright, quirky and repetetive synth pieces. Recorded 25 April 1985.

1. Mercuryfall
2. The Animal's Opinion
3. Insects Insists Insecurity
4. The Long Story of a Humankind
5. The First One in Heaven
6. Sequential Opera Circuit
7. Trembling #1
8. The Endless Talking
9. Scratched
10. Szymanowsky Bird
11. Digitally Sampled Etnography
12. La Pliocena/Birdoj
13. Trembling #2

If you enjoy Hosono's SFX album, seek out the F.O.E. (Friends of Earth) "Friend or Foe" 12" or the CD "The World of F.O.E." which feature remixes of SFX album tracks plus two other tracks which are completely killer and even floor-friendly. The Exterminated Mix of "Body Snatchers" in particular has a devastating razor-blade edit ending that's almost Apparat-like, or at least as good as Cab Voltaire stuff of similar vintage.

i'm making my way through the monad box tonight. so far paradise view (soundtrack from a film of the same name) sounded great, lots of unusual (dx7?) synth-bell melodies and some looped gamelan samples. very pristine and atmospheric

anyone heard philaharmony his 1982 album? 'cos i'm listening to "platonic" for the first time (incredible tripped-out echo chamber electro track) and wanna know if the rest of the album is in the same vein

("platonic" is on this btw: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Electrounique-Vol-5/release/1683109, the only place to get die dominas on vinyl for under 200 euros?)

philharmony is excellent btw. a mix of his wacked out symphonic fairlight stuff, BGM style electro, and melodic j-pop.

as for hosono produced lop-sided exotic j-pop, this album is essential: http://www.discogs.com/Miharu-Koshi-Tutu/release/665681

[X-post from 9/21/05]

Big feature on Hosono in issue 162 of The Wire from 1997, by Clive Bell. Good thing I'm a pack rat -- I still have that issue! It's sitting open on my couch as I speak (I'm at work right now though, so I haven't finished rereading it). It only took me 8 years to track the damn albums down! I remember thinking it sounded a lot like Discover America era Van Dyke Parks. And as I skimmed the beginning of the article, Hosono mentions how Parks produced one of the albums of his early 70s psychedelic band Happy End.

The albums are:

Tropical Dandy 1975
Bon Voyage Co. 1976
Paraiso 1978

The last one features the awesome cover of "Fujiyama Mama," and was credited to Haruomi Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band, a Beefheart reference. This evolved into the Yellow Magic Orchestra, which I recommend to anyone who would care to hear a whimsical Japanese Kraftwerk. When the mood strikes I'll dig for some of that Happy End.

Not that anyone is even talking about it in this thread anymore, but 'Cochin Moon' is probably the single best "Japanese import in a faux-LP sleeve" purchase I've ever made. If it were a YMO album, it might be my favorite. Giddy, messy, strange, intoxicating, brilliant stuff.

Sakamoto's pure experimental albums (B-2 Unit & Esperanto) are 1000% more bizarre and advanced than Hosono's, those albums are timeless.

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 21 November 2005 23:06 (3 years ago)

having finally heard cochin moon, i'd argue that this and the monad records are way more bizarre and advanced than anything sakamoto has done. hosono is on another level

both Cochin Moon and Esperanto do great things with world music collage, one with 70's analog electronics and one with disjointed Fairlight sampling / cut-ups. they're both great, for different tastes. My long interest in sampling music has me partial to Esperanto, but that album is a wild exception for him, in general I'd probably agree with you

need to hear the Monad box. & thanks for waking thread, it got my favorite Miharu Koshi songs back on my iPod

I love the Sakamoto albums you mention, Jon L (three years ago). But 'Cochin Moon' is definitely beyond either of them, and carries amazing themes and sounds through its duration. It feels like a journey.

What else of his sounds like this? seriously dig this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zu8QMgbYhU&feature=related

great song! the album it's taken from, philharmony, is a straight classic imo. a mix of melodic techno pop and very very strange fairlight experiments. i see i said that already but it bears repeating.

includes a deranged (and extremely catchy) cover of "funiculi funicala":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BhE3yY-7s

the last two classic era ymo albums, naughty boys and service are both pop song orientated. both classics, just don't expect the lounge disco hybrid of early ymo nor the far-out ethno-tronic sound of bgm/technodelic. also check some yukihiro takahashi solo albums for more song orientated ymo sounding stuff

i haven't heard SFX, hosono's next pop record after philharmony, maybe others can recommend.

then start searching his more outwardly pop productions throughout the 80s, miharu koshi and jun togawa being his main collaborators.

the closest he gets to "sportsmen" later on is the single as apogee & perigee, amazing sentimental pop music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0E1N2EJVhg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXaT5bg0YMc

should've proof read that before i posted. anyway, my current favourite hosono jam is 夏なんです by happy end, his early 70s folk rock group. so beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSfi0CrQL4

this happy end album has some great moments.

such as the entirety of kaze wo atsumete

is it just hosono, or maybe just me, or are japanese pop artists allowed (or allow themselves) a great lassitude...? he seems to range across so many genres, without any compunctions. the idea of switching modes so frequently doesn't seem to trouble him in the slightest.

My favorite current Hosono album is Paraiso, however I have discovered one that I have been quite impressed with. It's called "Nokto de la Galaskia Fervojo", a soundtrack to some abstract animated film from the mid-80's. As far as I know his soundtrack wasn't even used (I wouldn't know as I've never seen the movie) but the soundtrack album is very good. It's not really outwardly scary or anything, just very harrowing and cold. Really portrays a feeling of loneliness and uses some really creepy keyboard noises. At the same time it's playful and kind of cheery. It's the sort of thing that only Hosono could have pulled off. There is one absolutely gorgeous piano piece on it ("La Travida Malgojo de Giovanni") that IMO tops any of Sakamoto's similar efforts. I get chills just thinking about it.

^ crazy, i was just about to revive this thread. recently heard 'cochin moon' and 'philharmonic' for the first time and i'm kinda floored tbh

Peak Kermit The Frog vocals from Harry too (not a criticism)

Hosono's post-YMO '80s are absolutely insane... SFX and the Apogee & Perigee record from '84 rule, and I'm just now realizing that the Making of Non-Standard Music EP is top-notch too, a preview of what's to come with Monad (at least, on the B-side). The Monad records -- I can't even comprehend... Nokto is beyond beautiful, most of us know that already, so let me emphasize how generously Paradise View starts rewarding close, careful listens. Sounded samey and hard-to-fathom on first several listens, but just give it time. The Endless Talking feels like one of the wildest and weirdest ideas for an album ever: like a Best Of of the same year it came out in, and the one before; but deconstructed/remade into something new and unlike anything else in Hosono's discography -- as dark and nightmarish as Hosono gets. Sex, Energy and Star from '86 is more of a production job than a Hosono solo album, but it's fantastic all the same: it's very much the spirit of SFX carried forward into still more sublime realms of the insane. I had no idea digital drums could sound so good, so massive. Hosono did always know how to choose his collaborators. Echo de Miharu is a wonderfully nuts crossover between Koshi's chanson leanings and Hosono's deep ambient stuff. The Tale of Genji blows me away every time I listen, now -- the melodies are so slow and patient it can be hard to tell they're there. But they are, ohhh how they are. 1988 has the Marginal soundtrack which I'm still pretty new to (up on YT! It isn't all Hosono, but the other guy's tracks are great too). And then you get 1989 and Omni fuckin Sight Seeing. Comments on this thread got me pretty hyped for Omni and it *still* managed to exceed expectations. I haven't even got to the 20th Century Pops stuff from these years, there's probably a bunch of incredible stuff tucked away in there too...

at one point a bunch of those were going to get reissued! look:

oops, I Jimmed it. this is what i meant to post:

https://lightintheattic.net/products/mercuric-dance

https://lightintheattic.net/products/the-endless-talking

and so on. I think just the Monad records though.

luckily I have a copy of Coincidental Music. the others I really want. there were times when I thought I might win one from eBay at a not terrible price, alas they always get sniped at the last second.

The Endless Talking feels like one of the wildest and weirdest ideas for an album ever: like a Best Of of the same year it came out in, and the one before; but deconstructed/remade into something new and unlike anything else in Hosono's discography -- as dark and nightmarish as Hosono gets

it's genuinely bizarre. part of the reason I want a reissue is because sometimes they come with interviews and I'd really like to know what he was thinking with some of this. amusingly there are so many vaporwave artists who go for this unplaceable nightmare vibe using just synths and samplers but somehow Haruomi Hosono is the one who captured it better than any of them. probably before any of them were born too.

yes, i too would love reissues of the Monad releaes for notes / insights into what he was thinking when making them. i was lucky to pick up the originals when they were still affordable but would happily replace them with reissues.

The Tale of Genji is my favourite.

Apogee & Perigee isn't a Hosono release is it? I thought it was Jun Togawa, though my favourite track, Hope is by the mighty Testpattern.

x post

There's two Hosono compositions on Apogee & Perigee (both sung by Jun), I don't know whether he actually plays on anything -- but surely the arrangements are 90% his own? And it must have been him picking the people involved. Who else do Jun Togawa, Miharu Koshi, and Takashi Matsumoto have in common? (Hosono as puppetmaster!)

The lack of context is bewildering, yes, and sometimes I get really curious... but other times, it can feel liberating too. When music so amazing seems to rise up out of absolutely nowhere, it makes me feel like anything is possible.

I'll have to give that one another listen - I do think HH's production style is pretty easy to identify. when "Scandal Night" came up on Pacific Breeze 3 I could instantly tell there was Hosono involvement despite not actually knowing what the track was

Coincidental Music is a huge favorite too. I'm not sure any other Hosono record has quite so many catchy things in one place. And even though everything on there was commissioned, and spans four years, I find it goes down real smooth as a start-to-finish listen. I guess when your creative spirit is burning as bright as Hosono's was at the time, it doesn't matter what you're doing stylistically, everything you do will sound of a piece.

God that's weird, I could've sworn I saw the production credit for Apogee & Perigee go to Hosono, but now that I actually look it up again, I'm wrong, it's Kazusuke Obi (who was apparently involved with EVERYTHING YMO-family from BGM on to Wild and Moody... after which he crossed over into the VGM world and was involved with, for example, the soundtrack to Super Marip Brothers 3?! Who is this guy?!

Apogee & Perigee seems to be shrouded in even more mystery than most YMO-adjacent stuff. Discogs notes that the releases had no songwriting credits until some many-decades-later reissue identified *some* of them. So it could still be that Hosono did arrangements for everything but Queen Glacier. It sounds to me exactly like a sister record to Parallelisme, just poppier.

Oh yeah, there it is!

https://galapagos-rec0rds.com/products/apogee-perigee-アポジー-ペリジー-超時空コロダスタン旅行記?variant=33050887553127

Other Japanese-language sites/blogs credit Hosono as producer too, and mention he drafted the storyline.

I don't think that link came out right. Here's the English-language blurb on that site:

"Nikka Whisky's commercial project by YEN all-star lineup including Yuji Miyake, Test Pattern, Yoichiro Yoshikawa, Miharu Koshi, Jun Togawa, under Haruomi Hosono's production. A gorgeous techno-pop album consisting of an A-side incorporated into a story that goes to the moon. It is a total conceptual album including inserts."

And "細野晴臣 プロデュース" comes up a lot. Seems only Discogs has Obi credited with the production.

‘Translation changes the original meaning’: how 70s psych rockers Happy End ended the ‘Japanese rock controversy’

In 1969, Takasshi Matsumoto and Haruomi Hosono opted to defy rock trends by singing in Japanese, not English – paving the way for ‘city pop’ and J-pop

Thanks! Great detail about Hosono jotting down new band names on his commute. Somewhere I read/watched Hosono say that breaking up bands is a hobby of his.

And: "...and at 76 he continues to create, saying he’s hoping to start work on a new solo collection soon." Good news, but hasn't he been saying he's about to start work on a new solo collection for years now? Hosono, you magical old man, write us some new songs dammit!

Man, I'm seriously digging Eating Pleasure, the 1980 Sandii (and Makoto Kubota) record produced by Hosono. It's got five Hosono originals and a version of Drip Dry Eyes that predates Neuromantic. On first however many listens it sounded like there was too much bland of-the-era pop between the summits of Hosono's Idol Era and Zoot Kook. I am here to tell you this is NOT TRUE. They wove the atmosphere real thick on this one. A much weirder and vibey-er record than it pretends to be!

It's one of those sneaky actually-it's-YMO albums, with YT on drums and Sakamoto credited with keyboards, Matsutake on computer...

that Drip Dry Eyes is so smooth. I didn't realize it predated Takahashi's own.

surprised it hasn't been repressed yet. admittedly I haven't heard the whole thing but I will have to rectify that soon.

Its a real favourite of mine. I managed to pick up a cheap copy of the 2nd edition in Tokyo about 10 years ago.

okay I've got it on now, definitely wilder than I was expecting. "Alive" is such a cool song

Artists with similar names that you get mixed up

Sandii & the Sunsetz
Sheena & the Rokkets

so good. 'zoot kook' still sounds like it was beamed in from the future.

Zoot Kook feels like it launched a whole genre -- Yoko Kanno did a lot more good work within it in the '00s (and specifically sought out Chris Mosdell to help). Alive is wonderful.

mmmm, that's awesome -- not the greatest cover art, but I'm all for great albums in unassuming sleeves.

the thing about the cover art is it just looks like all those 50s and 60 exotica albums with a hot girl on the sleeve. its not like say the Miharu Koshi albums which hint at the oddness of the music. wonder how many people bought it for that reason, put it on and were like what the hell am I listening to.

zoot kook: song of the week

i haven't heard Yoko Kanno - will be checking that out today i hope

damn, there's too much music. artists should only release one album, preferably just one song