Haruomi Hosono

Bet he meant Little Feat

He meant Little Feat.

who played with Happy End right? that's probably it

Got it.

And they were the backing band for the first Akiko Yano record too.

ah yes, that must be what he meant

how did hosono hook up w/ little feat btw? there must be a good story there.

Maybe happy end opened up for them in Japan? Wasn't' happy end the early 70s folky group hosono was in?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_End_(1973_album)#Background_and_recording

World Standard

going through big Hosono kick right now, and just discovered this band. I kind of can't believe I like it, but this first record is really nice

their 3rd record (confusing called "world standard 2") is even better - on hosono's FOA label & also produced by him. 2nd record "allo" lacks hosono involvement and is kind of a outliner in their catalog (as there's not much of the minimalist francophile vibes / overt nina rota references / etc) but there's a couple really amazing abstracted pop songs. also the everything play albums (which was another alias sohichiro suzuki used) are worth checking out - especially "posh" from '91...

suzuki can at times come off a little precious or maudlin but there's a certain kind of precision in his approach (very japanese, of course) that i can always appreciate. the inverted gaze of his pan-culturalism (itself present in a bunch of hosono's work as well) is also quite fascinating

pacific is so relaxing atm

this blog has a post on (with download link) music hosono did for the housewares brand muji in the early 80s -- it sounds most like mercuric dance but the tracks are more longform and minimalistic. had no idea this even existed.

http://glob.daniel-letson.com/posts/haruomi-hosono-watering-a-flower/

yes! also featured on the first muji bgm disc:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUJI_BGM1980-2000

so beautiful & so addictive. I listen to this almost every day. it's a part of my life's routine at this point, making coffee, feeding my cats, listening to hosono's bgm.

ps the 'found muji' store in shibuya plays this stuff on loop!

Heaven is Hosono's first Muji BGM track on infinite loop.

this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW6XDU96KI0

excellent revive, this is great!

Yup, that's the one. *chills down the spine*

<3

Fantastic.

(Is that a Juno 60 we're here?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN7UE4uGIwE

This didn't seem to be on Youtube so I ripped it from vinyl and stuck it up there. I really like this micro-edit era of his work, shame there's not a little more of it out there.

superb.
hey, it's got the John McLaughlin opening guitar note sample from 'Miles Runs the Voodoo Down' that Jon Hassell used too (on 'Mati' from 'Dressing for Pleasure')!

Happy Birthday!!! (well for yesterday, gomenasai)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_93SrREKkE

New album out in Japan this week, and sound samples up here: http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/hosono/

Still in his folk/lounge phase, but sounds great...

I kinda love that he's going back to the start of his career, in a way. I'm assuming these are mostly covers, correct?

mentioned this in the vaporwave thread but Internet Club's Vanishing Vision album has a very distinct and deliberate Hosono vibe - this track feels like it could have been directly lifted from Coincidental Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26vJlGSUDnU&feature=youtu.be&t=15m53s

it was probably directly lifted from Shenmue

hah, right...maybe not the guy himself but whatever he lifted it from

New album is two discs - covers on disc 1, originals on disc 2 (including I think some reworkings of earlier Hosono songs?).

I love how is approaches this period of American music from an almost anthropological perspective - far from just assuming it's the default mode of rock and roll and replicating it, he treats it to the same kind of ethnographic/exotic study as, say, Hassell was doing with non-Western music.

* how HE approaches

huh I never thought of it that way

after some research it looks like the songs on Disc 2 span from 84 to the present day, though much of it re-recorded.

Of all the places where I expected to see an English-language review of the new album, the Economist homepage was not one of them.
https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/12/story-synthesiser

whoever wrote that is a real hero

Crapped my pants today, Harry is playing his first ever gig in the UK in June, public tickets on sale tomorrow.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/light-in-the-attic-haruomi-hosono-acetone

Noticed that in my email box today.

any idea what he's playing these days? "material across his career" is kind of a funny thing to say about Hosono...imagine saying that about Brian Eno

Dunno, but gawd, what a wellspring to draw from.

If he even plays Kaze Wo Atsumete, I'd lose my mind. Pleocene and I'd die altogether.

oooh! thanks for the heads up. just need to find a pal who likes him enough to accompmany me now.

Booked! Can't quite believe this...

i sprung for this too! :D

it's a shame it's a bit of a weird combination of acts though. not that i dislike acetone but i can't really see any connection to hosono other than the record label

wait, i typed the above without really thinking through what i was saying (just for a change)

hosono is on LITA's 'Even A Tree Can Shed Tears' comp, but that's it. wonder if we can read anything more into him appearing at a LITA night? they did say there were "dozens of releases" due in their japan archival series after all:

http://blog.lightintheattic.net/introducing-our-japan-archival-series/

jealous of you guys

I almost pulled the trigger on flying to San Fran for that one-off YMO reunion show

any idea what he's playing these days? "material across his career" is kind of a funny thing to say about Hosono...imagine saying that about Brian Eno

I'd be really surprised if he does anything electronic. in his RBMA academy interview from a few years ago, he spoke of his more recent 'boogie woogie' style in a way that made it sound something like the culmination of a life's work. like it took him a long time to arrive there & he seemed to be really comfortable & happy making music in this style. so, maybe covers in this mode?

unfortunately, I have little interest in this music myself. I heard what sounded like his new album in a record store a few months ago and it seemed to confirm that this music is not for me. hard to complain when someone has touched so much that I love already tho.

anyway, don't wanna be a debbie downer! I'd absolutely go in a heartbeat if the show were closer!

hes got to be one of the only artists whose musical output ventures from 15 years ahead of its time to 80 years behind

I've only heard Hosonova of his most recent stuff. Its fairly pleasant and has a couple really great tracks on it. But yeah, I don't think I'll be listening to it much.

An affordable reissue of Paraiso would be most welcome, I'm all for anything that helps that along

LITA putting Haruomi on the cover of their magazine:
https://instagram.com/p/BhxCfILl6kR/

They’ve gotta be up to something right? The Hosono article is a piece by Van Dyke Parks btw and apparently the zine is free at selected indie records shops, but you can read some of it on that insta post in the meantime

As suspected, IT'S ON.

https://lightintheattic.net/artists/2475-haruomi-hosono

I think this might be Omni Sight Seeing's first time on vinyl? I'll be getting that & Paraiso. I've got an original pressing of Philharmony, and the recent Japan-only vinyl reissues of Cochin Moon and Hosono House. But fantastic to see these records back out there.

very cool! im going to have to pick up Philharmony, i almost pulled the gun on an original release of that a few times. ended up getting (and loving) "Pacific".

also that label as a nice selection of stuff! i want to get Lee Hazlewood's "A Cowboy in Sweden" but apparently it's sold out.

tempted to get the 3xLP bundle (Paraiso, Philharmony, and Omni)!

Philharmony also has, of course, one of the very best covers of all time.

check the high res version here, along with lots of other cool hosono-relevant pics: http://lightintheattic.net/artist_press_images/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&artist_id=2475-haruomi-hosono

Fantastic news!