Haruomi Hosono

http://www.sonymusicshop.jp/smdr/sms/img/goods/L/KICS-1139.jpg

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.

when I hear the live takes on "Tong Poo" circa 1979 or so I think he could've made it as a fusion bassist

I think today might actually be the 33rd birthday of Medicine Compilation From the Quiet Lodge, if you're in a meditative mood. That record holds up beautifully. Hosono was very much at the forefront of electronic music still. It's such a fantastically produced album front to back, such an easy album to get enveloped in

Made myself another of those blind Hosono mixtapes, and been playing it a ton this week. I woud like to say it's weird that I can select several random Hosono songs, toss them into Audacity in a random order, and come out with something which sounds as full of forethought, and as carefully sequenced, and also -- bizarrely, you'd really think! -- as cohesive any record in his official discography. But then I remind myself that this is the man whose finest solo album is probably the geographically and generically restless Omni Sight Seeing. So: no surprise, really. And yet it's incredible.

I'm finally listening properly to Sketch Show. Audio Sponge was merely okay on first two listens, but now I'm listening for the third time and it sounds totally fantastic. YMO lives again!

It did take me a while to fully appreciate that one. I still think a song or two could've been trimmed in the middle. But it's got such a warm and welcoming sound to it, it's deconstructive but doesn't feel bare, I think in 2002 it must've totally felt like where electronic pop might be going but it just wasn't. Still like Loophole a lot more - I think I heard it pretty close to when it came out, thinking it was great but something that might not hold up. It really does though...again, glitch pop didn't really take off the way I thought it might, so records like this sound pretty unique still

Still like Loophole a lot more

This is kind of a crazy thought, because the more I listen to Audio Sponge, the more incredible it is. Imagining that Loophole may be even better is setting up all kinds of expectations that, knowing Hosono, will probably be not only met but surpassed.

Takahashi's fingerprints are all over those albums too, its really a shame they didn't make more albums. they really were magic together.

listening to Coincidental Music tonight...wish I could've seen the ad exec's face when they first heard "George Don". imagine, the process was probably "we want a jaunty electronic theme, lets get one of the YMO guys" and this is what they got back

listening to Coincidental Music tonight...wish I could've seen the ad exec's face when they first heard "George Don". imagine, the process was probably "we want a jaunty electronic theme, lets get one of the YMO guys" and this is what they got back

Hahaha! I imagine ten seconds of silence and then someone shuffling in their seat and saying, "But let's remember, Firecracker and Rydeen were huge hits. The hell do we know, right?"

I love Takahashi's charmingly unschooled "you think I'm not a crooner, but really I am" vocals of the YMO era, but he became SUCH a marvelous singer in the '90s and beyond!! The vocals on Audio Sponge alone are to die for! All those epic Takahashi leads... and these past couple of listens I've been realizing that Hosono is all over the back-up vox -- I barely noticed his voice the first few times, except on the two (is it two?) songs he takes lead on -- but he's pretty consistently there, it's just subtle. The mixing on this album is genius.

That Brian Wilson tribute song is insane! And now that I check Discogs, it's listed a sole Takahashi credit. Same with Flying George, which is at least as good as the 1967 Beatles songs it's paying tribute to... and the cover songs, also insane: they pick songs that sound totally like the kinds of things they themselves would have written for a YMO-universe record in the early '80s.

Listening to Theme from a Summer Place and melting here...

Hello.

https://www.shy.center/p/lattice-200ec7

To quote Shy on Bluesky about this:

Hey, did you know Haruomi Hosono scored a soundtrack for an obscure rail shooter for the PlayStation? And that the audio is fully playable if you put the game disc in your CD player? Here's the story of a hidden gem by one third of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

whoa, I had no idea about this! what that article is missing is a link to the actual music, I found it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7P4XbyCH1M

clicking through it's pretty samey throughout, I can see why this was never re-released or anything, still pretty interesting if you wanna hear him do a hard driving sort of techno style. it's definitely Hosono, but it sounds like Hosono copping Ken Ishii's style. funny to hear him say "I don't remember making this" when reached for comment...he says the same about the Muji BGM stuff and the tracks from Pacific which have suddenly become popular...does he just go into some sort of trance when making music?

ha, I guess I can't be too mad about forgetting about this one if the big man himself even forgot about it (just went to poke around for a non-streaming copy and realized it was already in my library)

he's on a new Akiko Yano song, which feels Hosono influenced in a few ways...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJKshmjc0Is

cute

with Tatsuo Hayashi (of Hosono House, Tropical Dandy, Bon Voyage Co and Paraiso) drumming!!

caught a screening of evening primrose (1974) yesterday, loved it:
https://boxd.it/6U66

featuring an early (pre-ymo!) hosono score that really fit the goofy, lackadaisical taisho period feel. great stuff.

caught a screening of evening primrose (1974) yesterday, loved it:
https://boxd.it/6U66

featuring an early (pre-ymo!) hosono score that really fit the goofy, lackadaisical taisho period feel. great stuff.

so nice i had to post it twice

Whaaat, that sounds amazing.

yea had a blast with the movie. was expecting a “leftists on the run” movie but got “leftists moseying around and getting into funny situations” instead, which, no complaints, and it really worked with the boogie woogie hosono score

Someone on his official YT channel has uploaded the great Tin Pan Alley live footage - worth it alone for the funky, falling off the drum stool intro to Chouchou-san - sadly, it's not that much more improved than the other versions on YT, maybe the sound is better, but still worth a watch.

new album on 9/11!

https://pitchfork.com/news/haruomi-hosono-announces-new-album-yours-sincerely/

Oh hell yes!!!!

1. Note of Mothership

otm

Haruomi Hosono - Yours Sincerely
https://haruomihosono.bandcamp.com/album/yours-sincerely

Why thank you! Preordered.

finally got my hands on that Tropical Dandy reissue, its been such a long time since I've heard it, it sounds like such a hidden treasure

its also a crazy listen knowing the kind of music he'd be making 3 years later, and then 3 years after that. gotta be one of the weirdest career arcs ever

its also a crazy listen knowing the kind of music he'd be making 3 years later, and then 3 years after that. gotta be one of the weirdest career arcs ever

Absolutely. And three years earlier he'd been recording Happy End's third album, which sounds nothing like Tropical Dandy either. My mind gets blown every time I remember that only *six years* separated the last Happy End record from the first Yellow Magic Orchestra record.

I've been playing lots of HoSoNoVa and Flying Saucer 1947 since this new one got announced. They're both marvelous. Maybe the two most feel-good records in his discography.

Its real interesting, given how he'll likely be remembered as a guy who was on the bleeding edge of music for well over a decade, that he suddenly dedicated himself to replicating music from the year he was born. as if to say, "I've seen the future and it sucks"

Apparently he spent the '70s, '80s, and '90s certain that Nostradamus was right and that the world would end in 1999, and when it didn't, he felt he needed to "reset" -- which would put him at... 26 years old right now, just a young whippersnapper. If the London show last year is any indication, this new one (which is more than half originals -- and when it's covers, it's, like, Beethoven) could be pretty innaresting! The fact that he conquered his almost decade-old dread of making decisions about mixing is encouraging.

Harmonizing along with the Flying Saucer 1947 version of Sports Men is one of the supreme joys in life.

― TheNuNuNu, Sunday, August 3, 2025 3:10 PM (nine months ago) bookmark flag link

This continues to be true.