Haruomi Hosono

I'd highly recommend Hosono's Monad Box, a collection of three of his instrumental and ambient records from the early 80s. My favourite of the discs included is Coincidental Music, which is short pieces made for advertising and promotional films. Sort of electronic Satie. Rather more delicate and strange than Sakamoto's work of the period.

Hosono's best solo song album is S-F-X, a Fairlight-heavy opus from 1984. There's a clip of one track here. And here are some pictures of Hosono, who's now a bit fatter, plays in Sketch Show, and runs the Daisyworld label.

Unfortunately, getting any of this in the US is near impossible. the only other thing i've managed to track down (through dusty groove) was this bizarre early 80's record that he was apparently only partially involved with, which was a strange "top of the pops" sort of medley of about 15 60's-70's pop/disco standards and a few mediocre jazz-fusion originals.

'More delicate and strange' than early 80's Sakamoto is quite a teaser. Sakamoto's B-2 Unit and Esperanto are already fairly strange (if not delicate) records, but those were the odd ones out.

I agree with Momus--Miharu Koshi is one of the greatest, most underrated Japanese artists of the '80s. She evolved from an insiginifant pop idol in the late '70s to a completely original synth-pop artist. Since the late '80s she's become a bit too idiosyncratic for my tastes ('Chanson Solaire' from '95 is probably her best from that era), but her albums are still beautifuI and I have the highest respect for her. She's due for a new album soon. I think 'Boy Soprano' from '85 is her best album--a perfect combination of her early synth-pop work and later chanson stuff. Unfortunately, her stuff is very hard to find, even in Japan. Her albums pop up on ebay, but they're always quite expensive. 'Boy Soprano' is probably the easiest to find.

One of my favorite Hosono-related bands is Chakra. They put out only three albums in the early '80s, and Hosono produced their second. They're all utterly essential exotic pop albums. Makoto Yano (Akiko Yano's first husband) produced their first album. The singer, Mishio Ogawa, put out four solo albums too, and they're also essential (especially her s/t). The last three were just reissued a few weeks ago actually, and I had never heard them beforehand. So I'm excited about those...they're very good.

Now that I'm talking about Japanese synth-pop, I'll make a few more recommendations. I recently discovered Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki) and am completely in love. She started in the mid '70s, making more fusion-oriented pop albums, and then she teamed up with Ryuichi Sakamoto in the late '70s and started churning out one amazing pop album after the next. 'Adventure' (1981) is probably my favorite, but I have a lot that I've yet to hear!

Moon Riders are another of my favorites. They've been around since the '70s as well and, in my opinion, reached their peak in the early '80s with 'Mania Maniera' and 'Tokyo wa...'. They've spanned a lot of different style, but never put out a bad album.

Perhaps my favorite is Masami Tsuchiya's 'Rice Music' album (1982) and his follwing Ippu-Do album 'Night Mirage' (1983). Members of the band Japan assist on those two albums, as well as the fretless great Percy Jones. Bowie-esque vocals, experimental, angular guitar work (plus Bill Nelson doing his e-bow thing), completely out of control bass playing, steel drums, layers of synths, etc. Basically it's a hilariously awesome rhythm section with great songs too. I couldn't recommend these two albums more. It's too bad that 'Night Mirage' was never released on CD and 'Rice Music' is impossible to find on CD.....

Oh, and P-Model is another synth-pop great.

http://park10.wakwak.com/~techno/

http://www.artcontext.com/music/artskool/jem

That second one appears to be currently down for some reason....

I love Wha-ha-ha

Also, apparently Mishio was in Killing Time, so I need to check her out.

Yes, I've been looking for Killing Time for a long time. Please let me know if you get a hold of their stuff.

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.

unless you wanna get really tenuous - the producer of In a Model Room was the keyboard player for Plastics, which later splintered into Melon, who did an album with Snakeman Show, which appeared on Xoo Multiplies

what have I been doing with my life

I remember a question on some message board about who would be the "Kevin Bacon" in the music biz, the one person you could connect to virtually any artist via a few steps...my answer was Ryuichi Sakamoto

i always thought this might be brian eno. in sakamoto's case it would be

eno ----> bowie <---- sakamoto

A couple of years back some friends and myself made a little internet radio show of Japanese Music for a little internet station for a few years

The interview you did with Chris Mosdell (YMO lyricist) was most revealing iirc.

I'm the dummy here probably but I need to ask: what show was it?!

Matt it was Peter Barakan! I should have tracked down Mosdell too actually

Not at all LBI, it's all here - https://www.mixcloud.com/japanalternativesessions/

Oh yeah sorry, anyway I enjoyed his YMO-arguing-in-the-studio stories very much!

Thanks MaresNest, that looks amazing! I've got 69 episodes to enjoy :)

Ah, yr welcome, if there's anything in there you like but have trouble tracking down hmu.

Not sure if this has been mentioned previously, but Hosono still has a weekly radio show called Daisy Holiday every Sunday on Tokyo's InterFM. It's quite chatty (not so good for non-Japanese speakers like me) but it's pretty cheerful.

I've finally managed to jump through the various VPN hoops needed to stream Japanese radio outside Japan (most of the big stations stream through one site, Radiko, which is locked down unbelievably strongly) and have started recorded episodes and putting them into a Google Drive folder. I'm also recording Towa Tei's show on J-Wave, and will be recording Sakamoto's bi-monthly show there too.

If anyone wants access, send me an email through the board and I'll add you to the folder.

Also, would it be worth starting a new thread specifically for reissues of Japanese records and compilations? There's been a ton of them in the last year or so, with a load more on the way...

daisy holiday playlists

Oh fantastic, thanks for this!

Also, would it be worth starting a new thread specifically for reissues of Japanese records and compilations? There's been a ton of them in the last year or so, with a load more on the way...

― bamboohouses

Seems warranted. RA have been repping yet another J-reissue today: Yutaka Hirose's "ambient cult classic", Soundscape 2: Nova

I'd be up for a Japanese reissue thread!

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywyx9x/haruomi-hosono-interview-hochono-house?utM_source=noiseyfbus&fbclid=IwAR2nE789niYK0st5S5kZEQEwIyv4VFowTWSj2HvRfDXkkHs357XtsQPBQoI

Are you still interested in experimenting with new technology? It does seem like this new album manages to inject these old-fashioned songs with a more modern edge.
Yeah, there are all kinds of things I want to do. With boogie-woogie now, I've been doing it for about 10 years. But I want to do something new again now, and I'm currently lining up the equipment for it.

Looking back on all the different kinds of music you’ve worked on over the years, what do you think you’re the most proud of?
Let's see, among my solo albums, I like Philharmony and omni Sight Seeing, and...let's see…I forgot the rest [laughs]. I've done too many things. I've been doing this for 50 years, so I don't think about my own work that much.

"doing something new again" is a pretty exciting phrase isn't it

Very exciting indeed!!

Thirded! Nice interview, he comes across as such a sweet man.

I clicked through on the YT link for 'Pacific' in that interview, and it's got more than 1m views! That's quite a lot isn't it? How did that one get to these numbers? (Philharmony is at 390.000-ish, Omni not even 200.000)

Japanese views, I guess, they were huge weren't they?

Well, yeah :) Suppose it's probably just that, was wondering it it had been used for something or other.

Sorry yeah, stating the obvious really :) I'd bet there are millions of middle-aged, natsukashii salarymen for whom YMO and its components are still completely beloved.

Pacific has 1100+ ratings on RYM, far more than any other album he was involved with. I think its sort of a "Plastic Love" situation (one comment even calls it "YouTube-core").

I'm surprised that Pacific wasn't one of the albums that Light In The Attic chose to reissue last year. It does seem to be his most well known album.

well, its a split LP - Hosono only wrote 3 tracks for it. from the interview:

I have no recollection of it [laughs]. It was an album project by Sony that gathered a bunch of different people—I was only called in to do it. But I've never listened to it much after making it.

I really hope LITA gets around to reissuing Tropical Dandy, imo the best of his exotica-era records.

I prefer Bon Voyage Co., if only for the ending of "Tokyo Shyness Boy" - Hosono's scat singing is one of the most (unintentionally?) hilarious things I've ever heard on an LP

https://youtu.be/F4bQLRO7WF4?t=1m50s

https://i.imgur.com/HOYCUSG.jpg

finally got my hands on this guy

they must've remastered it. it's louder and crisper. sounds great on the hi-fi. cranked it up and let the synth craziness on the title track rattle the walls...totally worth the most-I've-ever-paid-for-an-LP price

beautiful cover too

72 years old today

I uh "celebrated" by getting the second disc of the Nokto de la Galaskia Fervojo soundtrack on Japan iTunes. mostly remixes of the first disc but whatever, I love it anyway

Is it weird I prefer Hochono House to Hosono House?

nah, that was kind of the point of him making it

I do too

Alternative 3 is quite something isn't it. This guy!

The main theme of Nokto de la Galaskia Fervojo is so wonderful.

the whole album makes me feel like I got left on the moon or something. there are more moments on it that give me chills than any other album I can think of.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/b1/ab/d5b1abde40634df42380ca11f93a154f.jpg

Happy birthday, Mr. Hosono!

How are those remixes frogbs?

I thought the second CD was more cues and variations on the title, no?

I do love the Pleocene adapted theme too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdybb52ejd8

caught one of the NYC shows a month or two ago. I'm not a huge fan of the boogie woogie stuff, but I must say, he really sold it live. total pros, great vibe. and akiko yano came out for one of the encores! that ruled.

second disc is basically alternate versions of most of the album's themes - faster tempos, different instruments, stuff like that. one of them is a take on "Birdoj" from Endless Talking which confirms my suspicion that it was written for the soundtrack. the last 4 tracks are previously unheard compositions I think, one of which has a choir. last track is sort of a disco thing, it's hilariously weird

you can get Cochin Moon on LP for the relatively low price of $22 + shipping, this thing will probably sound incredible on my hi-fi

all I need is Omni Sight Seeing now and I'll be happy

Just picked up the Seaside Lovers album which was mentioned on here a couple of months ago. Such a gorgeous sound.

I've been going back to the Pacific Breeze compilation a lot. My only (very old school) complaint is that it doesn't come with a download code. I'd like to have it on my iTunes as that's still what I use when I'm out and about. Light In The Attic could have thrown one in as it's not like the record was exactly cheap!

If you love Seaside Lovers (which is perfect), do try and track down the whole series, there were six SIR albums (easy to find on youtube):

Sound Image Series:

[1978.06.21] Pacific
[1978.11.21] NEW YORK
[1979.06.01] the AEGEAN SEA (エーゲ海)
[1983.xx.xx] ISLAND MUSIC
[1983.xx.xx] OFF SHORE
[1983.05.21] SEASIDE LOVERS 〜 MEMORIES IN BEACH HOUSE

KM - have you heard The Endless Talking & Coincidental Music yet? it just occurred to me that anyone fascinated by the Muji in-store tape should check out both those albums immediately.

no, and no! i know nothing about them! if it's anything like the Muji tape, it would make for excellent working music. I will seek them out today.

I owe you $1 million bux for all YMO-related tips through the years, thank you

the cover of The Endless Talking looks like joan miro, nice

I have PayPal, you know

do you accept space bux?

title track on Endless Talking is what "Talking" was based on

Coincidental Music also has this take on it (different melody but still similar)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT3fFBe-SpE

that said it's "Memphis, Milano" which is probably my favorite here, which I think was also designed as shopping music

and yeah send me your space wallet code

There's going to be a documentary about Hosono called "No Smoking" to be released in Japan (I think) in November.
Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqD73BPJm7g&feature=youtu.be

No idea where/when/how we'll see this outside of Japan - if there's any chance it would surely be through Light In The Attic I guess, but unlike the Sakamoto doc a couple of years ago I guess his profile still isn't high enough outside of Japan for an international release?

Still haven't seen the Sakamoto doc or its companion "Live At The Armory"(? I think) film. Did they ever make it to home viewing/streaming in the US?