Haruomi Hosono

Amazing! Tokyo Rush too!

It's been really curious having these legendary old gentlemen, whom I admire so much, in our relative airspace for a few days, to me at least, they seem to exist in another plane the rest of the time. Seeing things like Takahashi wandering around London and Brighton via FB has been lovely.

indeed, a thrill to briefly exchange respiratory gases with them!

that 'house of blue lights' was fire btw, that's the one where the band took solos - a few bars of brilliant splashy fireworks from the drummer, the bass player forced to go deep when hosono pulled up a chair and sat and watched him work. good excuse to revisit this clip:

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

I love that clip, talk about someone who has figured out how to live.

kinda love how Keigo Oyamada has been palling around with these guys for over a decade now. that's one cool thing about Japan, it's such a small country geographically so all these people kinda know each other. I recognize some of those names upthread as having played with YT in a different group.

I've heard that there are some plans for YMO's 40th anniversary year, including perhaps a HH documentary. apparently some of the concertgoers were being interviewed outside the venue. couldn't buy that fast enough.

The Barbican gig was being filmed, very discreetly but there were notices saying so.

Happy 71st Birthday!

Lookit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QtNpj_n82o

Haha that's even shonkier than I remember it

Not sure which is the best thread to post this on as there's a few YMO ones to choose from. Anyway, I just listened to Parallelisme by Miharu Koshi for the first time and I am blown away. One of the best albums I've heard with a connection to the YMO family. My heart is breaking checking the prices for it on Discogs.

From time to time copies of the Dutch version surface at a less painful price. It's an incredible album; some of the synth sounds still sound like they come from the future. IMO, one of thee greatest techno pop albums of all time. "Tutu" is eternal too.

I'll keep an eye out for it. I bought Tutu a long time ago and really enjoyed it, but weirdly I never listened to any of her other albums until a few days ago.

I think Boy Soprano is the best of those. The version of Ave Maria gives me chills.

Just sold all my Koshi stuff on Discogs. I hope the person(s) who get them will appreciate how amazing those records are.

Her cover of "l'amour toujours" is one of my favorite tracks ever. Pretty sure the telex guys guest on it too!

Y'all probably know Good Morning Mr Echo, but the whole record is lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HcFuiHWZ4

Toop piece on Hosono:

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/david-toop-on-haruomi-hosono/

great interview. I don't think I've ever read one with him. he seems like a very thoughtful person, not that I would expect anything less. really looking forward to those vinyl reissues - there's not a whole lot of artists where I feel I *have* to own something on vinyl by them but Hosono is definitely one of them

Speaking of the Swing Slow album, anyone heard this '95 one-off by a group called LOVE, PEACE, & TRANCE? its a group consisting of Hosono, a member of dip in the pool, one from Wha-Ha-Ha, and another I haven't heard of. It sounds to me like Quiet Lodge, but with singing of course. It's very ethereal and otherworldly in a way that only Hosono can really pull off. The whole thing is worth listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQEX3E_VJQc

also I must point out that their visual aesthetic is the sort of thing that someone on the Orange Milk roster would kill for, these days. ahead of their time I guess ;)

love that record, it's so new age. I wish they did more!

the artwork has each member represented by "love," "peace," and so on. hosono is "&" lol

there's a red bull music academy video interview from a few years ago out there. it's def kinda awkward tho.

https://litapodcast.simplecast.fm/haruomi-hosono

LITA Podcast with a short interview with the man during his UK visit, it bothers me that one of the guys who is putting so much time and effort and money into reissuing his catalogue in the west hasn't yet taken two minutes to figure out how to say his name correctly.

When asked if he had any personal favourites from his back catalogue he replied Philharmony and Omni Sight Seeing, yes!

...it bothers me that one of the guys who is putting so much time and effort and money into reissuing his catalogue in the west hasn't yet taken two minutes to figure out how to say his name correctly.

Typical.

That's awesome he chose those two.

Looking forward to reading this piece by Andy B
https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3287

Not sure when this happened, but the Monad albums plus SFX and Nokto have just popped up on Spotify in the UK. As far as I can tell, they're not on any of the other streaming services, at least not outside Japan. Everyone in this thread probably has them, but thought it was worth noting!

Also, on the reissues, it looks like only Hosono House and Cochin Moon are getting released internationally. Paraiso, Philharmony and Omni-Sightseeing are all US only. Any leads as to where I can get Paraiso and Omni in the UK without paying eye-watering postage fees from the US most welcome!

Quick heads up - Juno have the US-only titles available in the UK. Nowhere else over here seems to yet!
https://www.juno.co.uk/labels/LITA

if only that had gone up the other day before i splurged $50 on vinyl of omni sight seeing from US!

as i type this the coffee shop i am in is playing swing slow!

actually, with current exchange rate it is probably more or less the same amount buying plus postage from juno. i'd have it much quicker though!

Loads more Hosono on Spotify in the UK this week. Naga, that Good Sport album (which I've never actually listened to), Archives vol 1: Beyond Good And Evil, along with Swing Slow, all the F.O.E. stuff, the HAT DSP Holiday album and the first two Sketch Show records. Someone's finally cottoned onto the fact that there's an international demand for this stuff.

hell yes, that's all good stuff

the sudden international popularity of Hosono is encouraging...I wonder what's contributing to that? or was it there all along?

I think it's a lot of trends intersecting. There's been a real slow-burn of interest in Japanese music from that period ever since Spencer Doran did his Fairlights/Mallets/Bamboo mixes at the start of the decade. I think it's reissue culture + Japanese pop culture being v on-trend at the minute + the vaporwave set all taking us to this point. (And the fact that that the music really holds up to scrutiny.)

hah, that could be. I remember an interview where Vektroid said that Ryuichi Sakamoto invented vaporwave on Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia and immediately checking r/vaporwave to see people posting YouTubes of that album like, "uhh guys, have you HEARD this?"

I have noticed a bunch of people messaging me on Slsk with a bunch of interest in groups like Moonriders or P-Model or Denki Groove. never really saw that 5-6 years ago. feels like the Cardiacs thing all over again. better late than never!!

Perhaps some of the renewed interest can be contributed to Light in the Attic, starting with their 'Even A Tree Can Shed Tears' comp? That one went down really well.

I love that quote about Vektroid! Vaporwave has to do with some of it for sure.

(the comp didn't include Hosono obv but it may have kickstarted the new reissues of Hosono House and Cochin Moon)

yea its kind of funny b/c the first time I heard that album I thought "oh it's like Weather Channel music, but it's actually pretty good". little did I know that would become an entire genre...

and of course Hosono is sort of a godfather to the whole Orange Milk vibe - something like Bataille Solaire or Giant Claw sounds like the sort of music Hosono would be making if he was born in say, 1986

To be honest my question would be more why it's taken so long - global digger culture has lead to plenty of career renaissances for far more obscure artists from around the globe, and Japanese pop culture has been wildly popular for decades.

Kanji is pretty much the answer to that question, I would venture.

I'm sure it contributes, though if you take a look at anime and video games fandoms ppl have become very adept at not considering that a stumbling block.

There's also a sort of obliviousness in Japan about international demand for Japanese music - I think it was one of the LITA dudes who talked about having to convince Japanese record execs that comps of Japanese music could sell at all.

Japan, like France, looks inward culturally, seeks to engage the outside world on its own terms, and its music has enough of an internal market that little need is felt to promote outward. If you want to get to know its culture, as an outsider, you will have to go to it yourself.

Anime and Gaming are hugely popular by comparison, with scores of people willing to back-translate or write detailed threads/articles about any technical or creative aspect of those spheres, there are next to no people writing in English about the history and nuances of Japanese music and what does exist is largely speculation (like Cope's book, which is bit of a joke)

Not being able to properly translate Kanji yet by automated means, pretty much precludes any occidental person from going from back over it's written history, unless they are prepared to pay or spend years learning it.

You're totally right about Japanese not believing or understanding that Westerners may appreciate their music, even Hosono kinda apologised from the Barbican stage before he sung a song in Japanese.

I once asked the guy behind the counter at Disk Union's bookstore if he knew of any books about Japanese Music in Eigo, he shook his head sadly and looked at me as if I was the biggest, sorriest nerd in the universe.

Is Quit Your Band by Ian Martin any good? I leafed through it in a Kinokuniya in Shibuya earlier this year and it seemed interesting but not in enough depth to be worth a purchase, but that was a quick impression from someone worried about how heavy a suitcase I'd have to bring back.

Ian is a really strong writer yeah, he has good taste, lives for the minutiae of the live house scene in Kichijoji and writes really well about Japanese music, you can get it on kindle I think.

i am pretty shocked that moonriders are as unknown as they are considering the tremendous love people (including people here!) have for the earthbound soundtrack.

Yeah definitely, or the Beatniks, or P-Model or a bunch of others.

my japanese teachers were mostly amused that i knew so much old japanese music but one of my professors introduced me to rc succession which was her favorite band back in the day and thought it was cool i was interested

https://pitchfork.com/news/mac-demarco-covers-haruomi-hosonos-honey-moon-listen/

i can't figure out what people love about Pacific. apart from the closing track, i just can't get into it at all. it's muzak lounge exotica, something that sounds interesting to me, conceptually. but in practice it sounds like generic background music for old advertisements? i keep re-listening to it every few months, thinking i'm missing a buried gem. i want to believe

I like it, but I'm sated with the mp3s I downloaded off slsk years ago, it's one of the two reissues I've decided I don't need to buy (House is the other). I also like muzak lounge exotica, and also Pat Metheny, so ymmv

On a more positive note, I had forgotten until listening earlier this week how utterly amazing Omni Sight Seeing is and I think it may replace Cochin Moon as my favorite. Always remembered it as "'Pleocene' and some other cool songs," but "Laugh-Gas," holy shit

I actually love all of Pacific except for the closing track which sounds like it should belong on the Austin Powers soundtrack. It took me a while but amidst the cheese there are some great songs on there... plus the musicianship is sublime. My wife still remains unconvinced however.

I really like his cover of "Caravan". I know this is a dumb cliché but his music really does sound wrong in all the right ways.

It's too bad his solo career effectively ended in '96. I mean hard to fault the dude for spending the last 20 years reconnecting with old friends and covering songs from his childhood but I can't help but wonder what would happen if he'd kept active and up to date the way the other YMO guys did.