Haruomi Hosono

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.

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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

apparently this is getting a reissue? never heard of this, apparently it's just a demo album but with songs written by a bunch of familiar names. Hosono produced it, apparently there are just a couple test pressings out there (one of which sold for 2 grand!)

https://www.discogs.com/release/9974042-Linda-Carriere-Haruomi-Hosono-Produced-%E7%B4%B0%E9%87%8E%E6%99%B4%E8%87%A3-%E8%A3%BD%E4%BD%9C-%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB

some of the tracks are available on YouTube, but not the Hosono-penned ones (unless I just can't find it). here's one...sounds great

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

oh, that's funny that this is getting a reissue. I listened to some of the stuff on YT a while ago and thought, "pretty cool, guess I'll never hear it all tho." guess again!

1977! That's the year of Our Connection, isn't it? -- for me, one of the peaks of Hosono's songwriting discography. I had no idea he'd done another five songs for someone else that year.