Haruomi Hosono & Tadanori Yokoo - "Cochin Moon" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 1978/2018 (Light in the Attic)

In the same manner, as the importance of someone like Brian Eno, Van Dyke Parks, and Martin Denny are to the English speaking world, concerning exposing various 'foreign cultures,' the same can be said for Japan's Haruomi Hosono. He's like a combination of all three above.   Also a pioneer in the electronic music pop world as well. Once was (or is?) a member of The Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), who are considered to be in a certain sense The Kraftwerk of Japan. Nevertheless, Hosono is a unique figure in Japanese contemporary music. He is very much a music historian, as well as an artist who can blend various styles that become a Hosono stance.

"Cochin Moon" is an album he made with artist/illustrator Tadanori Yokoo, and it's an exotica electro-impressionistic tour of India. It's like Kraftwerk's "Autobahn," but on a culture that is foreign to both Hosono and Yokoo. The thing with Hosono he is also knowledgeable about Japanese music and its culture. It lurks around whenever he makes music, and there is a cultural 'pun' at work when he approaches music from the West, knowing quite well it's 'exotica' to him. That's one of the beautiful things about his entire catalog that it's an artist's approach at looking at the world around him - in images, imagination, in other words, an illusion.

Yokoo is the executive producer, and I suspect that it was his idea to do this album based on a trip to India that they took in the mid-1970s. Still, beyond that, it's all Hosono. Both got physically ill in India, which influences this album. The last track is "Madam Consul General of Madras," which, as legend has it, served Hosono and Yokoo some Japanese food, and therefore they were healed from what was illing them.  There are touches of Indian music on the album, but it's electronic that flows consistently — an iconic electro album.

Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band - "Paraiso" LP, Vinyl, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, 2018/1978 (Light in the Attic)

Haruomi Hosono, is without a doubt, one of the most important musicians/record maker in Japan.  If I have to make a comparison with a Westerner, Van Dyke Parks comes to mind.  Hosono is a producer, songwriter, founding member of YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) and very much a music historian.  Of course, there are other figures in Japanese pop music that are important, but Hosono is unique in that he has a perspective that is very much Japanese but also has an understanding about music from other cultures. Also, to note, he knows about outside music that influenced Japanese taste and contemporary culture.  In that sense, he's like Parks in that he knows his history and how to use it or comment on current culture by going back into the past and bringing back music, but in a different way or arrangement. 

To dwell into Hosono's world is difficult just due to the range of music he made in his career.  He went from traditional Japanese pop music to Hawaiian to rock to electro-pop, and ambient.   The unique aspect of Hosono is that each style he investigates he does so with expert knowledge and an organic manner in appreciating the different types of music. It doesn't seem to be on a 'fashionable' or surface level, but a deep appreciation of how music has traveled around the world.  It's interesting to note that Hosono uses the name Harry for these 'exotica' recordings. 

"Paraiso" is a fascinating album that bridges his interest in tropical/exotica music but entering into the electronic world by baby-steps.  Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi make their first appearance here with Hosono before they formed YMO.  So, the album is very much a journey, and it's not the destination that's important but the travel itself.  'Asatoya Yunta" is a traditional Okinawa song, but he also rips into "Fujiyama Mama," an American rockabilly song, which some may think is in rather bad taste, with respect to the bomb.  Nevertheless, with humor and wit, Hosono makes his own planet of music that connects from dot to dot.  A beautiful reissue from Light in the Attic, with a great interview in English with Hosono as an additional plus to the whole package. 

The Byrds - "Fifth Dimension" Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, 1966 (Columbia)

The Byrds are a classic band that had a busy and successful career.  From 1965 to 1967 at the very least the David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Jim (Roger) McGuinn and Gene Clark years were the prominent landscape of their classic sound, which in a nutshell would be their harmonies, Jim's 12-string electric guitar, and a relationship between folk and psychedelic music.  On paper, it sounds perfect to me, but in actuality, I have always had a problem with The Byrds. 

I liked them, but compared to my friends for the last few decades or so, who see them perhaps as the most important band, I, on the other hand, found them conventional.  As a young teenager, I bought their albums up to "Younger Than Yesterday," but when they turned to country on the next album, "Sweethearts of Rodeo," I couldn't deal with that identity nor sound.  But even before "Sweethearts" there is something about their overall sound that was pleasing, but not fitting in as a band, or a singular identity, and that I have always found troubling.  I recently purchased an original mono copy of "Fifth Dimension," which was my favorite Byrds album as a young tot, and I still remember playing this album over and over again in my bedroom on a very cheap and portable turntable.  The density of McGinn's great 12-string electric guitar freak-outs in the midst of Crosby and others perfect harmonies or folk-related ballads was an interesting relationship between noise/chaos and rigid pop/folk melodies.   I have thought that McGuinn was going one direction and the rest of the band to another part of the world.  Even though Crosby's songwriting had an Eastern drone, it was never as fascinating as The Beatles experimental approach to the drone, or of course, the music being made by John Cale, Tony Conrad in New York City around that time. 

Still, the one song that is a massive standout on "Fifth Dimension" is "Eight Miles High." A work of beautiful perfection that is either a fearful look at flying or a narcotic reaction - but for me, it works as a musical version of a phobia for being in a metal machine in the sky.  The opening cut on side one is "5D (Fith Dimension)" with Van Dyke Parks on organ, is a great swell of sounds, with a wonderful McGuinn vocal.  The rest is enjoyable filler.  Like a lot of bands during that period, they also do a version of "Hey Joe" which is lame compared to The Leaves, Love, and the brilliant Jimi Hendrix version that will come out later either that year 1966 or in 1967.  

I understand the importance and stance of The Byrds, and why they are so beloved by their fans, but for me, they never went far enough with their sound.  Los Angeles had a fantastic run of great music/bands at this time, and when you compare The Byrds to either Buffalo Springfield or the great Love, they come off as weak and an afterthought.  Still, I find some pleasure in their rubble. 

Keiichi Ohta and Koji Ueno - "Jingai Daimakyo" Vinyl, LP, Album, Japan, 1983 (Yen)

Japan has a dark history, and the pre-war years of Tokyo was an exciting time of politics, but also a great period for then-contemporary literature, visual art, and various movements that were taking place.  Some inspired by the West, but still rooted in Japanese aesthetic.  In the 1980s various members of the underground Japanese pop world were obsessed with the 1920s/1930s such as the band Guernica, Koji Ueno, and the great vocalist Jun Togawa.  "Jingai Daimakyo" (the savage terrifying places) is a separate solo album by Ueno along with lyricist/visual artist Keiichi Ohta, based on the writings of mystery/horror writer Oguri Mushitaro (1901-1946). 

"Jingai Daimakyo" is very much a Guernica album but without the vocal talents of Togawa.  Each song has a different vocalist, and the most noted singer on this album is Haroumi Hosono, who at the time was a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and he and fellow YMO member Yukihiro Takahashi ran the Yen record label.    Ohta, the lyricist as well as producer for this album is a noted artist/illustrator in Japan, and his work captures the sexuality/violence of the pre-war mentality.  Retro to the extreme, both Ueno and Ohta make music and images that are unique, and could only come from Japanese pop culture.  

The album is a small masterpiece because it captures a passionate part of history, and convey it to an aural assault of the senses.   Ueno's music is very much in the manner of 20th-century music history. In a fashion, this album reminds me of Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle" album, if one needs a reference to their aesthetic.   Not an easy album to find, especially outside of Japan. Still, one can locate the album on YouTube. Happy hunting! 

Brian Wilson - "Presents Smile" CD, Album, U.S. 2004 (Nonesuch)

Such an articulate and well-thought album, and incredibly up to the title "Smile," yet the original recording by The Beach Boys was one of complete misery.  The saddest Beach Boy had to dig in a profound psychotic state to produce this masterpiece.  The irony is that this is one of the great 'sunny' albums ever made.  Once over that cultural shock, one is amazed that Brian and company decided to do a re-recorded version of what once thought was a lost masterpiece.  But nothing is lost, and now we have two separate albums.  One is the re-discovered Beach Boys recording and of course, the Brian Wilson re-did version of 2004.   The Beach Boys version in another post.  

Wilson and his co-pilot for this project (and long time band member) Darian Sahanaja did a remarkable job in bringing this album back from the darkness.   Almost a clinical study in how to bring up something dead to life.  Lazarus indeed!   The album touches on exotica but also American theater music.  It reminds me at times of Aaron Copeland's orchestral scores.   The vastness of America on one album.   The album is eccentric in that it paints a big picture of what things should be, and I think the sadness that comes with the album is knowing the story behind it, but alas, an imaginary landscape.  

For those who know the Beach Boys' "Smiley Smile" or the singles "Heroes and Villians" "Surf's Up," and "Good Vibrations" is re-hearing these classics in their rightful place and time.  It's like getting a sketch, but now we have the whole painting.   Everything fits well.   Van Dyke Parks' lyrics are incredible, and it's amazing that he jumped on the Brian Wilson train to fulfill this adventure.   "Smile" as I listen to it, seems like an old-fashioned musical.  There is nothing really avant-garde about it, yet, it is very much a modern work.   Also, it doesn't compare to any other works out there. It's very original in its scope and sound.   A toe tapper! 

The Beach Boys - "Smile Sessions" 2 x vinyl LP

The Beach Boys – Smile Sessions

2 x vinyl LP 180 Gram, 2011

Capital Records

For an album that caused so much anxiety, madness, and a world being torn apart, is ironically so happy sounding. I would even call it happy-go-lucky. But the truth is it is anything but happy – at least life outside this vinyl or music. But when I put the needle on the record I am transformed into a weird landscape that is for sure America, but America that is transformed into a combination of Walt Disney, psychedelia, and the brash corny humor of “Hee Haw.”

This vinyl set as well as the Smile box set is the official release of this remarkable album. First of all it is hard to grasp all of this after so many years of hearing the bootlegs of these recordings. I have heard so many different versions of this work, that it is sort of like Kenneth Anger, who have consistently tinkered with his films over the years. But what's amazing is that the different mixes, the out-takes, and even the banter while recording the album is equally fascinating. The only people I know who likes Smile are people who have all the bootlegs or just huge fans of Brian Wilson and the boys.

Nevertheless the new (and final?) version is sort of a musical theater placed in one's head. Way more abstract than Pet Sounds which is basically straight forward pop songs, Smile deals with the enjoyment and love of everyday objects and things. “Wind Chimes,” “Vega-Tables,” and even “Good Vibrations” deal with pleasure either through objects, food or spirituality. The lyricist Van Dyke Parks really gets into Brian's head. I know on paper and probably work wise, Parks was a big part of the foundation for these series of songs. But still, I feel it expresses the inner-world of Wilson, a man-child tasting the vegetable for the first time and listening to the wind chimes – and putting on a focus on that act of appreciation. Its really unique in that sense.

Also there is this tension between being healthy and sort of losing it. Almost a hyper attention to getting it together, but of course the sanity of it all is in question. Smile to me is not a downer, but it does expose the dark tinge of disappointment or UN-fulfillment of dreams. But every dark cloud still has that hope attached to it, and Smile is very much a positive outlook on life and how one leads that life.

Smile is very much a set-piece and it has its own narrative, so it's important to hear it from beginning to end. The ambition and scope of this album is pretty grand, and I miss the days when artists went all out to achieve that type of work.    

Arthur Lyman - "Taboo" CD Album, Reissue, Remastered

Arthur Lyman – Taboo

CD Album, Reissue, Remastered, 1996

Rykodisc

Two ways one can listen to artists like Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, and 'exotica' recording artists. One, is to fall under the seduction of its imagery and the whole bachelor-space-pad movement thing with all the cocktails and sweet n' sour food attached to that imagery. The other is to take this music as the roots of avant-pop, or serious composition. Without the “Exotica” genre we wouldn't have certain musicians such as Brian Eno, Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, and some would argue Throbbing Gristle. Nevertheless this album is sort of ground zero for that movement with the surgery morning headaches.

Taboo conveys a paradise, but is it natural or man-made. The technology of stereo recordings plus the nature sounds adds up to a world that is blissful, till of course a natural disaster hits. But here we can forget the worry of that as well as any financial anxiety. I imagine that there must have been a ton of stressed-out Americans freaking out about the 1958-era cold-war, and the rise of the consumer class – here is a world that was perfectly painted for the listener. One didn't have to leave the house for this holiday. And on top of that one gets great music. Arthur Lyman (who also played with Martin Denny) is an artist of taste and it is like taking a dip into the bright blue water. But be careful of getting a cramp in the water where you may drawn facing the blue skies of Hawaii.