The Human League - "Reproduction" Vinyl, LP, UK, 1979 (Virgin)

If J.G. Ballard had a soundtrack to his novels, it would more likely be the early edition of The Human League.   If Kraftwerk represented a "Germany" that is both realistic and what we think as German, then surely the League is British in that same fashion.  Very electronic and minimal with respect to their arrangements, it is basically synths, and Philip Oakey's always distant, yet heartfelt singing.  It's music that is very much part of the Industrial English cities landscape, but with insight into the future or a sense of dread that things are not that hot.  It does have a relationship with glam rock, but almost a scholarly view of that music from the recent past.   Its roots are Gary Glitter, but as listened to by someone in the future who is looking back to a much more cynical point than their present time.  Which is shit.  But when you have nothing, great things can happen upon you.

"Circus of Death" makes reference to "Hawaii 5-0" and its exotic culture via an American TV show is redefined by Oakey and company.   There is no fear of technology of what the future will bring, because The Human League looks back at old culture junk, and somehow make it all new again.  This is the sound of four guys in a group, or collective, that are commenting and reshaping their world.  Listening to their music you can feel the English damp weather, and their electro-glam sound is hypnotic with catchy beats and sublime melodies.  "Empire State Human" is a masterpiece.  And their version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" feels just right in their hands.  Ian Marsh, Martyn Ware (future Heaven 17), Philip Adrian Wright (responsible for their slides & film, and yet, a full-time member of The Human League) and of course, Oakey served a bleak, cold world, but I could live there.

HARUOMI HOSONO - "Omni Sight Seeing" (Epic, CD, Japan)

In my first long stay in Japan, somewhere in 1989-1990, I purchased this CD, I think, at the music store THE WAVE.   The store was located in Roppongi part of Tokyo, and it was a six-story building filled with music and film DVD's.  It also had an art movie house in its basement.  The perfect home away from home for me.  A few laters I come back to the area and I was shocked to see the store gone - and not just the store, but the entire building as well.  It was just an empty hole in the place of the structure.  It's like a dentist pulling a tooth and just leaving the open wound for the world to view.   I'm just now, getting over the depression of losing such a store and building.  Nevertheless, Haruomi Hosono's album "Omni Sight Seeing" was one of the purchases I have made at THE WAVE.  Twenty-six years later, I'm still paying attention to this album, and when I do hear it, the horrid humid summer comes to mind, that was taking place that summer in Tokyo. 

But to focus on the album, it is very much a travel-log of sorts for Hosono.  It's going around the world with Hosono, or to be even more precise, Asia.   At the time, I never heard an album like this - it is various sorts of music and its history, but through the eyes and sounds of Hosono.  In the West, he's a famed member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), a band that I admire, but not love.  On the other hand, Hosono solo albums are always interesting. He's sort of the Ry Cooder of Japan - in that he's very much a historian of music and its various cultures.  But that is everything from techno-pop to Americana roots music. He works on a big canvas.  If I was to recommend one album for the new listener it would be "Omni Sight Seeing." 

There are traces of John Cage to Middle-Eastern melodies to Parisian tourism to techno to Duke Ellington on this album.  Hosono's version of Duke's "Caravan" is a solid delight.   Accordion, sax, and electronic keyboards is a very good mixture for this tune.   The whole album is very much a variety pack of goodies.  It's traveling without a passport or the fear of security.  The other highlight of the album is "Laugh-Gas," which has to be the ultimate 11 minute minimal techno cut.   Superb entertainment for all!