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! 

Jun Togawa (戸川 純) - "Suki Suki Daisuki (好き好き大好き) Vinyl, LP, Album, Japan, 1985 (HYS)

Without a doubt one of the great albums from the 1980s, and a work that is still as fresh as the first day of spring.  For one, the production does yell out the 1980s, but like Sun Records is from the 1950s, this is almost a militant version of that era.  Jun Togawa is a vocalist that is very difficult to explain because she is a rare artist that goes beyond her limitations of the pop (Japanese) world.  Most Japanese pop music exists to please, but there is something dark and disturbing about the Togawa sound, which is hyper-emotive and one feels traces of Bi-polar expressions within its groove.  

One thing that is very noticeable is that a Jun Togawa recording is very unique.  There is nothing like it in this world.  To make comparisons is always a fun sport, but I'm not sure if comparing her to other artists would be accurate.  Saying that "Suki Suki Daisuki" has traces of French Yé-Yé sound, but updated to the 80s, and she does cover Serge Gainsbourg's  "Comment te dire adieu," yet it sounds very much like her own material.   The song is sung in Japanese, and I'm not sure if it's just translated lyrics from French to Japanese, or she may have written her own words to the song.  The sound is more Togawa than Gainsbourg, yet respectful of the original melody/song.  

She also does a beautiful, but a bizarre cover of "Angel Baby" the great Rock n' Roll ballad of the 1950s originally recorded by Rosie and the Originals.  The original version is a fantastic time-piece of out-of-this-world pop, and Togawa does this song in English, that reminds me of Yoko Ono if she did a cover of this song.  I'm not saying that due that they are both Japanese women, but their voices have a similar vocal range.  Togawa can go for the lower notes to the highest, and she is an amazing singer. In the nutshell, I think of her work as a combination of Sparks, Yoko Ono, French Yé-Yé with a touch of Kate Bush ambition.   I know that both John Zorn and Jim O'Rourke think of her work highly, and it's a shame that she is not better known in the West.  Then again, I suspect that she could care less about the music market outside of Japan.  Truly a unique music artist.  Also, she did the design work for this album, and it's a great package. 

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Jun Togawa (戸川純) - 極東慰安唱歌 Vinyl, LP, Album, 45 rpm, Japan, 1985 (Yen Records)

I first discovered Jun Togawa in the small town of Moji-Ku on the big island of Kyushu in Japan.  I was living there for the entire four-seasons, and I came across her albums with the help of my wife Lun*na Menoh.   With a great deal of cultural guilt, I never took on the Japanese pop music scene in Japan in a big way.  I greatly admired Hosono Harumi and other members of YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) but a lot of it sounded flat to me due to the production standards of record production of the 1980s. Very digital, and it struck me that Japanese pop music was very much like Kabuki theater where everything is laid out on the stage in an equal manner.   My eyes didn't focus on one character or actor, but I look at the stage as if it was a giant poster.  My eyes kept moving around, and I feel the same with Japanese pop music of the 1980s.   Jun Togawa was different from the rest of the Showa era entertainers or artists.  Listening to her work I got a huge painting, but I can focus on parts of that aural painting due to its clarity and at the same time, it's eccentricity. 

 極東慰安唱歌 is a superb Togawa album or should say, The Jun Togawa Unit, which is the official artist listing for this project.   Here she makes music with Yoichiro Yoshikawa, Takago Higae,  and uses traditional Okinawa music as well as the composer Giacomo Puccini and the great Haruomi Hosono.  The first impression is that this is very much a techno-pop music but with touches of the old (Puccini and Okinawaian music), but the glue that holds all of this is Togawa's magnificent vocal talents.  She's a great singer.   

On one level she reminds me a bit of Kate Bush, but totally not British and very Japanese.  I once read or heard a Togawa quote that she knew nothing of Western music except for classical and Prince.  I believe her.   There are traces of psychedelic pop in her method and sound.  Listening and collecting Togawa is for sure falling into the rabbit's hole, and how one can crawl out of that space is very questionable.  Still, her recordings are consistently being reissued on the CD format, as well as in various compilations.  It's worth the adventure to check her music out.  She's great.   

Guernica - 電離層からの眼差し CD, album, Japan (Teichiku Records)

In my year-long exile (1989) in Japan, I discovered this remarkable CD I think at the Wave music store in Roppongi.   I was immediately intrigued by the graphics on this CD, and thought to myself, how can this possibly go wrong?    It's a masterpiece. 

Guernica is a musical project with music by Koji Ueno, lyrics by Keiichi Ohta, and most remarkable of them all - Jun Togawa singer.  She is like every great new wave singer from the 1980s rolled into one body or mouth.     The music is highly orchestrated with real strings, horns, and it's so retro that it's basically an avant-garde pop album.  The album even has tap dancing, which I think is real.  The roots go back to the 1930s, with a touch of Busby Berkeley.  Togawa's vocals are operatic, to small Judy Garland "Wizard of Oz" era vocals to the vocal range of someone like Yma Sumac.  

This is not easy listening music.  It's very much in your face and totally doesn't take any prisoners.  The closest thing I can think of is "Song Cycle" by Van Dyke Parks.   It's a militant aesthetic that looks toward the past but to make something totally new.   This album is totally unique.   Hard to find, even in Japan, but worth the hunt.   I strongly recommend this album to anyone who is interested in orchestrated pop, baroque pop, and experimental music.