David Bowie - "Lady Stardust demo" b/w "Crystal Japan" Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Picture Disc , Japan, Limited Edition (Parlophone)

I bought this rarity at the right moment and time.  It was at the V&A "David Bowie Is" exhibition that took place in Tokyo in 2017.  I was like a child going to Disneyland for the first time. I was extremely excited to go to this exhibition to see or feel David Bowie, which was tragically taken away from us in this natural world.   The exhibition overall was fantastic, but the curating I felt could have been stronger.  The placement of the outfits I thought was wrong, and I hate the multi-media aspect of such an exhibition.  As I walked through the show, I kept a mental list of where I should place that item or costume in the exhibition.  But again, that was also part of the fun of such a show.  The gift shop, on the other hand, was a total joy, even though not everything was equal in its worthiness.  Still, I did purchase a picture disc 45 rpm single of a demo of "Lady Stardust" and an obscure instrumental that Bowie did during the "Low"/"Heroes" era, for a Japanese water or was it a sake commercial?  Nevertheless, a remarkable piece of music.  It could easily fit on side-two of the "Heroes" album.  Electronic in nature, but it had a slight Asian or Japanese approach to the melody as well.  

"Lady Stardust" is neither better or worse than the recorded version of the song on the Ziggy album.  It's just another layer of paint or texture one wants to bath themselves in the greatness of that song as well as sharing a few moments of worship on one's time. 

Pulp - "Different Class" Vinyl, LP, Album, 2011/1995 (Music on Vinyl/Island)

The perfect storm.  I was standing at the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, waiting for the walk sign where thousands are doing the same.  As I looked up, there was this video on the side of the building, and it was Pulp's "Common People."  I stood there and waited till the video was over.  At the time, and it may have been due to jet-lag, but I thought that this was the greatest video I have ever seen in my life time.  The year was 1995.  At that point (and still) whatever is happening in England, Tokyo will have all the recordings at Tower or at the local HMV music shop down the road from where I'm standing. I went to the Foreign music section, meaning English/American pop music, and found Pulp's "Different Class" at one of its many listening stations.  It was the only time in my life where I played the first to the last song, the whole album while standing up and with headphones on at a record store. 

I never heard such pop perfection!  It brought an emotional response from me, due that I pretty much gave up on contemporary pop music in the 1990s.  I was buying music, but it was the peak of the CD re-releases at that time, which means I was buying hard-to-find soundtracks or old Joe Meek recordings on CD.  And since I was in Japan, I was discovering new music to me - the charms of Jun Togawa.  But Pulp brought me back to the present with such force, that while I was in Tokyo, every day I would stop by and listen to the entire album in the listening section of the store.  Eventually, I did buy the British edition at HMV.   Looking through my collection, I have every CD single released from that album as well as a regular CD British release as well as a Japanese special release with an extra CD, full of remixes and b-sides. All excellent. 

What impressed me about Pulp was, of course, Jarvis Cocker, their lead singer, and lyricist. Jarvis at the time reminded me of a combination of Nöel Coward and Ray Davies.  Distantly, also Roxy Music.   One of the great frontmen of a band, Jarvis's take on the world was very focused on the fact that they came from Sheffield and with a strong literary bent he could sketch these incredible narratives about life around him.   In a fashion, he was very much in the tradition of John Osborne and other writers of the Kitchen Sink Realism school of literature.  Pulp although a band in 1995, very much reminded me of the aesthetics of 1966, with a foot in the world of Soho London and more likely specific locations in Sheffield.  

"Different Class" is 12 songs and not one is a loser.  Highly orchestrated in the sense that this is a real band behind Cocker.   Going back to Roxy Music, it seems to me that like Bryan Ferry, he's the architect, but he wouldn't have shit if not for the talented and visionary musicians in the band.  Mark Webber, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, and Steve Mackey play a vital role in the makeup that's Pulp.   Also having the great Chris Thomas as the producer is a super plus as well.  With that foundation in place, Jarvis Cocker can shine like the shining star.  All the songs are credited to the band, with lyrics by Cocker.  

"Common People" is the last great pop song.  One of the things why I love that song, and the album is that it doesn't represent the future, but more of the time, place (Tokyo?) and the emotional state that I was in when I first heard this album.   Re-listening to it (many times) as well as watching all the official video releases, and the b-sides, it strikes me as the perfect moment for this band.  I'm also a huge fan of the previous album as well as the two records that followed "Different Class."  So that lineage of albums kept on building till they broke up.  Perfection!

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. 

Bryan Ferry - "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"/"Another Time, Another Place" (Island) 45 rpm 7" single, 1974

I bought this single in 1974, sold or lost it through the ages, and recently purchased again, in Tokyo.  1974, and especially anything dealing with Island Records, was an exciting time for a record fan or listener.   I discovered Sparks that year, and that is a gift that keeps on giving.  Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music is another cultural importance for me.  Ferry went on to have this duo-career of being the head thinker for Roxy Music while doing solo recordings.  I don't fully understand his need to do solo work, where he clearly wrote or co-wrote all the Roxy Music songs.  If he strictly just did covers, I can understand that for being a solo artist, but the fact he started to add original songs under "Bryan Ferry" is a mystery to me.   

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is a classic American pop tune from the early 1930s.  Depression era, and to Ferry a romantic time.   At this time, Ferry was mining the past, but he was making it into a Roxy re-make, where it seems at times he wrote the song himself.  It's love, but a love that is damaged and leaves the after-effects of smoke after the burning heart.  It's a beautiful bitter-sweet melody with lyrics that sting.  A perfect cocktail for someone like Bryan Ferry.

The b-side is a great Ferry composition "Another Time, Another Place."  Why this wasn't recorded for Roxy Music is a mystery.  It's a hypnotic piece of aural delight.  The importance of sound to take one to another place - that is basically the motif of the Bryan Ferry method of making art. 

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!