Haruomi Hosono’s second solo effort, Tropical Dandy, now released as a standalone album for the first time in the U.S., shows the bassist and bandleader moving on from his folk-rock beginnings. A complex, eccentric and deeply committed commentary on exotica, sonic simulacra and tropical vibes, it’s full of contradictory constructions and proud artificialities that tap into something deeper than the merely real.
Category: Harry Hosono
Happy End :: S/T (1973)
When Japanese four-piece Happy End wanted to follow up their folk rock masterpiece Kazemachi Roman with their own slice of the “California sound” in 1972, they went about it the natural way. Show up at Hollywood’s mythical Sunset Sound studio, equipped with a suitcase full of cash and a pearl (a special gift for the producer Van Dyke Parks). Though the language and cultural barrier proved challenging, Haruomi Hosono looks back on the sessions fondly. With a decisively mellow tone throughout, the final eponymous Happy End record recalls formative west coast influences such as Buffalo Springfield, while foreshadowing the innovative solo ventures of Hosono, Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki.
Sketch Show :: Audio Sponge
Even for Yellow Magic Orchestra loyalists, the new millennium timing of the short-lived Sketch Show made the project easy to fly under the radar. Audio Sponge is the 2002 debut from duo Hauromi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. While veering back at seminal influences like Brian Wilson, the mellowness of the compositions here are downright hypnotically restrained; a canopy of soft glitch samples, acousto-electric rhythms and relaxed vocals that simply evaporate as soon as they’re uttered.
Haruomi Hosono :: Music For Films 2020-2021
Slowing down? If you’ve paid even half attention to the prolific vocation of Haruomi Hosono you know it’s not in the cards. Long before Shoplifters made waves at Cannes, composition work had long been a staple of the musician’s repertoire.
The Multiverse of Haruomi “Harry” Hosono
For the past fifty or so years, Haruomi “Harry” Hosono has let his mind wander. That wandering has led him to any number of strange places. He’s made records that […]
Some For Harry: A Haruomi Hosono Companion
“It was really pure art. Pure art. Anyway, producing great works was the ultimate goal; we had eyes for nothing else. We heard nothing else. We still had no sense […]