“Everybody Anyone”, via Itsuro Shimoda’s Love Songs And Lamentations, 1973. After a year of intent listening, framing what I imagined the haunted Japanese lyrical content to be, I did the unimaginable (no, obvious) and Googled it. And up came Youtube with a translation via the comments section. In short, the aural sense of longing/searching was spot on.
Category: Japan
Minami Deutsch :: With Dim Light
Behold With Dim Light, the excellent new album from Japanese psych-heads, Minami Deutsch. As Kikagaku Moyo and Guruguru Brain honcho, Go Kurosawa, mentioned last year, the band’s self-titled debut was […]
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 […]
Kikagaku Moyo :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Over the past three and a half years, the young, hairy Japanese psychedelic outfit Kikagaku Moyo has quietly amassed a devout cult following via legendary performances across the United States, UK, Europe, […]
Ryo Fukui :: A Letter From Slowboat
Everyone loves a good origin story. No matter the creative discipline such tales make even the most potent work seem more revelatory. Enter the late Japanese jazz pianist Ryo Fukui . An […]
Sleepwalker :: The Voyage (featuring Pharoah Sanders)
Visiting Tokyo in 2003, Pharoah Sanders sat in with local spiritual jazzists Sleepwalker at a club gig laying down what would become “The Voyage”. Released the following year as a Japanese-only […]
Shintaro Sakamoto :: How To Live With A Phantom
The album that keeps on giving – Shintaro Sakamoto’s 2011 debut, How To Live With A Phantom. Following his two decade involvement with Japanese psych-rockers Yura Yura Teikoku, Sakamoto eased into second gear with Phantom, assembling a heady quilt with nods to euro-lounge, exotica, funk and 70s crystalline pop.
Kikagaku Moyo :: House In The Tall Grass
#image_title One of our favorite sleepers of 2016 — House in the Tall Grass , the latest long-player from Japanese quintet Kikagaku Moyo. Hailing from Tokyo, the group (whose name fittingly translates to “Geometric Patterns”) […]
Ambient Japan 1980s: Mariah / Yasuaki Shimizu / Midori Takada
Last year’s Palto Flats reissue of the 1983 lp Mariah — Utakata No Hibi (the final record under that moniker, originally released on the super-cool Better Days label), has spawned a renewed interest in the Japanese composer […]
Ongaku 70 :: Vintage Psychedelia In Japan
Enter Stomu Yamash’ta and Osamu Kitajima via Ongaku 70 – an indispensable compilation of Japanese psych/prog I was hipped to years back via Ghost Capital . At thirteen tracks, spanning 1969-1978, the collection also […]
Les Rallizes Dénudés :: Night Of The Assassins
Swathed in an impenetrable fog of mystery and extremism, the Japanese group Les Rallizes Dénudés exist more as a myth than as a real band. But what is a real band anyways? Accounts […]
The Yamasuki Singers :: Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki
Yamasuki began as a dance craze in 5 steps — full-body instructions are on the album cover. Its mastermind was Daniel Vangarde , a French auteur of the concept album who skipped […]
Happy End :: Kazemachi Roman
From 1971 Japan comes this gleaming gem of classic rock, encompassing a myriad of American styles from rural rock and country to raw garage, blues, experimental, and blazing west coast […]
Yuzo Kayama :: Black Sand Beach/Violet Sky
Google the name Yuzo Kayama and you’ll note that he’s “a Japanese popular musician and film star born in 1937. His father, Ken Uehara, was one of the most popular film stars […]