Haruomi Hosono

I'd highly recommend Hosono's Monad Box, a collection of three of his instrumental and ambient records from the early 80s. My favourite of the discs included is Coincidental Music, which is short pieces made for advertising and promotional films. Sort of electronic Satie. Rather more delicate and strange than Sakamoto's work of the period.

Hosono's best solo song album is S-F-X, a Fairlight-heavy opus from 1984. There's a clip of one track here. And here are some pictures of Hosono, who's now a bit fatter, plays in Sketch Show, and runs the Daisyworld label.

Unfortunately, getting any of this in the US is near impossible. the only other thing i've managed to track down (through dusty groove) was this bizarre early 80's record that he was apparently only partially involved with, which was a strange "top of the pops" sort of medley of about 15 60's-70's pop/disco standards and a few mediocre jazz-fusion originals.

'More delicate and strange' than early 80's Sakamoto is quite a teaser. Sakamoto's B-2 Unit and Esperanto are already fairly strange (if not delicate) records, but those were the odd ones out.

I agree with Momus--Miharu Koshi is one of the greatest, most underrated Japanese artists of the '80s. She evolved from an insiginifant pop idol in the late '70s to a completely original synth-pop artist. Since the late '80s she's become a bit too idiosyncratic for my tastes ('Chanson Solaire' from '95 is probably her best from that era), but her albums are still beautifuI and I have the highest respect for her. She's due for a new album soon. I think 'Boy Soprano' from '85 is her best album--a perfect combination of her early synth-pop work and later chanson stuff. Unfortunately, her stuff is very hard to find, even in Japan. Her albums pop up on ebay, but they're always quite expensive. 'Boy Soprano' is probably the easiest to find.

One of my favorite Hosono-related bands is Chakra. They put out only three albums in the early '80s, and Hosono produced their second. They're all utterly essential exotic pop albums. Makoto Yano (Akiko Yano's first husband) produced their first album. The singer, Mishio Ogawa, put out four solo albums too, and they're also essential (especially her s/t). The last three were just reissued a few weeks ago actually, and I had never heard them beforehand. So I'm excited about those...they're very good.

Now that I'm talking about Japanese synth-pop, I'll make a few more recommendations. I recently discovered Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki) and am completely in love. She started in the mid '70s, making more fusion-oriented pop albums, and then she teamed up with Ryuichi Sakamoto in the late '70s and started churning out one amazing pop album after the next. 'Adventure' (1981) is probably my favorite, but I have a lot that I've yet to hear!

Moon Riders are another of my favorites. They've been around since the '70s as well and, in my opinion, reached their peak in the early '80s with 'Mania Maniera' and 'Tokyo wa...'. They've spanned a lot of different style, but never put out a bad album.

Perhaps my favorite is Masami Tsuchiya's 'Rice Music' album (1982) and his follwing Ippu-Do album 'Night Mirage' (1983). Members of the band Japan assist on those two albums, as well as the fretless great Percy Jones. Bowie-esque vocals, experimental, angular guitar work (plus Bill Nelson doing his e-bow thing), completely out of control bass playing, steel drums, layers of synths, etc. Basically it's a hilariously awesome rhythm section with great songs too. I couldn't recommend these two albums more. It's too bad that 'Night Mirage' was never released on CD and 'Rice Music' is impossible to find on CD.....

Oh, and P-Model is another synth-pop great.

http://park10.wakwak.com/~techno/

http://www.artcontext.com/music/artskool/jem

That second one appears to be currently down for some reason....

I love Wha-ha-ha

Also, apparently Mishio was in Killing Time, so I need to check her out.

Yes, I've been looking for Killing Time for a long time. Please let me know if you get a hold of their stuff.

http://www.sonymusicshop.jp/smdr/sms/img/goods/L/KICS-1139.jpg

Patrick; Dleone's correct about the ReR connection, I grew up as a Recommended Records fanboy, buying anything they'd put out... Though I didn't finally hear Wha-Ha-Ha until researching backwards from the first Haniwa All-Stars record, which blew my mind in the early 90's. My interest in Senba's early Haniwa records & Wha-Ha-Ha is precisely because they're so eccentric & hard to figure out. I don't imagine they're particularly representative of early 80's JPop.

the yesasia site is listing this album in hosono searches, the title is killing me... have you heard it?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=FHCF-2344

The easiest way for me to get this stuff to you is through Soulseek. My name on their is Magazine, so message me if you use that program. The only other way I can think of is YSI, which will take a little while (though it's not too much trouble really).

B'angelo has some requests too. Whatever you guys request, I'll get it to you some time this weekend (or now if you have slsk).

Cochin Moon, way closer to mid-70's Cluster than I would have ever expected (though I do prefer Cluster). A surprise, even given Dominque's Tangerine Dream reference -- definitely in the 70's trance/synth records pantheon.

Bon Voyage & Tropical Dandy much more tin-pan-alley than electronic, but Paraiso is off-kilter, lays the way out for the first YMO. Omni Sight Seeing, thumbs up if you like late YMO. I like Hosono's solo mainstream pop records much more than Sakamoto's, no contest.

Miharu Koshi's Boy Soprano, wow.

And the Mishio Ogawa & Chakra stuff is eye-opening after a lifetime of Haniwa fandom. Chakra's much more straightforward / less quirky, but I'm very happy just to be able to place Haniwa in context with, well, _anything_.

Boy Soprano, the Mishio Ogawa debut, & Cochin Moon are the three I ordered online after hearing the mp3's.

Am I correct that this has Sakamoto on it?

I dunno though... even though his pop is weirder than Sakamoto's, Sakamoto's pure experimental albums (B-2 Unit & Esperanto) are 1000% more bizarre and advanced than Hosono's, those albums are timeless.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1004088657/code-j/section-videos/

(this should probably go on the noise board's wha-ha-ha thread but too late)

Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars

BTW, what exactly did Andy Partridge do on B-2 Unit?

I dunno Matthew, you heard Esperanto?

You mean that electric guitar in the right-channel that's barely audible and sounds as if it's unplugged? If so, that's...odd.

I dunno Matthew, you heard Esperanto?

Most of it — I just re-listened again this morning (have about 6 tracks downloaded). Assuming they aren't remixes, I'd say it's good but no B-2 Unit — lots mallet-y textures and ambience. But if you think I'm missing something, maybe I should re-download to verify that I'm listening to the right tracks.

ha, I first heard it with "members of the Vas Deferens Organization" too. My member was Eric

news you can use: japanese CDs are too damned expensive

I am beginning to miss the days when people were relatively certain they were talking about the same record. A few days ago at a dinner party someone put on something interesting, and when I asked what it was he said it was the new Boards of Canada. He didn't believe me when I told him that it wasn't, he just brought over to his iPod to show me the tags.

I put on Omni Sight Seeing last night, that is definitely my favorite Hosono pop album, every song...

And I first read that as "tripping on acid with members of Van Der Graaf Generator.

I am beginning to miss the days when people were relatively certain they were talking about the same record.

No kidding — but I think Dom's "news you can use" is the culprit in this instance. And actually, that's one of the 2 tracks I don't have. Still, p2p's are great for finding rarities...

Is there a good Hosono comp, btw?

I had both Matt and Eric in the room, with running commentary and interpretive facial expressions. THAT is a proper introduction to Cochin Moon, let me tell you.

Yargh! I always forget about wikipedia! Thanks Kim.

That explains why so many songs are just rearrangements of Nokto. "Improvised" as a loose term.

Also explains why the mood is so thick.

I had no idea there could be a George Don / Endless Talking connection! I'll check it out.

Lichtenstein's: best low-key album opener of all time?

sounds like a windows 95 startup sound in a parallel universe

Yeeeah! One where we moved in a straight line from steampunk to the digital age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd_pz5azI6U

A lot of Miharuomi's Der Vater und Die Pistole is just the soundtrack to Final Fantasy V a year early.

Hold on. Coincidental Music is... yes I really do believe it is

a. perfect. album.

It even has the Nokto theme song on it, for chrissakes.

I think in that Year of Monad (or... I guess, three years? all that stuff came out in '85 but some of it had been in the making for a bit), Hosono broke music.

Also yes, frogbs otm. I raised him a Firecracker <--> Sayokoskatti, he raised me a George Don <--> Insects Insists Insecurity. Well-played, o amphibian, well-played...

Just found out that Ishida Ayumi passed away on the 11th of March. Back in 1977, Hosono wrote several of his finest songs *ever* for her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9gR_FKsMw

I've picked up Hosono's "Ambient Driver" collection from 1996 again. It's lovely. What a gentle and thoughtful human he is.

There's a great paragraph about the Love, Peace & Trance record (which, as a result, I've played four times today -- so great! -- as everyone who's mentioned it on this thread has noted). It had come out the year before. Hosono writes that he was interested in seeing whether he could meld Japanese pop music with ambient. He figured it'd be an easy enough process, since in those years he himself was basically just an "ambient.exe" file. All he had to do was gather the pop musicians and then install himself.

* essay collection, which I'm reading in Chinese translation

hoping the "Hasu Kriya" video makes its way back to YouTube some day. if nothing else we need documentation of the ponytail Hosono era.

Department of yet more connections discovered while investigating something else:

Someone know knows this stuff please comment on Gunma's Biggest YMO Fanboy's selection of Hosono albums? Seems like this is a popular record on this thread, too.

https://otonanoweb.jp/s/magazine/diary/detail/10488

well yes, if you're into old school Japanese technopop at all you will run into Hosono at some point :)

everything I recognize on that page is a classic. I started with Philharmony and liked it fine but didn't really pursue his solo stuff further since it didn't really hit the aspects of the YMO sound I was really looking for then (outside of a few tracks I absolutely loved). I picked up some of his other albums later and was surprised at how different they sounded.

Makes sense that What, Me Worry would be a top pick for Hisashi! This Strange Obsession and The Real You have a hard-rocking, goth-leaning style that's pretty different from most of what was coming out of the YMO universe at the time.

if nothing else we need documentation of the ponytail Hosono era.

Amen. Hosono must have had about five photos taken of himself in the '90s, no amount of image searching could even turn a ponytailed Hosono up. I thought there might be some proper publicity somewhere other than what was done for Love, Peace & Trance... instead I came up on this neat English-language interview from '95.

Hosono keeps pushing the mix deeper

The more I play Love, Peace & Trance, the more it comes to sound like the new age Cochin Moon.

Not sure how I do the formatting for quotes. Hope this works

Makes sense that What, Me Worry would be a top pick for Hisashi! This Strange Obsession and The Real You have a hard-rocking, goth-leaning style that's pretty different from most of what was coming out of the YMO universe at the time.

He did inspire me to dig out old YMO records I hadn't heard in a long time. I'm always curious to hear the influences of musicians that I admire. He's on record as saying his fave YMO record was BGM. But I always thought he tended more towards Sakamoto - he said Riot In Lagos was a huge influence. So it's interesting to hear how closely he followed the other solo careers. I'll check out the songs you recommend, so thanks!

I don't know if this will link, but this is the level of fanboyism we're talking. Cosplaying the YMO stage uniform on at least two different tours

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm_RuGQXcAAW5dM?format=jpg&name=900x900

Yay, the quote worked even if the image didn't.

hosono and the late, great mr. YT both on a track on the new towa tei:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MklNRG_lpNU

Hosono plays the Royal Albert Hall on July 19th! -- with his grandson's band opening!

And thanks bgm, that was great. Takahashi, what a drummer. Utterly unbowed.

crazy that he's got a new one already. I remember him announcing he was semi-retired after Metafive, but maybe he was only referring to live performances. there's an interview here where he talks about how that track came together. apparently YT's drums are from the late 90s, probably intended for Last Century Modern on a track that never got completed. you can tell right away it's him though.

https://www.towatei.com/info/20250329_2/

oh, that's interesting. it def sounds like it's from that era. my initial thought was that it sounded a bit like a remix track you might get towards the end of thin jewel case beastie boys cd single in the 90s.

Just booked for the Royal Festival Hall show - on a budget so basically got the cheapest balcony ticket I could. Tbf I saw the Barbican show (with the encore appearances of Sakamoto and Takahashi) from the second row, so I'm okay (literally) taking a back seat for this one.

Do shout if you're going, would be nice to meet up before/after!

I've been enjoying N.D.E. a whole lot.

frogbs, of course it isn't your fault that nobody else listens to Hosono's '90s, but as fate would have it, you *are* one of the only people on the English Internet to have written about N.D.E. (and honestly, even the Japanese net is quiet about this period of his output; Hosono's efforts to bury himself back in the underground post-Omni were clearly not in vain), and I know you're just being honest, but my impression is ... you've been underselling this album in a major way!

I was expecting a heavy dose of vaguely absorbing, ambient-leaning techno along the lines of other instrumental tracks Hosono was putting out in the mid-'90s, like Rain Dream or Navigations from the Divination project with Laswell -- pleasant, but far from groundbreaking stuff.

Whereas some four or five listens in, N.D.E. feels as major an album statement as Medicine Compilation and Love, Peace & Trance. It certainly does emphasize beats over melody, but in a way that feels to me like a continuation of the experiments with rhythm on S-F-X. The seemingly backseat approach to melody is striking me as playful, indirect, and intermittent. I keep getting surprised by beautiful elements and reminded of Mercuric Dance.

But the comparison that comes to mind most often is that N.D.E. is revisiting the spirit that animated BGM's Mass, and letting it run rampant on an album scale!

On another note entirely, Tatsuo Hayashi's drumming on Hosono House is one of my seven wonders of the audio world.

well, if you say so - I haven't listened to it through anything but computer speakers, I'll put it on the hi-fi and see what happens :)

Tropical Dandy getting a reissue on Stone's Throw. it's about damn time, hopefully this means Bon Voyage isn't far behind

https://natalie.mu/music/news/621966

Waiting for that 50th anniversary tie-in after all! So presumably Bon Voyage Co next year.

Happy news!

Seriously, it makes me happy just thinking of multiple copies of that album art arriving on western shores. What a portrait. And I love how the artist name implies you're in the presence of a huckster. Haruomi "Hosono" indeed.

Good opportunity to link to my thorough revisions (sometimes really drastic... half a year of language study goes a long way) of the Tropical Dandy translations:

Hurricane Dorothy
The Silk Road
Sultry Night
Peking Duck
A Castaway's Story
Honey Moon
The Three o'Clock Lullaby

Daniel, should you ever want to collaborate on Harry's Portuguese-Japanese-English mongrel of Chattanooga Choo Choo, hit me up.

All hail the Mustachioed One. All hail!

curious what exactly Haruomi "Hosono" is a reference to

I always thought "Peking Duck" was about the dish, but apparently it's about an actual duck?

Right, an actual duck that by rights should have turned into a meal, but managed to escape in the chaos of the fire.

see I've always thought it sounded like restaurant music that's probably why

Speaking of reissues, Light in the Attic is putting out (ex-Happy End) Eiichi Ohtaki's Niagara Moon this year too! -- likewise a 50th anniversary edition. It's a killer album -- as are the other three in Ohtaki's "Niagara" series, but Niagara Moon is the only one that has Caramel Mama backing. When they were done recording, Hosono was equal parts thrilled and crestfallen. "I lost to Ohtaki," he said later. "Niagara Moon is perfect. It's exactly what I wanted Tropical Dandy to sound like, but better."

Not sure I agree, but the universe was kind enough to give us both, why split hairs... that said, Ohtaki and Hosono had been competing since they were sitting in a living room together at age 19, passing a guitar back and forth. Ohtaki's smash 1981 success A Long Vacation was made explicitly to take Hosono, flush with YMO's success, down a peg...

He's coming to London in July, fap?

Cover star of the July issue of the Wire

did anyone else know that Hosono saw a UFO in 1978?

https://pastebin.com/Fde3rfqg

Isn't that the plot of a Mishima novel?

Yeah frogbs, the whole Side A of Cochin Moon is a concept piece about that UFO-summoning project of his and Yokoo's!

He opened himself up to, and studied, tons of UFO / spirituality-related stuff. Every other jotting in his Ambient Driver collection from the '90s and then Sketch Show era is about cool weird shit he saw / experienced. Innaresting guy.

Man, HoSoNoVa rules. Honestly the only thing I dislike about the music he's made since his shift back toward Kazemachi Roman-esque folk-country circa 2007 is that there's so little of it

Awww man, Hosono's camp just launched a ton of Tropical Dandy merch -- T-shirts, caps... if I were in Japan I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway, so it's good that I'm not in Japan, the tears I shed will be on account of the items being literally unavailable versus me simply being too poor

um... link? ^^

It's all over his camp's Instagram feed (haruomihosono_information if I'm not mistaken, can't connect to VPN atm to check)

oh cute. Coffee shop popup. Worth noting here that the album is being repressed. Stones Throw is doing it for the US.

as mentioned here a month ago :)

thought the bump would be about this:

https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/haruomi-hosono-on-the-music-that-made-him/

Aw fuck, that's awesome.

Hosono starting Happy End because he thought Morio Agata (among others... but he only named two others) was brilliant? More content like this, please

Also, it's pretty cool to think that Hosono later produced albums for all three of them

Cochin Moon RULES