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.

1. Note of Mothership

otm

Haruomi Hosono - Yours Sincerely
https://haruomihosono.bandcamp.com/album/yours-sincerely

Why thank you! Preordered.

finally got my hands on that Tropical Dandy reissue, its been such a long time since I've heard it, it sounds like such a hidden treasure

its also a crazy listen knowing the kind of music he'd be making 3 years later, and then 3 years after that. gotta be one of the weirdest career arcs ever

its also a crazy listen knowing the kind of music he'd be making 3 years later, and then 3 years after that. gotta be one of the weirdest career arcs ever

Absolutely. And three years earlier he'd been recording Happy End's third album, which sounds nothing like Tropical Dandy either. My mind gets blown every time I remember that only *six years* separated the last Happy End record from the first Yellow Magic Orchestra record.

I've been playing lots of HoSoNoVa and Flying Saucer 1947 since this new one got announced. They're both marvelous. Maybe the two most feel-good records in his discography.

Its real interesting, given how he'll likely be remembered as a guy who was on the bleeding edge of music for well over a decade, that he suddenly dedicated himself to replicating music from the year he was born. as if to say, "I've seen the future and it sucks"

Apparently he spent the '70s, '80s, and '90s certain that Nostradamus was right and that the world would end in 1999, and when it didn't, he felt he needed to "reset" -- which would put him at... 26 years old right now, just a young whippersnapper. If the London show last year is any indication, this new one (which is more than half originals -- and when it's covers, it's, like, Beethoven) could be pretty innaresting! The fact that he conquered his almost decade-old dread of making decisions about mixing is encouraging.

Harmonizing along with the Flying Saucer 1947 version of Sports Men is one of the supreme joys in life.

― TheNuNuNu, Sunday, August 3, 2025 3:10 PM (nine months ago) bookmark flag link

This continues to be true.

just picked up Miharu Koshi's 1991 album, "Der Vater und die Pistole"...Harry is only credited with writing one track but he does produce it, as such it sounds an awful lot like Omni Sight Seeing...great stuff. there really ought to be a reissue campaign.

Killer record -- gets better & better the more time you give it, if my experience is anything to go by! I consider it Book 2 of the Omni Trilogy, with Book 3 (the most distant but still really innaresting) being Morio Agata's Imitation Gold, a covers album from 1993 that's co-produced (and, here & there, arranged) by Hosono.

Add Hosono's tracks from the "Marginal" soundtrack in 1988 and the HIS record from 1991, and Hosono's turn-of-the-decade becomes another of the dude's luminous peaks.

New Happy End live album - by which I mean archival but now released, of course - really hitting the spot on this sunny day.

They remind me so much of The Band.

Err, Tin Pan Alley, not Happy End, sorry.

Thank you for the heads-up!

And awwww man, the set opener is a Morio Agata cover -- Hosono & Agata were recording Zipangu Boy together that summer.

And earlier today I was enjoying the superb Tin Pan Alley 2 album! Fortuitous.

Hosono & Agata were recording Zipangu Boy together that summer.

Shoot, I'm wrong, this was of May 1976 -- they'd recorded the album the previous summer, and it had come out a few months earlier. (My favorite album of all time? Near enough, anyway.)

Quadruple-posting here, but:

They remind me so much of The Band.

Hosono adored Cahoots.

cool story from the local shop - I ordered the Tropical Dandy LP and the owner ordered an extra because he thought the cover was funny. he wound up going through four of them. the other day I was in there and some high school lookin kid identified him as one of the guys on Pacific. crazy how that album became sort of a cultural touchstone 40 years after its release. the project was commissioned by CBS and as far as I can tell didn't seem to be particularly well received at the time. seemed like some vaporwave guys discovered it and made a few killer tracks out of it, then people realized why listen to that when the source is so much better? its the thing a lot of them were trying to capture. just seems to resonate more in the modern era I guess, I fear because young people never knew a time when things were even remotely chill.

That's terrific.

As far as hip albums go, you really wouldn't think either "Pacific" or "Watering a Flower" would cut it, but. They definitely do both have "chill" in common.

first of all, happy birthday!! 79 today.

secondly, he just dropped a single from the new album. its gorgeous, sounds like a continuation of both Sketch Show and what he was doing on Hochono House. nothing like the funk/boogie woogie stuff he'd been doing the past decade. makes me very curious as to what the full album is gonna sound like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCv2Haipn

oops...messed up the URL. here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCv2HaipnBU

whoa, was 100% expecting more boogie woogie, nice surprise!

Whoa that is lovely!

Ah yeah, wonderful. Carrying that London show vibe alright. Sketch Show comparison otm, reminds me of HASYMO's Rescue too!

Love the drumbeat that kicks in for a bit near the end.

This is fantastic.

I've played this something like fourteen, fifteen times today.

Sweet

Listening to S-F-X, and remembering the story about how Hosono played Body Snatchers for Afrika Bambaataa, and how Afrika Bambaataa asked Hosono to turn it off because it was scaring him.

oh no!! keep that body snatchin' thing away from me!!!

anyway I'm listening right now and yeah its nuts, even beyond Looking For the Perfect Beat. obviously he's always been ahead of the curve sonically but he was way ahead in terms of ideas. its so wildly aggressive its almost like the Chemical Brothers or something. but nobody was doing that with this sort of gear back then so these records are just totally unique. its a good song too, as evidenced by the fact that he's been doing a boogie woogie version of it lately which somehow sounds totally natural.

Strange Love is nearly New Jack Swing. but a good 5-6 years early. I've known this album for a long time but I feel like I'm just starting to grasp how crazy it is.

It is absolutely insane, yes!! I think of it as one of those (very rare) "the madman has been shut up inside his tower for ten years" kinds of albums. But also, being Hosono, it's welded to awesome songcraft and lovely melodies and Naughty Boys-level catchiness here & there.

even the final track feels way ahead of its time. yeah its just solo piano and a little hum but ending an album with an almost classical sounding piece with this sort of grandeur is the sort of thing you hear on electronic records to this day. a bunch of Orbital albums end this way, for instance.

"Flying Saucer 1947" at the end of a difficult day. By "Bodysnatchers" I feel like all my stress has swirled away, and come "Pom Pom Jouki" I'm floating.

Adding to my list of the true & enduring pleasures in life: singing along with the chorus of "Yume-miru yakusoku".

Also: brilliant album art on this Caramel Mama/Tin Pan Alley double LP compilation from 1983: History

And now that I look more closely, I've got to try to make a playlist version of this myself, the sequencing looks genius!

"Love, Peace & Trance" is the "Cochin Moon" of the 1990s.

You. Are. Shaman.

Well...it's a bit less chaotic...but yes!! Where's the reissue?!?

No near-death-by-dysentery to give sonic form to this time, true.

Meanwhile, Track 2 of Yours Sincerely is out! Considering the Beethoven cover lurking in the back half of the tracklist, album should be nice & diverse.

Today marks exactly three years since I first read this. I listened to War Head the same evening. My old "favorite albums list" broke into splinters shortly thereafter. and that's all she wrote. For three years now, the extended Hosono family has accounted for a solid 80% (or more?) of my music-listening. It's a cliché to talk about music being lifechanging etc., but you know what, sometimes it really is.

Eternally in your debt, frogbs.

That’s awesome to hear!! I wrote that as sort of a one off since I liked the blog…I think it got way more attention than anything I ever wrote on my own. Very cool to see Hosono become sort of a hip name this past decade. Really never thought I’d see the day. His stuff is a bit out there to say the least and I wasn’t sure if it was connecting with others the way it did with me. Amusingly I barely even knew the half of it back then. I had no idea he had so much…stuff out there. Can’t wait for 9/11 :)

Can’t wait for 9/11 :)

yet another fan radicalized by harry

I thought that moment (the singer of CHO CO PA CO CHO CO QUIN QUIN talking about hanging out at Hosono's studio) was very sweet TBH.

At the time, I was rather perplexed by the length of their set. I would have loved them had they stuck to the customary 30 minute support slot. But it did get to feel a bit like they overstayed their welcome. But later, I came to feel that was a misunderstanding on my part as to what Hosono was actually trying to do with the show.

That the set was partly 'showcase Hosono's greatest hits to this new generation of western fans'. But it was also very much 'introduce western fans to contemporary Japanese artists' in the way that he's been doing for decades of his career. That he was using his position as venerable elder statesman to shine a light on the newer artists in his circle (and his grandson's circle) rather than hog the spotlight to himself.

Very Hosono thing to do TBH!

― Etherwave, Monday, 21 July 2025 09:55 (one year ago)

The new Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin album ('Synthetic') is insanely good, only heard it for the first time today and already it's in the running for my AOTY.

^ noted!!

Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin

this is great... thank you for mentioning them!

seconding that, this album is amazing, reminds me of Towa Tei's modern stuff in a very good way, also maybe Sketch Show as well, I see why Hosono is boosting them

Add to the list of Hosono's stone-cold classics:

La Maison de Himiko (2005)

Hosono was commissioned to make the soundtrack because the director is a diehard fan of the Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo soundtrack. And it shows. But not right away.

You know how most songs on Nokto are catchy enough or have cool enough textures to blow you away on first / second listen, but La Masto de "Tenkirin" spends 10+ listens sounding like merely eerie atmospherics (ending with a cool bang) until finally you're familiar enough with it to puzzle out the slowly-morphing melodies? This is how much of Himiko works for me. Ever since reading that the director wanted a kind of sequel to Nokto, I've been putting this on once every few weeks, and it sounded nice & mellow but REALLY low-key, like Hosono maybe didn't try too hard. Turns out it was not a case of not trying hard enough, but of filling the album with *subtle* melodies & textures. Two days ago, it suddenly sounded as rich and colorful as Nokto itself.

So the last couple days I've had it on repeat. What a gentle, beautiful record. There are several eerie-textural pieces ala La Masto de "Tenkirin", a bunch of awesome "odd & catchy" stuff ala "La Stelfesto de Centaŭro", and various tracks that fall somewhere inbetween. The European influences remind me of Nokto and Miharuomi, plus the gamelan love is back again.

I don't think there's anything as sad & gorgeous as "La Travida Malĝojo de Giovanni" or "Rekviemo", nothing show-stopping like that; but if an album of back-to-back cousins of "La Pliocena Marbordo" and "Temo de la Adiaŭo" sounds like something you might like, dig in. Just give it time!

whoa, thanks for reminding me of that! for a long time that soundtrack was on my Soulseek wantlist but it never popped up. but it seems to be available now, having a listen and it seems to pick up where Loophole left off sonically, though a lot of this is more sparse. very pretty of course, maybe a bit too sparse for my liking but so far it's nice!

same here!! never listened to this one either and am looking forward to it