Haruomi Hosono

surprised it hasn't been repressed yet. admittedly I haven't heard the whole thing but I will have to rectify that soon.

Its a real favourite of mine. I managed to pick up a cheap copy of the 2nd edition in Tokyo about 10 years ago.

okay I've got it on now, definitely wilder than I was expecting. "Alive" is such a cool song

Artists with similar names that you get mixed up

Sandii & the Sunsetz
Sheena & the Rokkets

so good. 'zoot kook' still sounds like it was beamed in from the future.

Zoot Kook feels like it launched a whole genre -- Yoko Kanno did a lot more good work within it in the '00s (and specifically sought out Chris Mosdell to help). Alive is wonderful.

mmmm, that's awesome -- not the greatest cover art, but I'm all for great albums in unassuming sleeves.

the thing about the cover art is it just looks like all those 50s and 60 exotica albums with a hot girl on the sleeve. its not like say the Miharu Koshi albums which hint at the oddness of the music. wonder how many people bought it for that reason, put it on and were like what the hell am I listening to.

zoot kook: song of the week

i haven't heard Yoko Kanno - will be checking that out today i hope

damn, there's too much music. artists should only release one album, preferably just one song

apparently this is getting a reissue? never heard of this, apparently it's just a demo album but with songs written by a bunch of familiar names. Hosono produced it, apparently there are just a couple test pressings out there (one of which sold for 2 grand!)

https://www.discogs.com/release/9974042-Linda-Carriere-Haruomi-Hosono-Produced-%E7%B4%B0%E9%87%8E%E6%99%B4%E8%87%A3-%E8%A3%BD%E4%BD%9C-%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB

some of the tracks are available on YouTube, but not the Hosono-penned ones (unless I just can't find it). here's one...sounds great

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

oh, that's funny that this is getting a reissue. I listened to some of the stuff on YT a while ago and thought, "pretty cool, guess I'll never hear it all tho." guess again!

1977! That's the year of Our Connection, isn't it? -- for me, one of the peaks of Hosono's songwriting discography. I had no idea he'd done another five songs for someone else that year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIyZn2UbU4I

popped up in my feed - not sure exactly what it is but John Carroll Kirby is involved

must be from this?

https://fruitandgroovescollective.com/2024/02/21/stones-throw-records-announce-haruomi-hosono-tribute-album/

The World Standard record that Harry produced in 1985 is melodic bliss. Tonally it reminds me of Memphis, Milano but with the landscape covered in snow. At first everything just sounds like the same bright, major-chord, new-agey song. Then I find myself blissing out to some riff that only appears right before a fade-out. Or I notice the crazy celestial section in the back half of the opener. Or I realize that there is a long, sad, dramatic song (like an ambient Mass!) tucked away towards the end of the album. There's even a sermon in Esperanto! And this came out in 1985, the height of Hosono's Monad period.

and it's recently been reissued! pricey though. I kinda forgot about it until now, I love Hosono lending his weird touch to other musicians like this, you can tell his production style right off the bat. track #8 pops into my head a lot, its like one of those upbeat Penguin Cafe Orchestra tunes that always lifts your mood up

Country Gazette is also worth a listen, I don't think Hosono is involved but the concept of it (ambient musician who's never been to America makes an instrumental country album based on 50's Americana) very much sounds like something he would do

I was just reading about the other World Standard records today and, he was! Country Gazette is one of the three with Hosono production. He even put a new original song on it.

Are the Interior and Inoyama Land records this good?

It's one of the relentlessly fun things about the Hosono catalogue: every time I get wise to one of these epic production jobs, I think, "The hell! My idea of his body of work has been woefully insufficient!! And I call him my favorite artist?!"

I really like both those Interior and Inoyama Land albums. They're up on YT if curious.

yeah both are great, as good as the World Standard album in my view. if you like those I'd also get the album re.sort by Sora - this time I know for a fact that Hosono wasn't involved, but it's exactly the sort of thing he would've produced in 2003 I think

here are, in my view, the best tracks from each:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cONpVBAv8E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwRKd9-m1YM

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

all those yen records box sets have lots of cool stuff in them, highly recommended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LwA7I6Vs8M

i've got that on my phone, along with the six disc set of songs he wrote/produced for others, such an incredible amount of good shit in there, always fun when something you haven't heard yet comes up on shuffle

BIG rec for inoyamaland if you're into that cluster/harmonia sound

yeah mr nununu might as well do yourself a favor now and get both those Harmonia albums, you're bound to stumble on them eventually

I love the Cluster & Eno record -- I gather the Harmonia stuff is along those lines? Will look into that soon. (Incidentally, I was reading a recent Inoyama Land interview and one of the guys says Cluster & Eno is his favorite album of all time.) (And another by the way, I appreciate all the Kraftwerk suggestions above. Got three songs lined up to hear when the time is right.) (Also ripped all four YT videos above and slotted them onto my almost-broken walkman, so those'll get heard real soon.) (A Japanese comment on the Hosono song: "If you're from abroad and listening to this... you're some enthusiast!")

its better