Somehow Distrans Continuum managed to turn into a repository for end-of-year best album lists, which is very much *not* what I envisaged when it was created. One thing I wanted to do with this post was to write something about the music that really got me through the year, and not just the new releases, like I'm just another unsuspecting tool of the music industry.
The theme of this list is various Japanese environmental, jazz, folk, neo-classical, and city pop CD albums that I've been buying over the past few years, mainly recorded and released in the 1970s to the 1990s (although many are being re-released). At last count I have over 350 Japanese albums in my physical collection, so it's about time I finally contributed a blog post on some of this excellent music. I'm not including any links but most of these albums can be found on YouTube if readers are curious enough to check them out...
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Takahiko Ishikawa - The Firmament (1993; Environmental/New Age)
For many western fans of Japanese ambient and environmental music from the 80s and 90s, the 'Music For Your Mind Relaxation Music' series is most famous for its first entry, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Wet Land (1993), currently yours for over £1k on Discogs. As good as the aforementioned album is, the big secret of the five album series is Takahiko Ishikawa's The Firmament (although all contributions are admittedly excellent). In less than half an hour, the album takes the listener on exhilarating emotional journey. It is the central triad of tracks that brought me back to this record for repeated listens, starting with the contemplative 'Memories Of A Swing', to the gently rousing 'First Date', and culminating in the life-affirming optimism of 'A Walk Under The Flowing Clouds'.
Eiji Nakayama - Aya's Samba (1978; Jazz)
Eiji Nakayama is a jazz bassist, and as far as I can tell this is his first studio album. The album is in many respects about the flamboyant six and a half minute opening title track, featuring some nice moments with Kenji Takahashi on sax, but the rest of the record is great too - an excellent choice if an aural energy boost is need.
Yukimasa Takebe - ゆふすげびとのうた (1972; Folk/Acoustic)
Each side of this western-style folky record starts with a downbeat song, but on closer listening most of the tracks have a much more positive vibe: the record twice sucks in the listener through its sadder cuts, and then sets about the task of re-building the mood from the ground up. And boy, does this record get bleak. Track 7, '春の歌', which I think translates as 'Spring Song', is a deeply-moving and softly-sung cathartic piece of music that chills to the core of the soul.
Moshiri & Akira Sakata - Kamuychikap (God's Bird) (1991; Fusion)
The music on this album is extremely difficult to categorise: while there are elements of jazz, synthesizers, and sung protest music of the indigenous Ainu people of northern Japan, listening to it (and its excellent companion album from the same year (Yayresu / Disciplining Myself), is almost like a religious experience. From the poignant 'The Silver Rain Is Falling' (track 2), to the urgency of 'The Wind God Is Travelling' (track 3), featuring Akira Sakata's meandering sax, and the mesmerising female vocal led 'Lullaby' (track 4), the central core of the album feels like a rallying call to battle - a sentiment further echoed on 'We Ainus Protest' (track 5). From a historical perspective it seems significant that only six years after this record was released the Ainu people received official legal recognition of their rights to exist as a separate cultural entity with their own distinct traditions.
Shinsuke Honda - Guitar Resort (2000; Acoustic/Ambient)
Guitar Resort is probably not the best Shinsuke Honda album, but I found it to be a particularly effective as an instant remedy to those situations in which one just needs to find some time to be alone and re-centre. Starting with the excellent 'Silent Sea' and 'Listening To Rain', to 'Late Spring', there is plenty of chilled ambient guitar music to be enjoyed on the first half of the record, before the tempo ups a little on 'PureBlue'. The second half of the album lurches jarringly towards more upbeat territory, before settling down on the excellent '春宵' ('Spring Evening') which reprises the dominant theme of the record's first half.
Yumi Arai - Misslim (1974; Pop)
When I first heard this record, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was already familiar with one of the album's standout tracks: 'Wrapped In Kindness' appears on the 1989 Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service [indeed, several other Yumi Arai / Matsutoya tracks also feature in the films of Hayao Miyazaki]. Essentially, this is straightforward feel-good pop record (Yuming's second), but one that demonstrates a wide range of musical styles that are executed to a high standard throughout.
Tetsuji Hayashi - Back Mirror (1997; City Pop/Light Mellow)
I have to confess I was lured into buying this album by the moody cover art and lead track, 'Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break', but thankfully the gamble paid off. It's impossible to listen to this without romantic yearnings for a coffee on a rainy Saturday morning - as the female backing vocalist points out in English - 'rainy Saturday and coffee, baby, there's a lot for you and me'... Back Mirror was the first album I bought that falls into the western-influenced Japanese bubble-era city pop genre (leaning heavily towards the 'light mellow' end of the spectrum), and despite long hours of research I've been disappointed to discover only a few other albums from the scene as good or consistent as this.
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Static (1988; Neo-classical)
I had to include an album by the late great Hiroshi Yoshimura in this list. Instead of going for one of his more conventional electronic-ambient records, I opted for this collection of piano music, as played by Satsuki Shibano (whom I'm also a big fan of); it was also the first album of his I was able to afford on Discogs some years ago (prices have since tripled). The music itself is pleasant while conveying a consistent undertone of sadness. Perhaps for this reason, my favourite track is the cautiously optimistic and heartwarming 'Afternoon Walk'.
Toshifumi Hinata - Chat D'Ete (1986; Electronic/Neo-classical)
Another album with a strong classical direction, this time by Toshifumi Hinata, whose first four albums from the mid-1980s present strikingly innovative blending of (western) classical, jazz, and electronic music, creating soundscapes often reminiscent of a David Lynch soundtrack. Chat D'Ete is arguably the most eclectic and ambitious of those first four records, with most tracks exuding an effortless sense of Parisian-style coolness. Here the standout track is probably the evocative 'Exotic Woman' (track 6), which is aptly named - perhaps this is the mysterious woman amongst the colonnades on the album cover?
The Milky Way - Summertime Lovesong (1979; City Pop/Light Mellow)
This collaboration between Makoto Matsushita and Kazuo Nobuta (aka The Milky Way) is for me the epitomy of the perfection of the City Pop genre, featuring a combination of effortlessly well-executed western covers alongside some original compositions, with a heavy dosage of laid back bossa nova stylings. The paradoxical dual naivety and sophistication of the music is a joy to behold across all nine tracks, but my personal stand-out is the title track 'Summertime Love Song'. Ultimately this album works as pure escapism, even in the darkest and coldest winter months.
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