Here are the liner notes for every song on KAN‘s 4th, 5th, and 6th studio albums, written by the artist himself. The albums featured here are HAPPY TITLE (1989), Yakyuu Senshu ga Yume Datta (1990), and Yukkuri Furo ni Tsukaritai (1991).
These liner notes were originally published in the 1992 book Boketsu Bari Hori.
Text: KAN
English translation: Henkka
KAN links: Website, Twitter, YouTube
Note: You can buy KAN’s physical releases on CDJapan.
Here are the liner notes for every song on KAN‘s first three full-length studio albums, written by the artist himself. The albums featured here are TV no Naka ni (1987), NO-NO-YESMAN (1987), and GIRL TO LOVE (1988).
These liner notes were originally published in the 1992 book Boketsu Bari Hori.
Text: KAN
English translation: Henkka
KAN links: Website, Twitter, YouTube
Note: You can buy KAN’s physical releases on CDJapan.
Here is an interview with MONO NO AWARE members Tamaoki Shukei and Kato Seijun. The interview focuses on how the pair first met, as well as on the band’s sophomore album. Enjoy!
Interview & text: Miyake Shoichi (Japanese text)
English translation: Henkka
MONO NO AWARE links: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Note: You can buy AHA on CDJapan.
MONO NO AWARE
(L-R) Takeda Ayako, Tamaoki Shukei, Kato Seijun, Yanagisawa Yutaka
MONO NO AWARE have just completed their second album, AHA.
Ever since the band’s beginnings, there has been no one else like them when it comes to musical expression. “This part is rock, this part is pop“—there are no such borderlines in their music. And yet, their musical imagery carries with it a contemporaneity which organically reminds the listener of all kinds of different cultures, along with a synchronicity which makes it feel like you’re tripping between reality and some parallel world.
Those aspects of the band’s music become even more vivid on this work, with the evolution in their sound production and songwriting making one’s earliest childhood memories rise to the surface.
Having accompanied the band for the filming of their music video for this album’s lead song, “Tokyo,” we then conducted an interview with their songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Tamaoki Shukei and guitarist Kato Seijun.
We visited their hometown of Hachijojima, Tokyo—a 55-minute direct flight from Haneda Airport. While the town is actually still a part of Tokyo, that sense of travel I got from going down there and standing in that environment, surrounded by nature, it gave me flashbacks of that peculiar feeling one experiences when listening to MONO NO AWARE—a sense of, “It’s my first time here, and yet somehow it’s like I know this place.”
Here is an interview with the cool youngsters of MONO NO AWARE. The interview focuses on the history of the band’s formation, as well as on their debut album. Enjoy!
Interview & text: Kaneko Atsutake (Japanese text)
English translation: Henkka
MONO NO AWARE links: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Note: You can buy Jinsei, Yamaori Taniori on CDJapan.
MONO NO AWARE
(L-R) Tamaoki Shukei, Yanagisawa Yutaka, Takeda Ayako, Kato Seijun
MONO NO AWARE, a four-piece band who derive their name from the concept of mono no aware—the natural transience of things and feelings experienced with respect to life’s subtleties—have released their debut album, Jinsei, Yamaori Taniori.
With overseas garage rock and post-punk as the backdrop, their music can be quite volatile, with daring changes that can occur even within individual songs. Another characteristic of the band—also apparent in the album’s title—is their wordplay, always causing involuntary smiles. While their music has some similarities with the currently trending psychedelic pop of the Tokyo indie scene (as showcased at the “BEACH TOMATO NOODLE” party co-hosted by Tempalay and domico), the band neatly avoids categorization, with their easygoing feel giving them a unique personality.
At the core of the band are its two Hachijojima natives: songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Tamaoki Shukei, and guitarist Kato Seijun. Tamaoki, the intuitive humanities type, and Kato, the research-oriented sciences type, complement each other nicely in their search for musical freedom, their aims simply set for “somewhere other than here.” Led by this duo—somehow reminiscent of Natsume Tomoyuki and Sugawara Shinichi of the Siamese Cats—now that they are “out of the well,” so to speak, what kinds of different worlds will this group be showing us next?
I love music, and I’m always—constantly—looking for new stuff to listen to.
Pretty much my favorite activity in life is to sit down in a dark room, pour myself a drink, put on some headphones, and listen to new music in search of gems I haven’t heard before. This is something I’ve been doing quite consistently since my early teens. (Well, the drinks may have come a little bit later.)
In any case, here are a few recent “fruits of my labor.”
These findings are from the past year or so. I’ve listed each song, in no particular order, with its musical genre and year of release. Feel free to grab a drink and listen along if you’d like.
Young Gun Silver Fox
“Lenny”
2018 | YACHT ROCK
I discovered these guys a while ago when I came across a collaboration they’d done with the amazing Rod Temperton. (On a side note, I would list Rod Temperton’s Heatwave among my favorite bands of all time.) They’ve released four albums so far, and each one consists of this sort of very friendly, sunny-sounding yacht rock. Awesome stuff.
By the way, I learned from an interview of theirs that the band name Young Gun Silver Fox is derived from its two members. One of them is a young gun, while the other is a silver fox.
Pretty academic stuff, I know. Really makes you think.
