Back to Yuji Ohno by request in The Night (1979) with Koji Ishizaka

  

Here's one of my Xmas presents to myself, a gorgeous, heavy cardboard eminently solid LP in near mint condition both externally and vinylly [ouch]-- altogether just beautiful to behold and rare enough that there isn't usually more than one copy for sale if at all at any one time both outside and inside of Japan. And of course someone in requesting it made me aware of it.

I've covered Yuji Ohno exhaustively, starting with Jimmy Dean and the Inugami soundtrack, followed by Silent Dialogue and then Chu Kosaku, which was also requested.  His music in the earliest days was enjoyably funky with some progressive thrown in for us hungry dogs but later atrophied to purely soundtrack / easy listening generic orchestral banality with totally by-the-numbers chord changes.  Accordingly, this album from 1979 is primarily the latter but does have some funkishness on display.

Regarding Koji Ishizaka, who, it's important to note, recites either poems or stories above the music on every track except the final one, wikipedia-Japan's page says:

Koji Ishizaka (Koji Ishizaka, 1941 (1941) June 20 -), the Japan of the actor - entertainer , emcee , painter , writer , translator , lyricist , narrator is. From October 2015 belong to Production Oguri . Real name, Mutsuyoshi Muto (Mutual Heiichi). My nickname is Militia.  Stage name derived from the best friend Mayumi Ozora is their favorite writer Yojiro Ishizaka and actor Koji Tsuruta due to be named by borrowing from each. According to Mr. Ishizaka himself still playing in real name TBS 's TV producer Ishii Fukuko was advised to rename, it is said that the stone' s name of the stone ("It is said to have taken a stone" of Ishii Fukuko) It was decided to " Ishizaka Koji " also because the father of the expanse was making a surname check .

And Google Translate shows us once again how the magic of artificial intelligence aka robots and their 'deep learning / neural nets' will soon replace us all with their eerily human-like abilities of translation which are clearly indistinguishable from a real human being.  I love how The Great Google 'translated' the year 1941 into (1941).  That kind of thing is just priceless.  Can't wait to hear those robot musicians create some artificial fusion too though I have a feeling it will be better than some of the 80s stuff I've posted here.  Two more things I'd like to point out: why is the computer program so confused by the alternating first person and third person "it" subject in this article, a mistake which no human would ever make--ever, and how did that AI program unwittingly compose a poem in the middle section:

His stage name due to be named by borrowing from each
According to mr. Ishizaka himself still playing in real name 
TV producer Ishii Fukuko was advised to rename
it is said at the stone's name of the stone 
"It is said to have taken a stone" --of Ishii Fukuko--
and it was decided to " Ishizaka Koji " also-- 
because the father of the expanse 
was making --the surname check...


Wow. "The father of the expanse was making the surname check."
Reboot that robot.

On the inside you will note multiple photos of the man, the stone's name of the stone, plus the spoken passages written out.  I doubt they are as beautiful as the wild google translate's wiki page.  But I might be wrong.  If you add up the scans I did you'll notice there's an odd number (that is if you're astute enough), and the reason is because behind the beautiful colour photo of the stone's name there is a beautiful blank white page I didn't bother to reproduce.

The most funky track is called Jealousy:





This is definitely the classic Ohno we love so much.  As I said, the last track, which is totally generic soundtrack, does have (female) vocals, it's called Lost and Alone:





More Xmas presents shortly.

Kimagure Tenshi: Yuji Ohno and Chu Kosaka - OST 1976 by request

This is squarely in the easy soundtrack, accessible style of the mid-seventies, very light to imperceptible on the advertised funk and fusion moves.  It's hard to find in any kind of database, the images from an ebay seller  which may well have disappeared into "the cloud" by the time you read this are probably the most you can expect outside of Japanese websites for music purchases.

For me the best track was 9, whatever the heck its name is:





This is the first of a few requests that I'll post in this holiday season, with the biggest posting of all coming up on Xmas Eve-- so stay tuned for that one which is sure to surprise most people, I think.

Masa Matsuda and Yuji Ohno collaborate in 1979's Silent Dialogue

One item missing from the Ohno discography in digitalese this seemed like it should be a duo but it's a regular orchestral album, a bit light to the touch being from the later seventies when fusion was degenerating into fuzak like those large birds that lost the power of flight on islands like New Zealand.  A little deficient along the time dimension as well.  Information here.

The first track is by Ohno and it's called Midspace Action, a promising title indeed, too bad like most parents of young children around this time of year, it cannot keep those:





Not that there are no euphonious sounds to be found upon listening all the way through-- consider the Matsuda-played theremin-like organ on the last track, called Mirage:






And the downgoing scale at the end is kind of Christmasy too, isn't it?
Yikes.

James Dean, Yuji Ohno, and the Inugamike (1976-1977)

So once again I'm in the position of having to thank someone for requesting an album, though I knew this famous Japanese pianist / OST composer before from his brilliant work called Inugami, I never would have expected anything from an album devoted to celebrating James Dean!

First, his discography, not complete, can be seen here.  Obviously quite prolific as composer, there are so far as I know only two albums worth hearing, the requested one being one of those.

The other one is this unprepossessing album, with terrible ratings (as usual) on rym, which in the past used to mystify me; here seen with its Japanese title.

First, the 1977 James Dean album.  The music is squarely in the seventies tradition with a mix of Italian soundtrack sounds and more orchestral easy listening.  What is of note here is the sheer quality of the composition, which is really, quite unforgettable even after one listening.  What a surprise, but perhaps explicable by the fact that Ohno was inspired by the subject matter.

The First American Teenager is pure bliss:





That's the first part.  Note how it starts unassumingly with a little lullaby evoking the child, then moves into a minor key before the oboe (clarinet?) takes it up as a tender, melancholy melody (American Dream / American nightmares); then towards the end the beat gets faster and a blues sax hammers out an improv in E minor: the Hollywood lights.  The next part which follows right after (not in the sample above) goes back to the classical music to close out the suite, followed by more ost music, more funk.  Believe me when I say there's no compostion quite like this one in his entire oeuvre - except possibly the long track on side b, which will also shock you...


Moving on to the other record, from the year before, you get more of a mix, with fusion, seventies funk or blaxploitation sounds, plus the usual indebtedness to Italian or perhaps French soundtrack orchestrations.  This for me is his masterpiece.   The composition Meditation recalls any number of the library or progressive compositions from the great Euro-fusion masters of the seventies with the bonus of being perhaps more professionally smoothly played:





The following track shows off his Stravinskyite skills:





Before taking off for the schmaltzosphere, of course...  nothing wrong with that in my books.


Despite the brilliance of these two albums I have heard the later ones from him including Space Kid (1979) the promising-sounding Cosmos (1981), the not-promising-sounding Lifetide (1982), the Proof of the Man from 1977 and Proof of the Wild from 1978, plus a couple of Lupin the 3rd albums (which are wholly confusing), that is, a total of 7 others and was sorely disappointed.  It's a lot to slog through, though if interested you can request those.  I would go so far as to say in their mix of syrupy strings, easy listening of the paediatric kind, dumb disco songs, and simple, commercialized compositions, we are dealing with music of the worst sort, the kind we older ones will remember from the hygienic easy-piano muzak of shopping malls.  In fact, I can't remember any other situation where a great artist in the seventies suddenly became unlistenable so quickly, dropping so suddenly off a cliff.  Usually subsequent albums have a couple of worthy tracks.  Well, perhaps that's too harsh, the 1977 Proof of the Man has one or two good songs.  One in particular is almost Hawkshaw-like with its scintillating synths and strings:





Then, if you don't believe me about the other records, consider the track Dancing Raccoon, from Space Kid (1979):





Yeah. A dancing raccoon...




But hidden in his discography from the period 1976-1977 were those two treasures I present today, James Dean, and Inugamike.  And thanks for requesting the former!

PS your other request will show up too, stay tuned.