Thursday, December 13, 2007

Hikashu-Natsu(+2),1980+Uwasa No Jinrui(The Human Being),1981,LPs,Japan





Hikashu is a long running sort of avant garde pop performance ensemble started in the late 1970s. Koichi Makigami(member of Tokyo Kid Brothers amongst others) is the lead vocalist and writes most of the material. He said they were "Like a play pretending to be a band"
From a synth standpoint Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita played synths in the original line up (which sounds to me generally more synth-oriented than later lineups), they left in the early 80s and among other things formed a synth duo Inoyama Land. For quite a while Hikashu used an alternative English spelling, Hikasu, without the second "h".
One of the greatest avant gardish pop/post punk acts in early 80s Japan.Jangling synth sounds,Koichi's strange vocals,psychedelic lyrics....Milestones of contemporary Japan music!
get them here and here




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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 13, 2007 at 10:59 PM

    Super Super stuff!! Why Hikashu and P-Model haven't been hipsterized in the US yet is a mystery.

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  2. RobertDecember 14, 2007 at 6:13 AM

    Legendary. (And re hipsters, Tzadik actually released a best of Hikashu in 2001).
    Here's a stab at track romanization.

    Natsu
    1. Alternative Sun
    2. Fushigi no March
    3. Pike
    4. Iruka no Warau
    5. Morning Water
    6. Nazo no Jumon
    7. Oasis no yume
    8. Mask
    9. Fuyaketa...
    10. Suika no koushin
    11. Bino Pike
    12. Hitomi no uta
    13. Glass no Dance
    14. 18sai no Don Quixote

    Uwasa no Jinrui
    1. To Aisukuron
    2. Uwasa no Jinrui
    3. Dekigoto
    4. Taion
    5. Atarashii buzoku
    6. Yokisenu Ketsugou
    7. Outcast
    8. Nimaijita Otoko
    9. Koibito
    10. Shounin vacances
    11. One of us
    12. Nioi

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  3. AnonymousDecember 14, 2007 at 2:02 PM

    The Tzadik release wasn't really a Best Of but more an assortment of oddities, some previously unreleased. Some not so interesting tracks for sure. Probably included by Zorn just to create some head scratching. It does show their range early on.

    By the way, the most recent Hikashu release is great! Very much in the vein of the early stuff.

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  4. AnonymousDecember 15, 2007 at 7:00 AM

    Awesome music...Thank you!

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2008 at 10:31 PM

    What format are the tracks in, they don't seem to be mp3s...

    chinaski9@yahoo.com

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  6. efkosApril 16, 2008 at 8:55 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. AnonymousAugust 22, 2008 at 6:09 PM

    Any chance you could post their first album? Hikashu is amazing!

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 10:59 PM

    Any of the post-"Uwasa No Jinrui" Hikashu albums would be much appreciated; with the exception of Hikashu's very latest release, I can't find those recordings anywhere!

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