Tosh's Jukebox Tunes: Volume One

 

Tosh's Jukebox Tunes: Volume One

Jun Togawa by Tosh Berman

 

Tosh on Japanese singer/artist Jun Togawa

Albums That Were Important to Me In 1990

 

In 1990, I spent half the time in Moji-Ko on the island of Kyushu and then Tokyo.  After going through a horrific time in Lun*na's hometown, I became obsessed with the music around me.  In the port town, there is a music shop that sold CDs.  Half of it was Western music, and the other was Japanese pop music.  The only Western music they sold there were hard rock bands from the 1970s and oldies.  I bought the first two (the third album was a live release) Honeycombs album on one CD.  As friends and readers know, I have been obsessed with their recording of "Have I The Right."  It was also on this trip that I recognize the name, Joe Meek. On future trips to Tokyo, I bought various compilations of Meek's productions and recordings.  But in Moji-Ko, I became a devoted fan of the band TAMA.  I discovered them on late-night TV where there was a battle of the bands, and they were terrific.  They reminded me a lot of The Balancing Act, in that their instrumentation was acoustic, but their focus was on Japanese folk music but weird folk.  The other Japanese artist I was devoted to was Jun Togawa.  The album below is a six-song EP (CD), and again she is somewhere between Kate Bush and electro-pop with weird Japanese pop from pre-war Japan.  She's unique in voice and music.   

Once I hit Tokyo, I purchased the new Associates' album, which is really a Billy MacKenzie solo, and a compilation of Sparks music from their era with Island Records.  Those two albums were my only connection to the Western World. Other than that, I was only reading Japanese 20th-century literature, oh, and I did purchase a lot of Glenn Gould on CD.  Sony did an incredible job in re-releasing the entire Gould catalog.   I couldn't avoid that buy!  

1989 Album Releases Important to Tosh

 

My life totally changed when I got married on Christmas Eve in 1988. In 1989, we took a trip to Japan for three weeks. We had a marriage ceremony or reception in Moji-ko, on the island of Kyushu, and then mostly spent our time in Tokyo. When we came back from this trip, we almost immediately went back to Japan due to an illness in the family on the Japanese side. My wife went first, and then a few weeks later, I had to join her. Basically, I had to drop everything in my life to be with her in Japan to deal with this medical crisis. And also, there were vista issues where we couldn't come back to America. So, I was exiled from America and living in Japan. Like most of my life, nothing was planned. I arranged for someone to take care of our apartment, which included my library and record collection. I remember I brought for the trip Roland Barthes "Empire of the Senses," his book on Japan, and a few Mishima novels. Other than that, I pretty much abandoned everything, or my life in America was on hold. Once in Japan (again), I avoided Western music, except for Tin Machine (die-hard Bowie fan) and Roy Orbison's "Mystery Girl." My new discoveries on my exile were Harumi Hosono's "Omni Sight Seeing," Ryuchi Sakamoto's "Beauty," and the best of all, Jun Togawa's "Tokyo No Yaban," a compilation of her older work.

Jun Togawa Japanese Singer on Tosh Talks

Jun Togawa Japanese Singer on Tosh Talks

Togawa Jun (aka Jun Togawa) is an amazing and important music figure in underground Japanese Pop Music. An associate of Yellow Magic Orchestra's (YMO) Haroumi Hosono, and mostly releasing her albums on his label, Yen Records. Togawa was in a band called Guernica, with Composer Koji Ueno and artist/lyricist Keiichi Ohta, that brought up images of Pre-war Japan, a time that flirted with Western decadence. Togawa released a series of solo albums in the 1980s that to a Westerner sounds like a crazed combination of Sparks, French Yé-Yé, with a touch of Kate Bush. Most of her musical roots are in Japanese or Asian folk music, but she does acknowledge Serge Gainsbourg and even Rosie & The Originals' "Angel Baby." John Zorn and Jim O'Rourke are both fans, and you should be as well! - Tosh Berman, your host of "Tosh Talks"

To read my review of Jun Togawa's "Suki Suki Daisuki" go here: http://toshberman.blogspot.com/2018/0...

March 4, 2018 (Tokyo) by Tosh Berman

Jun Togawa

March 4, 2018 (Tokyo) by Tosh Berman

I spent a great deal of my time today at RECOfan in Shibuya.  Those who know me are quite aware that I’m addicted to vinyl record buying.  It’s an obsession that borders on a sexual disorder.   Before I left for Tokyo, I made a pledge that I wrote in my notebook that I would not purchase one album on this trip.  In fact, I will not even go to a record store.   After making this promise to myself, I felt right about it.   To eliminate an obsession or a passion cleans the soul.  I decided that what’s important to me is to make new friends here and be entirely devoted to listening and understanding my fellow human beings.   Everything went well until I arrived to meet a friend in Shibuya. 

I arranged a meeting at a location that is a distance, or at the very least; I thought it was,  from any record store, and it was at the Shibuya Beam that our get together was arranged.  I was supposed to meet him at the anime shop on the fifth floor, but another person in the elevator was going to the fourth floor.  As he left the elevator, I notice it was RECOfan, one of the more exceptional music stores in Shibuya.   Without thinking or even remembering my pledge, I got out of the lift. 

My friend is ordinarily late, so I thought there is no harm in just to look around.  As I searched in their new arrival section of used records, I found a copy of a Jun Togawa album that I have wanted for years.   The album is called 好き好き大好き, and it has been since the 1980s that I wanted this masterpiece, yet could never find it on vinyl.   I then remembered the pledge, but then thought ‘how can I possibly pass this up, and it’s only 1,900 yen 

As I held it in my hand, I started to feel guilty.  I was thinking of the luggage issue, as well as adding another item in my household, which apparently I have no room for.  Perhaps it’s best that I give the 1,900 yen to charity?  Then again, I thought that I could write a story about this album, and therefore it can be a tax write-off.   At that point, I have decided I was working, and then with my grip on the record, I went onward to my next purpose in life.  To find more albums.  

Around two hours later, I found a rare copy of Japan’s “Quiet Life” album.   What’s unique about this record is that Japan is a British band, and to buy a Japan album in Tokyo struck me as ironic, which will be put to good use in my story.   Overall I spent four hours in RECOfan, and I only purchased two albums, which I was proud of.  It meant that I’m not an addict, but a careful buyer or consumer.  Oddly enough I forgot about the meeting with my friend, and it was important because it was a job.  Nevertheless, life goes on, and as darkness approached the sky, I whistled a tune off 好き好き大好き and went back to my room in Meguro. 

- Tosh Berman