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!