Kazuhiko Katoh - L’opera Fragile (1980).
Recorded at Hansa Studios ‘By The Wall’ in West Berlin by Japanese guitarist and songwriter Kazuhiko Katoh and his mates, including all three of the Y.M.O. boys, this is an album of thrilling juxtapositions and wild, almost giddy, left turns!
At times the album is gloriously theatrical, refracting Brecht and the Weimar Republic, all high drama, chorus lines and knowing winks and nudges! Yet before one mood can take hold the song will swing off into a wild knees up Ska stomp or a glistening New Wave inflected groover. There is also a detour into glowering, frayed and rugged, electronic ambience with the tune ‘S-Bahn’, Cluster blinded by the neon lights of downtown Tokyo!
The album is coated in a sheen of Dubwise production, drums echoing around the mix and different elements of the song seemingly popping up at random in unexpected places!
Like an intoxicated, head spinning, blurred view from a speeding train, images and sounds atom smashing into each other to reveal bright new forms!
A dramatic and playful cousin to Haruomi Hosono’s majestic, day-glo ‘Omni Sight Seeing’ travelogue.
Well worth exploring!
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