About

Haruomi Hosono’s career has taken so many twists and turns that if you randomly chose five of his records, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re hearing five different artists. He helped pioneer Japanese-language rock with folk rock band Happy End, spoofed Western “Oriental” “exotica” tropes, pushed synthpop forward with Yellow Magic Orchestra, and helped bring ambient music to the Japanese masses. That’s not to mention his pivotal role in city pop, his myriad of late-period lounge records, his versatility as a bassist, or that his 1984 LP Video Game Music was the burgeoning genre’s first full album. Among the hundreds of projects Hosono’s had a crucial hand in, some are essential, groundbreaking pop records while others are just Hosono messing around on an E-mu Emulator for 40 minutes. Despite the stylistic diversity, his exploratory nature and seeming disregard for perfection runs consistently throughout his five decades of output. Hence why an accidental masterpiece that he’d completely forgotten about is only a year separated from four records that sound like a 10-year-old was let loose in a studio.

His 1973 solo debut Hosono House wasn’t the start of his career, but the first development towards forging his own path. That year, Happy End broke up after a short but important three-album run. Their self-titled 1970 debut paved the way for Japanese-language rock music at a time when singing Japanese lyrics in a Western genre was frowned upon (critics lambasted frontman Eiichi Ohtaki’s singing for being unintelligible), 1971’s Kazemachi Roman was a concept album about growing up in pre-Olympics Tokyo, while their (also self-titled) 1973 farewell recorded in LA was a dreary affair buried in mud by producer Van Dyke Parks. Bassist Hosono, who grew up during America’s post-war occupation of Japan, once remarked “...always listened to that music on Far East Network, the US military radio station. So almost all of the music I listened to was in English. I was thoroughly Americanized, I even regretted that I wasn’t American.” Tired of America and each other, the members of Happy End returned to Japan and broke up.

Needing a break from Tokyo, Haruomi Hosono moved to an American-style house in America Mura, Sayama, Saitama Prefecture. Originally built for American military families during the occupation, it was the closest he could get to America within Japan. There, he recorded Hosono House using a 16-track Ampex MM1100 tape machine and engineer Kenji Yoshino’s Sigma mixing console. It’s a short, comfortable-sounding record whose homely, domestic charm has proven its lasting appeal. It continues the folky country rock of Happy End’s third album, though more relaxed and a bit more musically diverse. “Choo Choo Gatagoto” rocks while still being chill, “Fuku Wa Uchi Oni Wa Soto” hints towards some of Hosono’s quirks soon to take full focus, “Boku Wa Chotto” is a beautiful ballad, and “Rock-A-Bye My Baby” is a cozy bit of bossa nova. Hosono regards Hosono House as unfinished and called it “virtual American country,” and while he’d soon go onto more interesting and essential things, it’s still a worthwhile listen and an important early moment in his career.

In 2019, Hosono rerecorded Hosono House as Hochono House, which Victor/Speedstar repressed on vinyl as part of this “Hosono House 50” campaign. Hochono House sounds like its album cover looks: Hosono House filtered through 1984’s heavily electronic S-F-X, but done by old, lounge-era Hosono. It inverts the original tracklist and drastically changes the sound yet keeps the original’s vibe. It’s just as good, albeit different. The new vinyl is a straight repress of the 2019 original mastered by Tohru Kotetsu. — (via Label)

↓
Label: Victor, Speedstar
Series: 50 Hosono House
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Repress
Reissued: 2023 / Original Release: 2019
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Experimental, Synth-pop, Folk

File under: Japanese Electronic
⦿