Haruomi Hosono、Haruo Kubotaら精鋭が集結。伝説のドラマー Chito Kawachi が提示した、ポリリズムと電子音が交錯する実験的ポップの傑作◎

Asiabeat や East Pulse のリーダーとして活動し、日本の打楽器奏者の第一人者である Chito Kawachi が、Haruomi Hosono (Bass) や Haruo Kubota (Guitar) をはじめ、Mu-Project、K2、Adi のメンバーら多才な面々を招集して創り上げた意欲作。本作は Discipline 期の King Crimson にも比肩する、緻密なポリリズムとニュー・ウェーヴ的な感性が融合した類まれな音響記録だ。

「Bayou」では空中に浮遊するようなダンス・ミュージックを提示し、「Scribble Dance」では Haruomi Hosono による中毒性の高いアシッドなベースラインに、Haruo Kubota の鋭利なギターが炸裂する。印象派のようなアンビエント・ミニマリズムを聴かせる「Sanghyang」や、現代的な電子音の断片が交錯する第四世界音楽「Jagg-chagg」、「Filament」など、全編を通して予測不能な展開が続く。名うての演奏家たちによる職人技と実験精神が、一音一音の分離際立つ鮮明な音像として蘇る待望の復刻盤。

A1. Introduction KULA-kura
A2. Bayou (バイヨー)
A3. Scribble Dance (らくがき)
B1. Sanghyang (サンヤン)
B2. Astral Lamp (無影灯)
B3. Jagg-chagg (ジャグチャグ)
C1. Interlude UTAKATA
C2. Baiyo (Last Night Mix)
C3. Filament (フィラメント)
D1. Heavens Breath
D2. Jagg-chagg (Ambient) ジャグチェグ
D3. Boroboe (ボロボエの吹く朝)

Words courtesy of FOND/SOUND –

What makes チトチック/クラクラ (CHITOTIHC/KULA-kura) so fascinating is that, in some weird way, it’s a meeting of minds and musical language of disparate artists at the forefront of a new kind of groove. There might be no “L” in the Japanese language but that doesn’t stop it from trying to find a working substitute. Similarly, Chito enlisted members from his Asiabeat and East Pulse, others from Mu-Project, K2, and Adi, and brought in Haruomi Hosono to play mercurial bass. In the great expanse of experimental Japanese-made pop music all of them might have gone in “out-there” in separate directions but on this record it was Chito who pointed their focus all on the same track.

“Bayou (バイヨー)” presents this floating idea of dance music with beats and rhythms that hover among the ethereal. Other like “Scribble Dance (らくがき)” use Harry’s acid bass lines to dig cavernous grooves that only come up for air via adrenaline-fueled jumps by Haruo Kubota’s quite Adrian Belew-esque guitar lines. Perhaps, Discipline-era King Crimson is an apt comparison to what Chito and his crew pull off here.

Where Discipline signaled a way to reconcile the most out-there polymeter music of prog with the more satisfying parts of post-punk and the new electronic wave, so to do I think チトチック/クラクラ (CHITOTIHC/KULA-kura) has that bit of heart/spirit in mind. This is the out-there of Japanese experimental music satisfying the best parts of the, then, new electronic wave. It takes a certain degree of proficiency and sheer chutzpah to go from “11” to the wonderfully impressionistic, ambient minimalism of a track like “Sanghyang (サンヤン)”.

It’s the joy of not knowing what each new track will hold and just letting yourself follow the hard-working hands of such learned musicians that brings the most out of Chito’s vision. It’s this very liquid music that keeps you on your toes on tracks like “Astral Lamp (無影灯)”. Tracks like “Jagg-chagg (ジャグチャグ)” and “Filament (フィラメント)” present a fourth world music bifurcated in exponential parts by the glitch of newer, modern, electronic modalities, intersected by expressions by differing voices. Every track you switch to presents a new way to get lost in the many phases and places Chito wants you to travel to.

In the end, as always, it’s not the destination but the journey through it that plants this album in your memory. – Diego Olivas