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Life
[Green Records]
Okihide Sawaki is a dissident member of Tanzmuzik. Totally unknown to Westerners, Tranzmuzik is part of this Japanese generation of electronicians heir to the post-Yellow Magic Orchestra trend. Alike his elders (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiriro Takahashi), Sawaki nurses a preference for Kraftwerk's rigour and mixes his compositions with Zen spirit, in the noblest meaning of the word. On top of a vigorous leitmotiv, one feels a typically Japanese approach of ambient. That is to say an abstract painting of natural elements, only revealing the fluent thought of a lotus (a sentence to be read with eyes half closed to obtain optimum "spoken words of a monk" effect). Tranzmuzik only produced three albums ("Senekaļ" in English edition at Rising High and Japonese at Sony's, "Version Citie Hi Lights" at Sublime's) but each one has left a strong marks on memories. In the middle of the techno trance hype, Okihide changed the genre's codes to develop its own refined version. He's now back with Bambi Synapse, a different identity and above all a more traditional formation taking lots of elements from pop music. The sour voices of the singer Michiyo Watanabe and the abrupt electro of Okihide show a striking contrast, an experience bearing no obvious analogy. Only in some passages will one recognize the misty moments of Lassigue Bendthaus in the "Automatif"'s period but flavoured with Asiatic spices. Don't look for this gem in French record shops, it's only distributed in Japan. Who said we were snobs?
Anthony Augendre |
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