Dusted Reviews
Artist: Jun Togawa
Album: 20th Jun Togawa
Label: God Mountain
Two Decades of Covers
Celebrating Jun Togawa's 20th year in the entertainment business, this
half-hour mini-album originally released in 2000 is here reissued with a
bonus CD-EP accompanying the first 1,000 copies.
As a 20th-anniversary release, this collection of covers makes a great deal
of sense. Ranging from lounge jazz to ominous experimentalism, 20th hits on
quite a variety in between, and demonstrates Togawa's unique take on things.
Brigitte Fontaine's "Comme a la radio" starts things off on a smoky jazz
angle, a loping rhythm buoyed by clarinet and cello. Togawa's singsong
vocals move in harmony with the clarinet, only occasionally going off on
their own tangents. Very different is "Finale", a 1980 song from the
notorious Japanese avant-garde artist Phew. The music consists of slow,
spooky sound effects and a fuzzy sort of bass line, courtesy of The Saboten
(producer Hoppy Kamiyama, Saguaro, and DJ-Force). Togawa's vocals are
chanted in a sort of naive way, in steady syncopation with the bum-bum-bum
bass.
As expected, "Joe le Taxi" ? a Vanessa Paradis song ? is a cute pop tune,
complete with a jazzy sort of guitar and plinky piano. Emi Eleonolafs (of
DemiSemiQuaver) accordion is a nice touch. The song builds to a nice peak
with a good, nasty guitar solo. On the anti-pop side, Patti Smith's "Because
the Night" follows with eerie background noises from electric cello, noise
guitar by Otomo Yoshihide, and loops by Kamiyama. The abstract noises create
an interesting bed for Togawa's strained, harsh vocal rendition. It's pretty
effective, but is definitely not a casual listen.
Slapp Happy's "Casablanca Moon" is a somewhat more faithful version,
complete with accordion again by Eleonola, rubbery bass and guitar, and
Kamiyama's martini lounge piano. It's a fun piece. The set finishes up with
a droning play-through of the Velvets' "All Tomorrow's Parties" that's
closer to Nico's solo version than the original. Creepy synthetic background
sounds by The Saboten underlie Togawa's loose, not-quite-free-form vocals.
It sounds like the guitar of the original version may have been sampled to
form part of the sonic backdrop, while the rhythm is a ponderous, glitchy; a
mechanical sort of clanking and hissing.
The bonus CD included with the first 1,000 copies of the mini-album contains
two tracks over 10 minutes, recorded at a Jean-Luc Godard tribute event in
June of 2002. The live performance was a collaboration with Kamiyama on
piano and a string quartet. The first piece, a few minutes long, is
"Movement #3" from a Godard homage. Vaguely atonal strings and free-style
piano interact with Togawa's vocals for a dramatic effect. The second piece
is a seven-minute "All Tomorrow's Parties" with a string quartet, featuring
an impassioned vocal performance that's unfortunately a bit too unsteady for
my taste. The piano, guitar, and string combination, however, is thoroughly
fascinating.
By Mason Jones
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