The Secret Doctor

[imomus]

Himitsu Hakase is "the Secret Doctor". He's a designer-turned-DJ turned absurdist torch singer who, in 2004, released a mini-album called Pomade on Japanese label Felicity. I think Felicity has some connection to the (now-defunct) Trattoria label via parent company Polystar.

Crooners Parodiques!

The Secret Doctor performs covers of 1960s Enka hits -- the kind of sentimental drinking songs sung by old men in karaoke bars in working class districts of Japanese cities -- backed by a band called The Emperors. He's currently touring Europe with the impossibly cute faux-canine Jon the Dog and their friend Yuichi Kishino, who looks like this and sounds like this.

Pantomime Synchronisé et Karaoke Ultra Pop!

The touring poster showing all three of them is made, I think, by the French geniuses behind Gangpol und Mit, who are probably classified as "kidult electronica". When Hakase and Kishino perform together they become the Gira Gira Knights and look and prance around like this:

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So why am I telling you about the Secret Doctor, Himitsu Hakase, and his Gira Gira Knights? I suppose because my last album is listed on iTunes as being in the made-up genre of "Absurdist Asian Torch", and I'm still interested in the traditional expressivity of Enka music run through a postmodern filter of some kind. I don't mind there being humour in the result (as long as it doesn't become the kind of retro-loungecore comedy act that flourished ten years ago), but there should be emotion too. And here I think Himitsu scores. Have a listen to his lusty rendition of "Yokohama":

Yokohama (mp3).

Is it just the indestructability of the song, or does he sing it like he means it? Does he give it all he's got? If you felt it, you belt it!

Variety shows and their nostalgic melodies!

There's another song here, a chanson-style ode to the city of Kobe. Doesn't he make the reverb soar? It reminds me of the trashy but swashbuckling pop hits the kabuki actors in Shinsekai (where the kabuki theatre shares a building with a run-down porn cinema) swagger-sing while grannies stuff 10,000 yen notes into their costumes.



I think I'd prefer to hear some of the cute uncertainty of Jon the Dog in these songs, or perhaps the eccentric electronic arrangements of Gangpol und Mit dragon-snaking around them. But their ambition is rousing. I think I might have one more album of Absurdist Asian Torch in me.

My favourite song of the moment also has an Asian and absurd edge to it. Here's "The Stitching Song" from Shohei Imamura's brilliant, Brechtian film The Pornographers (1965). It's being sung here right at the end of the film, with one of the sleazy filmmakers now living on a small bobbing black boat, singing insanely to himself as he stitches dolls together -- less trouble, he's decided, than real women.

Stitching Song (Stereo mp3 file, 2.2MB)

Comments

[saidai.livejournal.com]

Wow! I saw this guy (the one of the pictures) on POP JAM (the famous TV show) like 2 or 3 years ago. I thought I would never hear about him again and... here he is!!
haha! That's amazing! Do you know their European Tour dates?

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I love Jon! I've had that Tzadik release for years. Together with Gira Gira Knights (Yuichi Kishino's hair is nothing less than fantastic) makes for a great night out.

Never saw Gangpol und mit before. Arresting images. The editing is simultaneously memserizing and annoying.

designers turned crooners

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

I wunder if they can do "Man Who Sold the World" Enka style?
I am amazed by the Nihon-jin bent, a real performance specimen! What I find even more intriguing is if it is accompanied by folk dancing.

[beiderbecke.livejournal.com]

"the pornographers" is absolutely the kind of film i'd make given half the chance and half the talent. however, i feel there's something so uniquely japanese about it that it simply can't be replicated, or fully realized, by a western artist.

also, a few people (read: a few friends of mine) feel that imamura's films - and this one in particular - could do with about 20 minues cut out. what do you think?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's a great film but yes, my attention did wander. But I tend to think that all films ever made (even those less than 20 minutes long) should have 20 minutes cut out. Alternatively, I need 20 more pounds on my bum.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

I kind of like my enka fairly straight, as I think too much fussing with the framework clutters the vocal line, but that's not to say I don't like what you've posted here or done yourself! It's a relief to hear people playing with the form as when I lived in Tokyo, I despaired at finding anyone of my age who treated my love of enka with anything other than disdain or laughter.

Now, when I visit Japan, my centre has shifted to Osaka and I've found it much easier to indulge my vice around Shin-Sekai. But are you sure those aren't ¥1,000 notes? Surely these Osakan grannies are canny enough to stretch a single stuffing into ten!

(My thanks also for the inspiration of Curly Carl. I'm doing a short appearance at a club soon and am similarly adopting a wigged alter-ego for my enka act. I'm still adjusting the cut of the wig at the moment. At the moment, I'm looking like a sparkly Keiji Haino. With moustache. I'll let you know how it turns out.)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

But are you sure those aren't ¥1,000 notes? Surely these Osakan grannies are canny enough to stretch a single stuffing into ten!

No, they're definitely 10,000 yen notes. Anything less is an insult. But I think it's a frame-up. I think they're plants. A few real old ladies see others giving the big money and follow suit. But most of it is the house's own money. That's my feeling.

Congrats on the enka act!