Concerning the brilliance of Togawa Jun
Mar. 26th, 2008 05:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus
This is an extension to Sunday's entry about Hosono-tinged 80s Japanese pop; in a late comment, Mario Campos said I should have included Jun Togawa, the extraordinary, zany 80s diva who's like Catherine Ringer from Les Rita Mitsouko, Cindy Lauper, Nina Hagen, Hanayo and Bjork all rolled into one.Mario's right, but it's best to give Togawa an entry all to herself. She's covered so many styles, and worked with so many different collaborators, and touched sublime peaks in each genre. Her voice can range from little-girlish to operatic in a single phrase.
Nicholas D. Kent's annotated discography gives you an idea of the full, dizzying variety of Togawa's work.
Born in 1961, she became an actress and singer in 1979, guesting with a band called Halmens. In 1989 she celebrated her first decade in showbiz with this track, Virgin Blues, an odd tribute to the Showa Era (which ended that year with the death of Hirohito) and to lost virgin innocence:
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Togawa's collaborator here was Susumu Hirasawa, who made "a traditional kind of heroic folk music played on electronics", according to Kent. By the way, don't believe the Wikipedia entry which says that this single was her first and came out in the early 80s. It's not true. In the early 80s Togawa was in two different bands, the avant retro-styled Guernica (with Koji Ueno making the music and Keiichi Ohta the words) and Yapoos. Here are Yapoos in their earlier post-punk incarnation:
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That's pretty good, but more exciting for me is the debut Guernica album, produced by Haruomi Hosono in 1982. Have a listen to Dawn, the last track on the album (the "video" is blank):
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Isn't that just the most ambitiously, crazily great song ever?
Here's another Guernica track in a similar vein:
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Their next two albums had, unfortunately, more of an "authentic" retro sound. Hosono's electronics (actually, they were Koji Ueno's) were replaced by orchestral backing, and Togawa channelled Misora Hibari or went operatic, kissing skulls. Rewriting History is a DVD of Guernica's live performances between 1982 and 1989.
Togawa's greatest straight pop song, for me, is 1985's Suki Suki Daisuki, arranged by Yoichiro Yoshikawa:
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Just the best pop song ever, really! And yet Togawa never really was massive commercially -- she's better known in Japan for her Washlet Toto toilet commercials and her suicide attempts than her songs. Interviewed at the time of the whacky Washlet commercial, Togawa explained that her strict father hadn't approved of her going into showbiz after university, and demanded that, at the very least, she become famous. Advertising toilets was, she thought, the best way to do that! (Her dad's resistance to showbiz seems to have crumbled; he later ran a cabaret.)
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As the 80s turned into the 90s, Yapoos lost focus somewhat. There were shrill James Bond tributes, weird reworkings of Pachelbel's canon in which Togawa transformed into an insect woman, touching tributes to Jean Seberg's Breathless haircut (in Japan it's called a "Cecil Cut"), Gainsbourg covers and faithful reworkings of Brigitte Fontaine. There were albums with songs about sex robots entitled things like "Charlotte Sexaroid's Blues" and "Go! Go! Lolita in Imminent Danger".These days, Jun Togawa is to be found working with the likes of Jim O'Rourke and Otomo Yoshihide. You're as likely to find her on Zorn's Tzadik as pop labels and chat shows. So far, fortunately, her suicide bids have been unsuccessful (they've left some nasty scars on her neck) -- but her sister Kyoko, also an actress, did manage to kill herself. Which is awful: the world could do with more Togawas.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 05:05 am (UTC)Of this decade, Goodbye 20th century is fantastic album of covers!
I am curious about another of Otomo's many fantastic female collaborators Yuki Saga, but I haven't been able to find much information on her, if anyone has any I would be very appreciative
Best,
Meeks
momus is pompous!
Date: 2008-03-26 07:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 08:31 am (UTC)Crazy and Ambitious - yes
Great - perhaps
Once the mario style bad guy music started i lost faith in your statement that the video was blank. I was waiting for some devil creature to pop up and scare the last ounce of normality out of me. It didn't happen, but it made the listening experience rather tense, and certainly added to it. Official video you think?
wewillbecome.com
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 09:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 09:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 11:20 am (UTC)I love it. And I came when she switched to her black mage dress sphere in that video.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 12:38 pm (UTC)Thanks for that, i had actually not seen much of her videos. Yes, you got me there, my short attention span climaxes in Youtube
Im actually a bigger fan of Yano Akiko, who I cannot stop listening to ever and i agree with sakamoto when he said shes one of the few people in japan in that era whose talent really, really stands out. Jun Togawa's novelty eventually wears off for me, tho i still sing suki suki daisuki or densha de go every time i go to a karaoke (those songs are the most widely available) with japanese people. Its usually a cathartic moment. After that, they know they are either with me or against me
i have a new blog in blogger. its easier to update. here it goes.
http://onigiri-shinobi999.blogspot.com/
its kinda random.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 01:35 pm (UTC)TR
awesome entry
Date: 2008-03-26 01:39 pm (UTC)any idea how to get hold of any of this music?
j
Re: awesome entry
Date: 2008-03-26 07:50 pm (UTC)online where you can order it. The album "Tamahimesama" was reissued on
March 14 as a limited edition CD, but apparently it's already sold out.
Re: awesome entry
Date: 2008-03-26 10:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 03:33 pm (UTC)Virgin Blues is a cover of the title song of the 1974 film Virgin Blues, starring the also rather odd Akiyoshi Kumiko.
The "reworking of Pachelbel's canon", Mushi no onna, is not from the 90s, but from Togawa Jun's 1984 debut album. Her first big hit, if I remember correctly.
I have to dig out my old Guernica tie pin...
I met him once in nyc
Date: 2008-03-26 08:54 pm (UTC)I don't know if it is due to early imprinting, but I have always responded to Chinese faces (Emmy - my countess from Hong Kong!) slightly more than Japanese ones. But insta-crush on Jun. My little cho cho san singing her tale of woe. Take it away cho cho.
merrillmomus (http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/merrill/braving.html)
the OED is the collective unconscious of English speakers, he'd say; all of our ideas and feelings are to be found there, in the endless recombinations of our words. He was himself rather shy of ideas in poems. "I avert my eyes from them," he joked, "as from the sight of a nude grandparent, not presentable, indeed taboo, until robed in images."
requiem for a cunt
Date: 2008-03-26 10:10 pm (UTC)Re: I met him once in nyc
Date: 2008-03-27 02:31 am (UTC)what an ignorant rubbish. Lauper is harmless selfulfilling trash, there´s not a term what´s underrated, everything in that liga is litter, Madonna is in a complete different liga, and Suki Suki Daisuki has much more to do with The Sparks as anything you wanted to do it has, besides is so tragic with her history that everone should cry
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-26 09:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 12:24 am (UTC)http://im0mus.livejournal.com/
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 12:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 07:41 am (UTC)... but Cindy was a bit underrated imo, overshadowed by Madonna"
what an ignorant rubbish. Lauper is harmless selfulfilling trash, there´s not a term what´s underrated, everything in that liga is litter, Madonna is in a complete different liga, and Suki Suki Daisuki has much more to do with The Sparks as anything you wanted to do it has, besides is so tragic with her history that everone should cry
It doesn't read like the tosser. And he strikes me more as a lonely drunk, not a cruel-natured person. I'm betting it is David Kamp.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 10:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 01:19 am (UTC)How about..err...Togawa Jun.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 03:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 05:18 am (UTC)the plastics vs. the queen haters
Date: 2008-03-27 05:57 am (UTC)Guernica-related excellence
Date: 2008-03-27 06:35 am (UTC)You may find some of Ohta Keiichi's (disturbing and brilliant) artwork here: http://users.pandora.be/a222166/Dernier_cri/Keiti/index2.htm
Also, if you enjoy Hikashu, you would do well to look for anything by Inoyama-Land (ambient electronic project of Hikashu's two synth players, INOue Makoto and YAMAshita Yasushi). Their first album, "Danzindan Pojidon", was produced by Hosono Haruomi. The artwork depicts a contraption they used on the album, consisting of microphones and speakers placed in a tank of water. It sounds like Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds for Baby" albums meets Brian Eno.
Of course these albums are completely out of print and impossible to find (I think Danzindan Pojidon was only reissued on CD as part of the YEN Box), even rare to come across on file sharing programs, but it's absolutely worth the effort.
Halmens are also good if you haven't heard them- hear the future members of Yapoos and Guernica play Radarman and Densha de GO!, with Suzuki Keiichi producing and sometimes including Togawa Jun and Nomiya Maki on backup vocals. Perfect, right? The albums are even available from amazon.co.jp. There were also two pre-Halmens projects, Shonen Homeruns (their album was just reissued) and 8 1/2, that featured some of the same members and songs.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 06:48 am (UTC)Youtube used to also have the video for Cafe de Psycho, but it looks like it's been deleted. That's a really stunning song. It's almost straight-forward synthpop, but has these unbelievably erie undertones. Pretty unnerving.
Thanks Momus !
Date: 2008-03-27 02:53 pm (UTC)florian
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 07:01 pm (UTC)"Criterion brings home the gold with this disc, offering Americans the chance to finally see Tokyo Olympiad complete and uncut, in original anamorphic widescreen scope ratio, looking and sounding better than ever, and with a terrific commentary track and a solidly produced book of liner notes that could practically be a reference volume on their own. Heartily recommended for sports fans and cinema fans alike."
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-27 10:48 pm (UTC)WHERE THE HELL IS momus???
Date: 2008-03-28 06:24 am (UTC):(
Alter-egos and woman sexualities in Japan?
Date: 2008-03-28 12:47 pm (UTC)I wonder how Hisae thinks about it.
it seems to also relate to postmodernism, and the golden use of parody. Parody doesn't seem to sustain though and sometimes you get stuck in the role you are trying to imitate or between those gaps.
Cobra/
Date: 2008-03-30 03:06 pm (UTC)Cobra?
Date: 2008-03-30 03:08 pm (UTC)this is maybe a little late but....
Date: 2008-04-10 11:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-12 09:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-28 04:52 pm (UTC)Timeline seems very wrong
Date: 2009-10-06 03:42 am (UTC)Re: Timeline seems very wrong
Date: 2009-10-06 08:00 am (UTC)Re: Timeline seems very wrong
Date: 2009-10-10 06:11 am (UTC)