Always a marriage made in heaven: the voice of Karie, a J-pop queen with a whispery, heavily accented turn of phrase and the convoluted, utterly expressive lyrics of Momus.

She positions herself as Tudor successor to Catherine Parr and, although adopting a cavalier attitude to the facts of English history ("his first six wives had their heads chopped off" - er, no they didn't) the image of a vastly overweight and gout-ridden Henry playing Greensleeves on a lute to a waifish Japanese woman is charming.

Plenty of what I'm presuming are geniune Tudor instruments such as the Hand-Pumped Regal, Sackbutt and Dulcion, performed by the Dufay Collective.

This album has been so amazing to listen to lately. From the beginning riff that is looped and over and over and enventually shifted around 360 degrees with a simple delay into a beautiful guitar arrangement and of course Boris' most notable feedback/fuzz perfection. Much like the new album, this arrangement reminds me of the type of music Godspeed You Black Emperor might make if they were a little darker, a little heavier, and a lot more Japanese. From the solos to the repetition of drums and sludge, I can always throw this on riding the train home and forget about all the ugly bullshit I had to put up with during the day.

I've been looking for a Japanese song with an late 60's/early 70's loungy, yet soulful and deep sound for a while. This song by Okumura Chiyo (Japanese name order, last name first) is the closest track I've been able to find yet. The title means love slave, the beginning lyrics translate something like, "from the day I met you, I've been your love slave, I want to wrap myself around your knee like a puppy..." This song is somewhere between traditional Japanese enka and soul similar to say Nancy Holloway for example. The Japanese instrumentation blends nicely with the bleeding bass and horns. If anyone knows of any other Japanese songs in a similar vein, I'd love to hear some more recommendations.

I found this 7" at the flea market in Meiji-koen. This song was Judy Ongg's greatest hit, released in 1979. It is indeed a great song! On June 16, 2004, a version produced by Yasuharu KONISHI will be released: KONISHI Yasuharu feat. Judy Ongg "miserarete (2004 Version)" (Speedstar/Victor VICL-35626).

Beautifully produced by Garry ASHIYA (part of the unit hige no miboujin (aka La veuve moustachue) with You-ichi KISHINO), this song from the single of the same name sounds a lot like Garry's works with hige no miboujin, creating a sort of classy, elegant 70's atmosphere. Yoko's vocals are fantastic and suit the song perfectly!