Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Masami Tsuchiya feat. Ryuichi Sakamoto -- KAFKA

 

I've heard of author Franz Kafka and the adjective that he left us all: Kafkaesque meaning (according to the "Encyclopedia Britannica") to describe "...isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity"

Catching Kafkaesque movies was never one of my pointed priorities in pop culture life but I think I have heard or seen a few such as Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and then there was the B-plot in the overall OK "Ocean's Thirteen" with the poor hotel inspector going through his own existential hell as part of Danny's overall plan of revenge (happily, he gets a handsome reward in literally the final scene).

Strangely enough, I figured that if Kafkaesque ever deserved a soundtrack, there would be either a sinister French accordion or a boppy technopop layer. Well, I have apparently won the lottery since Masami Tsuchiya's(土屋昌巳)"KAFKA" featuring the Professor himself, Ryuichi Sakamoto(坂本龍一), has both (well, the accordion was actually a pianica). Sakamoto wrote, composed and arranged (and played most of the instruments for) this song with Tsuchiya on the electric guitar and Sakamoto intoning some lyrics hinting at a garbled incomplete message driving any Kafkaesque victim insane with frustration. The music also hints that the poor schlub must be going through some really horrendous battles.

"KAFKA" was placed onto Tsuchiya's June 1982 debut album "Rice Music". Might I say that Tsuchiya looks very handsome/pretty on that cover? He looks like a New Wave bellboy!

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