Its always refreshing to know that older artist you grew up listening to still have "the sauce", and they can still turn out great music years later. It's kind of like seeing an old friend years later and knowing that he's doing great in life. That's kinda' how I felt after hearing Taeko Ohnuki's voice in the new song "Ohayo"( (おはよう) / Good Moring).
Produced and arranged by the artist STUTS, Ohayo feels like the perfect marriage between Ohnuki's 70s sophisticated jazz sound and the modern indie/ lo-fi vibe that us chronically online folks have grown accustomed to. We even get a relaxing music video accompanying the song, which I gotta say, this is probably the best music video I've seen for a City Pop song, ever.
We follow a day in the life of nameless woman as she runs her motorcycle garage, located somewhere what looks to be Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). We even gets some lovely shots of Enoshima Island in the background as she rides her own bike down the highway as she greets all her neighbors throughout the peaceful coastal town. We even gets some cameos from SPUTS and Ohnuki scattered throughout the video.
If you want to get a good sense of his style, I'd recommended checking out his Tiny Desk concert.
Overall I think Ohayo is the perfect marriage of old & new and show cases both artists strengths very well. I think anyone who misses the easy listening quality of Taeko Ohnuki's music and those who are on the search fore more beats to study to will both be satisfied.
Glad to know that someone else has enjoyed this one with STUTS and the eternal Ms. Ohnuki.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one to keep tabs on new music/artists so this one caught me by surprise!
DeleteTaeko Ohnuki is incredible. 72 and still singing, present for the new generation when they need a timeless touch.
ReplyDeleteHer voice hasn't aged in 50 years, simple and charming. A timeless musical treasure.
About STUTS, I don't have much to say. That's just a one-off and occasional collaboration (can't compare with the life long link between Taeko Ohnuki and Ryuichi Sakamoto, of course) and the rest of his work has not really interested me so far (can't put my ears everywhere). But at least, I admit he had some good taste for this title. Taeko Ohnuki's lyrics and voice bring something incomparable.
I don't know what connection the younger generation has with Taeko Ohnuki's work but this title can only strengthen it and that's a good thing.
Ohnuki has that amazing voice that she's applied in a number of genres. I think one commenter put it as "very pure". As for STUTS, I still don't know very much about him but I'm willing to keep my ears and eyes open regarding him and some of his other contemporaries.
DeleteIn fact, about STUTS, I can say some things about his background and the musical world he represent. He belongs to a new generation of "music makers" (I avoid deliberately the word "musicians" and I’ll explain why) that emerged in the late 1980s alongside the rap / hip-hop / house wave and the launch of a new tool by the manufacturer AKAI : the MPC (for MIDI Production Center ; MIDI being a multi-channel communication standard for electronic instruments invented a few years earlier, a true revolution). I remember, at the time I was working in the field, the arrival of this new tool was somewhat misunderstood (or underestimate), seen as a kind of bastard super drum machine also acting as a sampler, sequencer, and trigger for a MIDI kit. Among the older generation, those raised before the MIDI era having to learn to play and juggle between keyboards (just watch a YMO live performance to see what I mean), its acceptance was mostly due to the name of its inventor, the american engineer Roger Linn, already creator of some legendary (and expensive) drum machines. I don’t know exactly what he had in mind, but it was likely quite close to our own vision (following the needs we can imagine). Personally, I didn't really see the point in a studio where we already had all these features in a better version on different machines ; but why not on stage, to spice up a live performance. And it is precisely on this point, and through the encounter with a new generation that had not learned to play an instrument but had musical ideas and desires mainly based on rhythm, that the miracle took place. This allowed them to sample sounds and instrumental parts and play them on demand mixed with new rhythms. A bit like a DJ, but infinitely much richer and more creative (sorry for the DJs who thought they are musicians...). Some even have become true experts on this new tool, making it their own musical instrument (as a tool to make music ; that's the same for a pianist and his keyboards). And STUTS is one of them, seen as a true prodigy in his early days (there are MPC videos with him on YouTube). That’s how he broke into the music scene. However, in my opinion, the MPC can't be considered as a fully-fledged musical instrument, except perhaps for its rhythmic aspect. But on the melodic side, we're not going to be able to do much with only a 4x4 pads to play compared to the 88 keys of a piano (or 61 for most synthesizer). Much like with AI today, there needs to be a prior source and therefore real musicians to have recorded it. For example, for an album by the rap group in which my older daughter played the harp, the guy who directed the recording had a silly desire for a piano part and he spent a whole night programming it note by note on a sequencer. And that was on a computer, using musical staves ; on an MPC, it would have taken him the whole week, and even then... If he had asked the harpist's father, it would have been settled in less than half an hour 😁
DeleteWell, you see what I mean. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that this tool has allowed a new generation to enter the world of music, and that is always a good thing in my opinion. STUTS is proof of that. They may not be musicians in the classical or complete sense, but they nevertheless make music.
Sorry, that was a bit long and technical, and I talked about myself...
It's definitely a miracle that Ohnuki sounds almost exactly the same after all these years.
DeleteI understand where your coming from about the STUTS not being a musician in the traditional sense. That being said as someone who grew up with hip hop, I have to push back on the MPC (or any sampler) not being a real instrument. People like Grandmaster Flash and J Dilla already proved that sampling, mixing, and scratching are an artform into themselves and have breathed new life into old songs because of it. J Dilla especially has been able to, almost supernaturally, ben able to create a whole new song/melody out of a piece of one song. Some of my favorite songs have been made by people who don't use traditional instruments. I can't do what he does, so as far as I'm concerned, as long as your making music, you're a musician.
Hello, Stephane and thanks for your strong opinions on distinguishing between a musician and a music maker. I can understand your feeling on STUTS not possibly being a musician in the classical sense...perhaps he could be someone like that in the digital sense. But I haven't heard enough of his discography to make that determination. I would think that like someone who's behind the wheel of a self-driving car, that driver would still need to have had training and experience behind the wheel of a regular car to be allowed to "drive" that self-driving car, and perhaps STUTS himself has had some formal training whether it be when he was a child or during his career.
DeleteFrom what little I know of a MIDI or MPC and how they operate (I saw some of the YouTube videos and a lot of the instructors unfortunately seem to prefer talking about how to do it rather than actually play the thing), the devices take samples of various types of pre-existing music and splice them all together to create something through tapping the pads (albeit as a non-musician, my description is perhaps simplistic).
I can imagine people (especially those who created the songs that have been sampled by MPC performers) taking some umbrage about their works being chopped up and ingested to create something else (a bit Frankensteinish). At the same time though, while traditional musicians have to take care about how forcefully to breathe, how quickly or delicately to strum or move the keys, I think MPC or other digital performers also have the burden of talent on how quickly to "dance" on the pads and how to create something pleasant from the pieces of music they sample. Maybe not musicians in the classical sense, but still musicians. Listening to the young lady below, I know that I don't have that talent or imagination to create what she did.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-83btePgPtg
Would I want STUTS and other track makers taking over music with their MPCs? Of course, no way. I will always appreciate a real orchestra playing anything by Vivaldi or a jazz combo playing "Waltz with Debby". But I think there's always room for the organic and the digital.
This is a rather pleasant-sounding tune with a kind of classic arrangement, but it is from 2026 at it is wildly different from everything else I have heard that was released in 2026!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm happy that some of these somewhat anachronistic tunes are still popping out from time to time. I'm not hugely into the contemporary aidoru scene or rock so it's nice to hear something mellow.
DeleteThe flute sounds like it could be by Bobbi Humphrey or the band "WAR" from the 1970s. Perfectly retro.
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