As I've mentioned before, I'm like my five-year-old self lost in a department store (five minutes away from getting screamed at by Mom for not sticking by her side) when it comes to the many genres within electronic music. I have never heard of grime music before aside from the fact that it originated in London around a quarter of a century ago. For those who are also unacquainted with the genre, you can take a listen to the samples above.
But apparently, this musical collaboration between Yellow Magic Orchestsra's Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Japan's David Sylvian called "Bamboo Houses" is seen as a prototype for grime music, some twenty years before it was actually born. Released as a single in July 1982, it's been labeled on Wikipedia under electronic, avant-pop, New Wave, proto‑grime and synthpop. Within my personal limited knowledge, I can definitely go with the technopop and New Wave and I'm sure back when it was released, most kayo kyoku fans were probably remarking "Uh, yeah...that's the Professor going weird on us again!". Indeed, it is original. Even the cover with a pouty Sakamoto in dapper tie, shirt and suspenders...and eye shadow probably took people's breath away.
I'm not sure about the bamboo house, but strangely enough (and perhaps as of this writing, I'd eaten too many roasted peanuts), I kinda think the collage of sound in "Bamboo Houses" makes me feel as if I were stumbling through a crystalline forest of bamboo trees. But at the same time, it's oh-so-Sakamoto! Several months later, the Professor and Sylvian would work together again on "Forbidden Colours" whose variant song is known under a much more famous title.
What fascinates me about “Bamboo Houses” is that it doesn't sound quite like YMO, and it doesn't quite sound like Japan either. Sakamoto provides the kind of tightly designed electronic environment you'd expect from someone emerging from YMO: sequenced or machine-like rhythmic repetition, sharply defined synthesized timbres, and a strong sense that individual sounds have been deliberately placed rather than simply played by a conventional rock ensemble.
ReplyDeleteBut Sylvian changes the emotional temperature completely. His low baritone is cool, close and almost detached. Instead of attacking the electronics rhythmically, he seems to float across them.
So there are two different conceptions of time operating simultaneously:
Sakamoto: exact, patterned, mechanical, architectural
Sylvian: languid, ambiguous, inward, almost weightless
That opposition becomes the song's personality.
Hello, Brian. I think then that both Sakamoto and Sylvian should be quite proud of "Bamboo Houses". Just from remembering Sakamoto's creation of the jingle for Daiei Supermarkets, The Professor has those two sides of composition: one seemingly fun and daffy when he's asked to create something for other artists (unless directed otherwise), and then the flowing classical side for his own compositions.
DeleteAH, that is a good point! He figuratively speaking has more than one hat or mask. I love that versatility.
DeleteSometimes, though, in a humorous way, I think he may have been rather grumpy about having to make the fun and daffy ("Sir! I'm an artiste! Not a jingle-maker!). Still, he was darn good at it along with his more serious stuff.
DeleteRe: versatility... I think I've mentioned this here before but I've noticed that in Japan it seems much more acceptable for artists (of all kinds) to switch between "high" and "low" art than in the west, where they tend to get pigeonholed/typecast as one or the other. The Professor's huge success in multiple areas of music being the perfect example.
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