Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band - 1978 - Paraiso

Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band

1978

Paraiso

01. Tokio Rush (3:31)
02. Shimendoka (4:44)
03. Japanese Rhumba (3:34)
04. Asatoya Yunta (2:14)
05. Fujiyama Mama (2:49)
06. Femme Fatale (5:00)
07. Shambhala Signal (instrumental) (3:36)
08. Worry Beads (4:28)
09. Paraiso (Haraiso) (4:39)

Haruomi Hosono - bass, vocals, steelpan, marimba, percussion, synthesizer (Roland, Yamaha CP-30), electric piano, gong, whistle, electric guitar 

Shigeru Suzuki (#2,4) - electric guitar

Hirofumi Tokutake (#6) - electric guitar
Tatsuo Hayashi (#1-4,8,9) - drums

Yukihiro Takahashi (#6) - drums
Hiroshi Sato (#1-4,8,9) - synthesizer

Ryuichi Sakamoto (#1,6,9) - synthesizer, piano
Motoya Hamaguchi (#4,6) - percussion

Nobu Saito (#1-3,8,9) - percussion
Masahiro Takekawa - violin (#8)
Teave Kamayatsu - vocals (#3 )
Taeko Onuki - backing vocals/choir (#1,8)
Tokyo Shyness Boys - backing vocals/choir (#1,3)
Hiroshi Kamayatsu - backing vocals/choir (#3)
Tomako Kawada - backing vocals/choir (#3, 4)

All songs written and composed by Haruomi Hosono, except "Japanese Rhumba" by Glenn Miller; "Asatoya Yunta", a traditional Okinawan song and "Fujiyama Mama", written by Earl Burrows with lyrics translated by Seiichi Ida and additional lyrics written by Hosono.

Recorded at Studio "A", Shibaura, Tokyo, December 1977 to January 1978.

An absolutely perfect–if bizzare–summer album. The first track, “Tokyo Rush”, plunks you right into a ripping blues piano and harmonica riff (not to mention a honking clown horn) which results in a cartoony anthem perfect for driving your friends through the city on the way to the beach. It’s hard not to imagine a gorgeous cloudless day, with your feet up on the dash and the wind in your hair–a mood which pops up throughout this album’s inescapable sunniness (especially on tracks like the steel drum-heavy “Shimendoka” and the beachily syncopated “Worry Beads”). Hosono sings in both English and Japanese throughout the album, and on “Fujiyama Mama” comically falsettos his way through a swingin’ sixties-style duet with himself.

For all its silliness, however, there’s an undeniable oddity to these songs that reveals itself the more you get to know them. This record is a remarkable blend of styles, characteristic of Hosono’s musical omnivorousness. He takes Western influences and runs with them, blending funk, jazz, folk, reggae and blues with distinctly Japanese musical tradition (more overt on tracks such as the traditional Okinawan song “Asatoya Yunta”). There is a tongue-in-cheek attitude to Paraiso, especially considering its release in the decade following the rise of the island fantasy sound of lounge exotica. On tracks such as “Femme Fatale”, Hosono distinctly nods to the lounge tradition, but with a twist–the tropical bird sounds in the background are overly compressed, hinting at a canned kind of paradise. On other tracks, however, he leans into real “island” music, flipping the appropriative exotica stereotype on its head. “Shambhala Signal” demonstrates Hosono’s pioneering electronica sound as applied to the ancient Indonesian tradition of Gamelan music, an influence that sticks with him and the rest of Yellow Magic Orchestra throughout their career. It’s interesting to note that this record marks the first time Hosono recorded a track with a synthesizer since he began his career in 1969, especially considering he was later known as a pioneer of electronica.

Only on the final title track does the record give in to the psychedelia bleeding at the edges of the album’s vision–but only for a minute. Soon, Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band are back at the perfectly tropical pop that makes this record so indelibly listenable. This record’s wonkiness and odd melange of styles are nothing short of charming, and there is a subversive peculiarity to it that only grows the more you listen. It makes for a casually genius album that seems effortless in its inventiveness, and begs to be the soundtrack of your summer.

Following Tropical Dandy (1975) and Bon Voyage Co. (1976), Paraiso is the concluding saga in his "Tropical Trilogy." The album can be seen as a turning point in Haruomi Hosono's career, having been newly signed to Alfa Records by label head Kunihiko Murai. Hosono expands on the Van Dyke Parks-inspired tropical funk styles explored in the previous albums, and arrives at a captivating fusion sound that's at times equally earthy and exotic. Hinting at the breakthrough sounds he would perfect with Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hosono uses synthesizers to provide otherworldly textures and a spiritual undertone to songs like "Femme Fatale" and the title track. On his Caribbean-style take on the Okinawan folk song "Asatoya Yunta" and the synth/gamelan workout of "Shambhala Signal," Hosono takes traditional melodies and mixes them into his own inimitable stew. Featuring a host of well-known musicians like Taeko Ohnuki, Hiroshi Sato and his future bandmates Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paraiso perfectly encapsulates Hosono's eccentric worldview that has shaped his solo career, right before his techno-pop project would blast him into the stratosphere.