Hochono House, an electronic remake of Haruomi Hosono’s (ex-Yellow Magic Orchestra) first solo album, seems a treacherous doppelganger. It only pretends not to be an alien in this world.
Hosono recorded his debut album, Hosono House (1973), right after the folk band Happy End, in which he had played bass, broke up. There were going to be five more years before YMO’s advent, and at that particular moment, Hosono was way more into his beloved Hawaiian melodies than electronic music. He assembled a 16-track recorder in the living room of his small apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo and transformed his bedroom into a recording studio. The recordings he made there became the basis of one of the most popular albums in his diverse discography.
Hochono House appeared in 2019 to commemorate 50 years of the musician’s professional career. Initially, Hosono planned to stick to the concept of the original record, which was to rearrange the same songs with catchier vocals. But no man ever steps in the same river twice. With this album, the musician is as if looking at his own reflection through the waters of past while it’s evading him, leaving only a distorted picture.
He seems to understand it himself. That’s why album tracks go in reverse order and sound like they are getting through radio interference. 薔薇と野獣 (The Rose and the Beast) reminds you of his collaborations with YMO colleague Yukihiro Takahashi, 恋は桃色 (Love is Pink) tips Kraftwerk a nod. At the same time, 福は内鬼は外 (Demon Out! Happiness In![1]) echoes not only the tropics but also the American rock’n’roll tradition, reconstructing which Hosono spent recent years.
The environment changed too. “Back then, in 1973, you could still feel the Tokyo of old, – Hosono recalls, – but it was already disappearing. We used to lament that with Takashi [Matsumoto, Happy End’s drummer/lyricist] and the others. But now, it’s all gone. I have no emotional attachment to modern Tokyo”.
Sadness is the flavor that distinguishes new versions of the songs from their cheerful, sun-drenched originals. Sadness whistles in Hochono House, like the draught in an old house. You can hear it clearly in the final Rock-A-Bye My Baby played using only an acoustic guitar and a metronome. Like the ghost of the past, it takes on flesh for a few minutes to disappear again in the depths of the old mirror.
Notes:
- “Oni ha Soto! Fuku ha Uchi!”
On Setsubun (節分), the day before the first day of spring on the Japanese calendar, the Japanese throw roasted soybeans at demons, chase them out, and welcome good luck. When throwing the beans, you are supposed to shout, ‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!’
Bad Lemon 