When one thinks of folk music, images of a bohemian drifters strumming a guitar singing of flowery tra-la-la's fills the mind. Well, it's not always so pretty in the world of renowned Japanese artist Kan Mikami. He has been swinging his raw and ragged folk for over 20 years and still goes strong to this day. He peppers his songs with his unique voice that is rough and uncompromisingly broken, and revels in dark visions and sorrow. At times, he even screams out his words with a spitting sense of rage. This album is one of his more famous recordings. It's from the 70's and is titled Hiraku Yume Nado Arujanaishi; which means "There is no dream that I want to pursue."
Kan Mikami has been a huge influence to many modern day psyche bands on the Japanese scene (among them would be the black-clad Keiji Haino, who has collaborated with him on a few projects, including the Vajra album which I posted earlier on this site).
Dark, haunting folk talent that demands your attention...
and Jesus...what an incredible cover!
Enjoy
6 comments:
Thank you so much! I've been looking for a copy of this for years.
kan mikami is a real legend. thanks a lot
Very nice, thanks. Any idea what are the song titles?
this keiji haino. do you have any of his stuff?
Here it is on youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpKdKB-VAY
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