Monday, May 14, 2007

HACO be thy name


HACO is a very well known Japanese artist who first came to prominence back in the 1980's when she fronted the amazing baroque avant-prog pop band, After Dinner. From then, she has been in several small groups and has worked with lots of big names on the international scene. Her style is unique and carries a strong personal identity to her sound. She is a performer who gains respect from me because of her great sense of musical timing and the guts to take risks with her art.

Happiness Proof
is one of Haco's several solo albums; and it's a very fun, playful, and friendly record that has a sort of unpredictable avant-pop feel to it. This is fairly approachable stuff, and nothing here harks back to her time in After Dinner; but yet this stands alone as the work of an artists who is able to meld the sounds of pop melody with a bit of a twist.

It should be noted, that Haco is aided here by a smattering of great musicians, including Otomo Yoshihide, Yamamoto Seiichi (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba), Tsuyama Atsushi (Omoide Hatoba, Acid Mothers Temple, Akaten), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (Ground Zero), and Pierre Bastien!

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