Polyphonic Cosmos: Sonic Innovations in Japan (1980-1986) (Cease & Desist)

A sonically adventurous compilation of underground sounds from 1980s Japan curated by Optimo’s JD Twitch on his Cease & Desist imprint

Polyphonic Cosmos: Sonic Innovations in Japan (1980-1986) has Optimo’s JD Twitch further the outsider musical connections between Glasgow and Japan (see also The Pastels’ collaboration with Tenniscoats and Kama Aina albums on Geographic, or even just browse Monorail Music) with an essential compilation put together from years of digging in Japanese record shops. These 14 tracks travel unique and often revelatory paths, from the delicate to the propulsive, staking out left of field 1980s territory that you really want to inhabit.

World Standard’s “ばら二曲 (Fellini & Rota)” invites the listener into the world of Polyphonic Cosmos with an evocation of pastoral cityscapes that also, as the title suggests, echoes the collaboration between Federico Fellini and Nino Rota with a Japanese take on 1960s European cinema, conjuring quiet and colourful magic realism. Things take a machine learning synth-pop turn with “M-U-S-I-C” by Normal Brain, where some relative of HAL 9000 repeatedly spells out the word ‘music’ as if attempting to understand its intangible magic. Strip away the quiet spoken word and piano, and Yasuaki Shimizu’s “Crow” sounds rather like a precursor to Angelo Badalamenti’s Fire Walk With Me score, its moonless night ritualistic jazz, elastic Red Room bass and dark drum interruptions the sonic equivalent of stepping through a door within a painting on the wall. These artists were obviously not bound by genre, only by the reach of their imaginations.

Elsewhere, “dB” by EP-4 emits deranged and insistent funk from an interstellar post-punk study group, alien and addictive. Proceedings heat up with Earthling’s “You Go On Natural” which doesn’t so much get under your skin, as takes your body for an amphetamine-fuelled joyride to the cheapest and nastiest dancefloor. Heavy minimalist business, Iggy and Velvets drug chug and a serious outsider anthem then. The repeating avalanche of drums and chant-like invocations of Masumi Hara’s “Camera” stirs up deep time and lands with primal power. Whereas “Meikei” from Geinoh Yamashirogumi is where Steve Reich meets Virginia Astley and can reasonably be described as enchanting, although not politely so – more in the sense that reality is thin here and some extradimensional being may crawl through at any moment.

Polyphonic Cosmos goes out on a high with “Wongga Dance Song” from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Ryuichi Sakamoto. Its everything plus the kitchen sink next level programming makes abstraction as palatable as Paul McCartney’s experiments with synths and tape loops. It’s also apparent that Sakamoto got the jump on Aphex Twin and Squarepusher by years and years, colliding sound worlds without allowing them to cancel each other out – not an indulgence, but rather a natural (if discombobulating) expression of man machine possibilities. It’s a boldly out there finale to a beautifully curated collection of forward-thinking sounds from 1980s Japan.

Cease & Desist Bandcamp

Monorail exclusive edition