[Mechakucha] Streaming Japanese Prog Live During the Pandemic
By Lawrence Li
Is this the TV era all over again, when we were supposed to tune in at the designated time for a show? Live streaming is all the rage during this awful coronavirus outbreak, and it’s become a fulltime job just to keep track of all the online concerts across different timezones and platforms. Two of my favorite Japanese progressive musicians have been streaming on YouTube since mid-March. They are virtually unknown outside Japan except maybe in some european progressive rock communities. This is a crime.
The nomenclature is a bit problematic though. Guitarist Kido Natsuki and violinist Tsuboy Akihisa, who have been playing as Era (pronounced ii-ra in Japanese) since 2000, call it ‘the world’s tiniest prog rock unit’. Can a band without drummer be a rock band? This is less an issue in Japanese, because the term for progressive rock—puroguresshibu rokku—is often shortened to purogure. Since the ‘rock’ part is stripped, any band that plays polyrhythm, explores unconventional tone colors, embraces virtuosity, and incorporates ethnic musical elements can be filed into the department of purogure. And that’s what Era does.
Both Kido and Tsuboy are incredibly prolific. They started in the 1990s with more genre-conforming prog rock bands: Kido’s Bondage Fruit is a zeuhl band according to progarchives.com, and Tsuboy’s KBB has that typical synth-heavy Italian prog rock sound. While these two bands are still performing, Era is their nexus today. Since 2000, it has released five albums, reinterpreted and re-recorded the second one (Totem), and is about to release the re-recorded version of the third one (Three Colors of the Sky) this summer. They play about ten concerts every month, all in tiny live houses to no more than fifty people. While five albums in twenty years may not sound like much, they both lead or participate in at least half a dozen groups in addition to Era. For Kido, there are Arcana (guitar/piano/quena flute trio), Umezu Kazutoki’s Kiki Band, Fretland (a trio of three guitarists), Korekyojin (another zeuhl band featuring the famous avant-garde drummer Yoshida Tatsuya), Pere-Furu, Coil, and the neo-Tango (!) band Salle Gaveau. Tsuboy can be found in CyberTribe (violin/guitar/percussion trio), Oofujitsubo (accordion/guitar/violin trio), Trinite, Pudding Tai (piano/violin duo), Pochakaite Malko, WAWAWAWA (violin/tabla duo), etc. The lists are by no means exhaustive.
It’s impossible to even casually write about all these groups in one article, but I think the best way to think of these musicians is to see them as top session players who also happen to be first-rate composers. Imagine members of The Wrecking Crew release their own works on the side under their own indie labels. I’m also reminded of the composer-performers of the 19th century, because the scale of Kido and Tsuboy’s live shows is probably not much bigger than that of a salon in which Chopin performed. In this day and age, there’s something about this modesty that speaks to the deep exquisiteness of their music.
Anyway, here’s a list of some of their recent concerts, which were streamed live but also archived for posterity. I’ll pick a highlight for each show in case you need motivation. If you enjoy it, please consider supporting the musicians by buying from their online CD shops (see respective YouTube links).
Arcana (April 22, 2020)
[Aug 28 update: this video is no longer available] This one was streamed last night. Before this band, I knew nothing about the quena flute from the Andes region, but it works surprisingly well here. Check out the new song ‘Tsurusareta otoko’ (Hanged Man) composed by Kido at 2:12:31.
Era (March 13, 2020)
This is the first live streaming Tsuboy produced during the coronavirus outbreak, and the only one without multiple cameras. The highlight here is ‘Forest is Burning’ at 50:24, which is the title song of their fifth and latest album. The two had been playing this one in concerts throughout 2019 before it’s officially released, and they used to call it by the working title of ‘mori metaru’, or ‘forest metal’. You’ll know why after listening to this live version.
Cyber Minzokudan (March 26, 2020)
The Japanese name of CyberTribe—Cyber Minzokudan—means ‘cyber ethnic band’, and what makes this band ethnic is percussionist Watanabe Yosuke’s one-of-a-kind drum kit, which is built around two tambourines placed horizontally and played like the usual tom-toms. This creates a softer, slightly muffled sound texture which—to me, at least—contributes to the ‘ethnic’ feeling. Watanabe is also a fantastic beatboxer, evident in this piece called ‘Tsuki to hoshi no odori’ (The Dance of Moon and Stars).
But if you just want to listen to one song from this concert, make it ‘Grunge’ (48:22).
Era (April 9, 2020)
Let’s go straight to 2:17:41 for the last one before encore. ‘Crawler-A’, an intense piece composed by Kido from Era’s first album, also appears in Umezu Kazutoki’s Kiki Band’s 2002 album Land Dizzy as simply ‘Crawler’.
Oofujitsubo (April 20, 2020)
The name of the band is simply the combination of three members’s surnames: guitarist Oota Mitsuhiro, accordionist Fujino Yuka, and Tsuboy Akihisa. The piece ‘Shunpumanpan’ (Sailing in the Spring Breeze, 20:19), composed by Oota, exemplifies the group’s rustic and tranquil sensibilities. If it’s perfect for a spring without Covid–19, it’s even better for a spring with it.
And guess what, there will be a new live by CyberTribe tonight at 20:00! (Tokyo time, UTC+9) Do tune in if you like what you hear above.