Label: First on Vinyl – FOV5 Format: Vinyl, LP Country: Japan Released: 20 Sept 2023 Genre: Jazz, Folk, World, & Country Style: Contemporary Jazz, Folk
First time on vinyl for ghostly androgynous jazz/gospel inflected post rock masterpiece originally released in 2000.
The labyrinth of Japanese independent music keeps twisting and turning. Every time you think you are getting near to the centre you find yourself turned around again, totally lost. Tsuki no Wa’s Ninth Elegy is a case in point. It’s one of those releases that seems to up-end every thing you thought you knew, hiding in plain sight, out-of-time and floating free of taste and influence. It’s a hard experience to unpick but I’ll try. First and foremost, I think, are the vocals. Spectral and distant but heartbreakingly overwrought, Fuminosuke’s voice is a marvel.Some comparisons might be Jeanne Lee (check Don't Freeze Yourself To Death Over There In Those Mountains), Linda Sharrock, Merry Clayton, Anohni, maybe Tim Buckley; but frankly it’s all moot. The voice is all: angry, pleading, wraithlike or resigned but the music is world class too. Broadly it exists somewhere in relation to jazz, blues and Latin: saxophone, guitar, upright bass, organ, strings, drums. But it floats at ground level through a haunted apartment, constantly destabilised by odd jump cuts, dubby atmospherics and nods to psychedelic pop or spooked exotica.
Basically this one is everything: A total modern classic. (Mint / New)
Tracklist A1 On Mother's Day A2 夜明けのCoffee A3 晴れのち雨 A4 月の重さ A5 Festive In Borotanyo Prelude B1 Festive In Borotanyo B2 丘の上で B3 So Blue B4 Going Home B5 青い月
