pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog — music . media . web. culture

I have struggled with alternative/indie/rock music for a few years now. As rock music no longer lives up to the moniker ‘the devil’s music‘ and only energizes bible-thumpers these days, it has ceded its long term cultural role and creativity to hip hop and electronic artists. Artists come to mind who have successfully crossed over from pure electronic music – The Notwist for instance – and then there’s Radiohead, a rock band that throws everything into the mix as it experiments with musical forms to create formidable, genre-bending music. I can also appreciate Band Of Horses, Wolf Parade and Dead Confederate as they warily negotiate rock’s musical landscapes, but the list gets shorter each year.

It’s a pleasure then to have a new Fujiya & Miyagi album arrive in the mail. They describe themselves as being heavily influenced by 70’s Krautrock bands such as Can and Neu! as well as early 90’s electronic music artists such as Aphex Twin. They also share an affinity with Talking Heads’ David Byrne and Underworld’s Karl Hyde for using language as a rhythmic base for songs; picking up words, sentences and phrases to drive each track along, using the cadence of language and commonly used semantic tics as well as products [the beer, Stella Artois, pops up in the lyrics to the song Goosebumps.]

The Can reference is the one that makes most sense when considering Fujiya & Miyagi’s musical roots and especially Can’s late-period singer, Damo Suzuki, who sang in no particular language as he threw out freeform, improvised lyrics. Vocalist David Best (Miyagi) follows a similar path as he chooses rhyming couplets for their rhythmical effect more than for their lyrical meaning – here’s an example, again from the song Goosebumps, ‘Dodecahedron kites with go faster stripes, circling.’

And musically they are very close to classic Can especially that band’s album, Tago Mago. Laying down a bed of analog and electronic beats that rarely shift, their songs avoid the convention of popular music by not sticking to the rote verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. Instead they allow Best full rein as minimal guitars and keyboards enhance the groove. Lightbulb is a true pleasure, a cornucopia of sounds and elements, atmospheres and stirrings that continue to draw you in deeper over multiple plays.

Fujiya & Miyagi are either an indie rock band with dancefloor ambitions or an electronic/analog outfit with indie rock ambitions. Either way they are willing to take risks unlike many of their peers. Lightbulbs is a wonderful musical island in a sea of rock mediocrity – an instant classic worthy of a 9 out of 10.

Fujiya & Miyagi – Uh

Can – Mushroom [2004 Digital Remaster]

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