Kaia Kater: Strange Medicine

Canadian-Grenadian singer, songwriter, and musician Kaia Kater has been a favourite with the Power of Okinawa for some time. Her three previous albums were all reviewed here, and now, after a wait of six years, she is back with a new one, Strange Medicine.

A few years ago, I was asked to take part in a presentation at Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, along with singer and sanshin player Kanako Horiuchi. She had just returned from trips to Brazil and Senegal where she collaborated on Okinawan roots music with local musicians. After her talk and performance, my role was to introduce some other roots music on video, this time from outside Okinawa.

One of my three choices was Kaia Kater singing and playing banjo on ‘Nine Pin’ the title track of her then current album. (The others were England’s Bellowhead and Korrontzi from the Spanish Basque Country). The audience were gripped by Kater’s performance, and the similarities between banjo and sanshin were noted.

At a young age Kater was already adept in Appalachian music traditions but then broadened the scope with her third album Grenades. The album explored her own Caribbean heritage and is also very much the story of her father who had fled the island of Grenada to arrive in Canada as a political refugee.

This new release is unlike anything she has done before, but also familiar in some ways with a return to prominent banjo playing (and some guitar) within a collection of completely new musical settings. All ten songs are self-composed, and the overall sound is bigger, broader, and more enveloping than before. Lyrically, there is a strong overriding theme in which Kater is more personal than ever in her attempts to turn “poison into medicine”. As she says: “In this case, the bloodletting for me was to sort through my most raw feelings about colonialism, sexism, racism, and misogyny. I focused specifically on releasing emotions I’d previously kept frozen like anger and revenge.”  

Opening song ‘The Witch’ features guest Aoife O’Donovan and sets the tone with a story of a witch seeking revenge on those who tried to destroy her. Its origin is in the 17^th century burning of witches in Salem, Massachusetts. There is a jazzy backdrop, and it seems as if Kater is following in the footsteps of some of Joni Mitchell’s earlier jazz experiments.

But this is very much Kaia Kater too, and her next song ‘Maker Taker’ finds banjo leading on a song in which she pursues her stated goal to disregard outside expectations, and to please herself first in songs and performance. Elsewhere, ‘In Montreal’ reflects on the gravitational pull of her hometown – a city that produced Leonard Cohen, among others – and is a song about a poet feeling lost and aimless. It has another guest musician, Allison Russell, who also grew up in Montreal.

The two outstanding songs on an album both musically and lyrically rich, come together at the centre of these recordings. ‘Fédon’, with a vocal contribution from no less than Taj Mahal, refers to an attempted 18^th century armed rebellion led by Julien Fédon against British colonists and plantation owners in Grenada. It’s a brutal story and the music here is suitably big and brooding.

In contrast ‘The Internet’ may appear delicate and slight on first listen but has claims to be the best track of all. Amazingly it was, says Kater, “a quick write, a couple of verses in a notebook over a glass of wine during the pandemic about how weird it is to talk to people through a screen.” The result is truly lovely. The melodic changes and lyrical phrases are reminiscent of Paul Simon who would surely have been proud to have composed something as good as this.

With Strange Medicine, Kater attempts to address and empower the oppressed with her empathetic vision. Many of her concerns about colonialism, exploitation, fear, and greed, should resonate with people in the Ryukyu Islands, who have suffered so much in the past, and who continue to be exploited today by colonial powers. Having said all this, it’s simply a superb listen and offers some fine medicine of its own as an antidote to the continuing ills of the world.

Strange Medicine will be released on 17^th May by Free Dirt Records.

https://freedirt.net/

https://www.kaiakater.com/

Tadayuki Matsubara: Kaagi Miyako nu Ayagu

For as long as anyone can remember, the name Genji Kuniyoshi has been synonymous with the very best traditional songs from the Miyako Islands. Sadly, he left us at the age of 90 in 2021, just weeks before the recording debut of singer and sanshin player Tadayuki Matsubara. Matsubara’s album Churaumi, Churashima helped revive interest in the old Miyako songs, and he even duetted with Kuniyoshi’s wife Yoshiko.

Now Matsubara is back with his second album release, once again courtesy of Kenichi Takahashi’s Respect Records. The Tokyo-based label continues to support and promote music from the Ryukyu Islands and must be congratulated for developing such a fine catalogue of this music, especially in recent times. The new album’s complete title is Kaagi Miyako nu Ayagu ~ Aoi Umi nu Nyan, Tida nu Nyan ~ and like its predecessor it offers a set of mainly traditional songs from Miyako.

As is usual with Miyako songs, everything is kept sparse and simple with Matsubara’s vocals and sanshin upfront, accompanied on some tracks by Keiko Higa’s shimadaiko. The duo Akamami (Akane Murayoshi and Manami Uechi) also lend a hand with some hayashi or background vocals here and there. The most significant addition however is that of the well-known Miyako singer-songwriter Isamu Shimoji who appears on two tracks.

The opening ‘Bagashinshii’ is a departure for Matsubara as it’s an original composition of his own. The title refers to ‘my teacher’ and is dedicated to his great mentor Genji Kuniyoshi. This is followed by ‘Miyako nu Ayagu’ a standout version of the familiar traditional song on which he is joined by both Keiko Higa and Akamami.

The first get together with Isamu Shimoji is for the song ‘Kinai Wago’ (see video above) where Shimoji joins Matsubara on guitar and vocals. Shimoji plays guitar again on the Miyako lullaby ‘Bangamuri’, a song he also arranged. A different unaccompanied version of ‘Bangamuri’ closes the album. 

Matsubara was born in Urasoe, Okinawa. He was into hip-hop until he had the surprising revelation at the age of 27 that minyo is, in fact, in many ways much the same as hip-hop. He subsequently began to concentrate on the songs from Miyako where his family originates. The world of traditional song is much richer because of this decision and Matsubara is consolidating his place as an important singer while carrying the torch for all the Miyako islands. This is a fine album.   

To promote the album, Tadayuki Matsubara will perform two joint concerts with Isamu Shimoji. The first of these takes place at Live House Output in Naha on Sunday 21^st July. Then the pair move to Tokyo for a second concert at Minami Aoyama Mandala on Saturday 27^th July.

Kaagi Miyako nu Ayagu is released by Respect on 29^th May.

https://respect-record.co.jp

Emiko Shimabukuro: Ryu-Ka

In recent times Emiko Shimabukuro has been known primarily as the fourth member of Unaigumi, the group whose 2015 album Unaijima saw her join three of the original Nenes women to create a kind of super Nenes. Shimabukuro may have been the least known addition to the group for many listeners but, in fact, her pedigree as a top Okinawan singer and sanshin player goes way back.

Born in Yomitan on Okinawa’s main island, Shimabukuro has been the recipient of several music awards, and her first album came out on cassette in 1995. At long last she is now about to release a new solo album Ryu-Ka. For this she is joined by several musicians, most notably Kazutoshi Matsuda (vocals, sanshin), Tatsuya Shimabukuro (vocals, sanshin, Ryukyu koto), and Taichiro Naga (guitar, piano, keyboards). Akane Murayoshi and others also lend a hand.

From time to time, I’ve been known to grumble at some of the overlong albums released in Okinawa that could have done with a bit more editing. Well, the 15-track Ryu-Ka adds up to 71 minutes, but in this case every moment is essential and none of it could or should be trimmed down. The mix of shimauta and more traditional songs is just right, so are the choices of songs, and above all the wonderful singing of Emiko Shimabukuro.

Based on this album alone it’s no stretch to include Shimabukuro’s name alongside some of the great female singers of Okinawa such as Misako Oshiro, Yuki Yamazato, and of course Unaigumi member Misako Koja who herself came up with a very impressive solo album last year.

Things get off to a great start with the classic shimauta sound of ‘Kui nu Hanaori’ and then some superb singing on the slower ‘Agarijo’. The familiar ‘Shimajimakaisha’ is here in a warm version of the song popularised by the original Nenes, and right next to it is Sadao China’s ‘Umukaji’. There are both lively and slower songs, one with piano accompaniment only, another with piano and strings. The album concludes with a hauntingly simple sanshin and vocal performance of Teihan China’s ‘Kataumui’.

Overall, the album isn’t political or particularly groundbreaking in the way that Misako Koja’s was last year. It isn’t aiming for that. Instead, it’s almost a textbook example of how to make a straightforwardly cracking Okinawan album. The vocals are always foregrounded but the contributions of other musicians, with instrumentation as well as additional vocals, all add up to create some lovely results. It’s also clear that a great deal of thought went into some of these arrangements.

Even though a few of the songs are very familiar from their association with other singers and musicians, Shimabukuro somehow makes them her own too with these fine versions. Right from the outset, listening to this album we know we are in the presence of another great Okinawan voice. It’s already one of my favourite albums of the year.

Ryu-Ka will be released on CD by Campus Records on 19^th May.

https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/campus-r-store/30ncd-97.html

Island idyll revisited

Starting in April, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK will be running a repeat of one of their most popular TV morning drama series, Churasan. Originally shown in 2001, Churasan became one of the most loved of all these regular series that consist of daily 15-minute episodes stretched over a period of six months.

Churasan was the first of the morning dramas to heavily feature the Ryukyu Islands as it focused on the fortunes of a family from the small Yaeyama island of Kohama. The life of daughter Eri provides the main storyline and there are many scenes set in Kohama, the island where she grows up, and then later in Naha and Tokyo.

At the time of its first showing, I was living in Mie Prefecture but already immersing myself in Okinawan music and becoming ever more intrigued by the history, culture, cuisine (and awamori) of the Ryukyus. I was a regular visitor, not just to Okinawa but also to the Miyako and Yaeyama islands, and once ventured as far as Yonaguni on a ship that rolled perilously amid rising waves on a three-and-a-half-hour voyage from Ishigaki pursued by a typhoon.

Of course I lapped up Churasan as well, and even bought the three-disc box set when it came out later… paid for by my university research allowance.

Now it is 23 years later, and I’ve been a resident of Okinawa for the past 15 of those years. With news of Churasan on TV again, I thought I’d dig out that DVD box and see how it stands up (or falls) today. Of course, the entire series is much too long for three discs so what we get is more of a “greatest hits”, trimmed to under four hours and focused on protagonist Eri at the expense of much of the filler and subplots involving other characters.

The first shock is just how stereotypical of Okinawa the whole show is. The late Tomi Taira appears throughout as Eri’s grandmother and spends an enormous amount of time gurning or pulling exaggerated faces while spouting wise advice and many platitudes about Okinawa.

We are reminded that life is the treasure (nuchi du takara) and that everything will turn out fine (nankuru naisa) while being shown the beautiful island scenery about which everyone frequently speaks in awe. Eri’s father just loves playing the sanshin at all hours of the day and night, and the family are naturally nourished on traditional Okinawan food. In general, the male characters are treated more indulgently, however lazy, or downright deceitful they may be. Meanwhile, the Okinawan women must just work hard, and look after the men.

Paradoxically, once our heroine moves to Tokyo things begin to improve and the drama becomes more interesting with the introduction of new characters (including Miho Kanno who became a favourite of mine with her later work). Many of the cast are Japanese, not Okinawan, thus causing potential “lack of authenticity” problems but for me this was not a concern. Neither was the absence of any discussion of Okinawan issues such as the unfair presence of the American bases.

This is because Churasan is basically a coming-of-age drama as well as a love story that just happens to emanate from the Ryukyus. If judged on these terms it does its job very well. Ryoko Kuninaka who plays Eri (and is from Okinawa) excels in the main role. The incidental music, and the theme song Best Friend by Okinawan duo Kiroro also serve the drama very well. 

More than two decades on, the Yaeyama islands are now under threat, as are many of the other islands, from the imposition of Japanese self-defence force bases, as well as the continued occupation of large swathes of Okinawa’s main island by the US military against the will of most Okinawan people. Japan’s government moves even further to the right as it uses any excuse to build up armed forces on the islands, making them even more of a target for perceived outside threats.

In 2022, NHK TV returned to Okinawa for its morning drama series produced to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan. This was the dismal Chimu Dondon. Lacking any of the charm of Churasan, it was again full of stereotypes and, although set at the time of reversion and thereafter, it missed a golden opportunity to even hint at any of its disastrous outcomes for the island people.

The peaceful relaxed lifestyle of the Okinawan people presented in Churasan may have been an idealised one, but it was nevertheless strongly rooted in truth. As time passes it is more than ever in danger of disappearing. For all its detractors, Churasan was able at the very least to demonstrate to Japanese that there is a better way to live. This was and remains a great part of its lasting appeal.

This article is also published in the April 2024 issue of Number 1 Shimbun, the online newspaper of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

https://www.fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun-article/island-idyll-revisited

Unmark Rabbit: Natsuyu no Kioku

Hip-hop artist and producer Tatsumi Chibana has long been a friend of the Power of Okinawa and my interview with him at his home in Onna was featured in the book. His own recordings have also been reviewed on the blog. Time passes quickly and it’s almost two years since Tatsumi’s son Kaka released his own album on his 14^th birthday and it was introduced here at the time.

Now the Chibana family returns with Kaka releasing Yume ni Fukukaze, a 12-track full length album of colourful pop songs with extensive use of the Vocaloid synthesiser. The album appeared last week to coincide with Kaka’s graduation from junior high school.

But there’s more. Later this week singer-songwriter Kaka has another release, this time as part of a trio known as Unmark Rabbit. The band’s debut is a seven-track collection under the title Natsuyu no Kioku. As well as Kaka, who wrote and produced all the songs and plays drums and keyboards, the other members are his sister Kiki on bass (she also did the album artwork), and Sho on guitar. All three share vocals.

The seven tracks include some energetic rock while the title track has a lyrical theme reflecting on hopes, dreams, and memories. There are also a couple of keyboard instrumentals, and the piano-led final track is a gentler ballad that ends the set very well.

Natsuyu no Kioku will be released on 9^th March by Akagawara and is available in all the usual places for streaming and download.

longhai@akagawara.com

Umui ~ Movie and Stage Performance

Last July, under the heading ‘Life in an Okinawan Village’, I wrote a piece introducing Umui the documentary film by Swiss-Spanish director Daniel López. The movie focuses on the performing arts in the everyday lives of people in Ginoza. 

To quote myself: “This atmospheric movie manages to explore, in a way both lyrical and down-to-earth, the lives of people in Ginoza, a village in the north of Okinawa’s main island. In doing so it focuses on several individuals, on living traditional festivities, and especially on music and dance. There are some wonderful scenes in which these performing arts play out and the lives of the villagers are revealed… I urge anyone who has the chance, to see it.”

The movie was a huge success and the good news for those in Okinawa, is that it will be screened again soon and this will be followed by live performances from the characters featured in the original film. Both the movie and live show will have English subtitles. This special event will be held at Garaman Hall, Ginoza, on Monday 12th February (a national holiday) and starts at 14:00.

Further details in the posters above.

Roots Round-up 2023

It’s time to look back on 2023. The year was a good one for Okinawan music with some excellent new album releases.

In the Spring there was an important event with the arrival of the 5 CD box set Okinawa Music ~ Memories and Records. With so many compilations available it seemed as if we really didn’t need any more. I usually groan when I hear of another one, but then along came this very fine collection to claim its place as an essential guide to the entire recorded history of music from these islands.

The selections include early and rare recordings as well as recent tracks and some important moments and milestones in a general broad sweep of the recorded music. And to quote myself in the review: “It’s a testament to the huge vitality of music on these islands that even with 92 tracks it still only touches the surface of the musical riches to the found in the Ryukyus.”

So, it was quite early on that this 5 CD box set became the obvious choice for most significant release of the year. Then, only a few weeks ago, arrived the new album Heiwaboshi Negaiuta by Misako Koja, her first for 15 years, and it immediately became my album of the year for newly recorded releases. This 15-song, 68-minute masterpiece carries a strong political peace message, themed around Okinawa’s troubled history. It doesn’t pull any punches, and it may well be the best thing Koja has ever done.

Also, very worthy of note were three other new albums. The first is Shuken Maekawa’s Chaaganju in which the popular veteran reflected on his life and influences along with guest musicians and a blend of traditional songs and modern shimauta. It cements his place as an important singer and sanshin player rather than just the entertainer for which he is usually known.

Next came Hajime Nakasone whose fourth album 縁 – en – is his best yet. The title refers to the making of connections and it contains a wide range of songs sourced from places near and far performed mostly solo with voice and sanshin. There are also some live recordings from Kudaka Island including a duet with Nakasone’s grandfather.

The other outstanding release to come my way was Mystic Islands Dub, an ambitious project by dub engineer, DJ, and producer Harikuyamaku. This dub mix samples some old field recordings from the original 1965 LP-box Okinawa Ongaku Soran and presents them in ways never heard before. A bold and successful venture that preserves the old songs while moving them into a new era.

Keturah (Photo: Randi Malkin Steinberger)

Moving on to ‘roots music from out there’, the first of the two albums to impress me most was Viv & Riley’s Imaginary People. This second release from Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno was a wonderful mix of indie pop and traditional folk recorded in Virginia. My other pick is the international debut by Malawian singer Keturah. Her self-titled album was a joyous affair updating traditional Malawian folk with contemporary rhythms from the African diaspora.

Lastly, to live performances and I very much enjoyed the above mentioned Shuken Maekawa’s concert in Koza to promote his new album along with all his guests. Another very good evening was spent at the end of November in the company of the Hatoma Family from Yaeyama who were in concert at Tenbusu Hall in Naha.

I was able to meet up again with the always cheerful and engaging Kanako Hatoma who was performing with her family band which includes her parents and husband. A highlight of their show was Kanako singing ‘Chidori’ a song written for her by Sadao China and Bisekatsu. It was her first single as a 16-year-old in 1999 and the original recording is rightly included in the Okinawa Music ~ Memories and Records 5 CD box set.

Meeting Kanako Hatoma (left) and guitarist husband Shunsuke (right) after the show in Naha last month.

In my Power of Okinawa book, Kanako was damned with faint praise when I wrote that her great potential remains largely unfulfilled. Well, shame on me. I was only thinking about albums. In fact, many Okinawan musicians have very successful careers that don’t depend on the Western-centric idea of releasing albums at regular intervals and then touring them.

Kanako Hatoma is in a period of great productivity – singing and playing at festivals, live venues, and numerous other events where she is in great demand. The Hatoma Family band has also just finished a successful tour of Japan that began with that concert in Naha. Kanako is singing and playing better than ever. Like Misako Koja, it has been 15 years since her last solo album, and it doesn’t really matter. Her star shines brightly on the Okinawan music scene.

Full reviews of all the albums mentioned can be found on the Power of Okinawa blog. 

Misako Koja: Heiwaboshi Negaiuta

Misako Koja is one of the great singers of Okinawa. It therefore comes as a bit of a surprise that fifteen years has already passed since her previous solo album. In the meantime, she has been very active and has also made a fine album as part of Unaigumi, the group of four women that included three members of the original Nenes.

Now at last she has a new album Heiwaboshi Negaiuta (given the English title ‘Songs Wishing for a Peace Star’). Her two previous albums were produced by Kazuya Sahara and his hand is all over this as well. Sahara’s distinctive style, heavy with strings and guest musicians, means the new album sounds initially very much like its predecessors. However, this is no bad thing when the songs and Koja’s singing are as good as this.

It needs to be said straightaway that this new release is not just a very fine recording but is exactly what the Okinawan music scene needs. The major development is that Koja is now embracing in song all the troubles, sufferings, and protests of her island people in a way that she has shied away from in the past. The result is an album that offers a very strong political message and is in complete contrast to the insipid ‘healing island’ music of many of her contemporaries.

Every track is vital. It all begins with the superb ‘Uchina Uchina ~ Sen to Sanbyaku to Tamakakushi’ (Uchina Uchina ~ Hiding 1,300 Nuclear Bombs). This song, composed by Sahara, sets the tone with its plaintive and emotional lyrics about Okinawa and its tragic history set against a stirring musical blend with sanshin and strings predominant.

The song ends with a rap in a mix of English and Japanese by Kiyosaku from Okinawan rock band Mongol 800. It contains the lines: “Human rights for every Uchina people / Human rights for every island people / Human rights for every native people / Human rights for every minority people … No more war and no more tears.”  

The rest of the album has several compositions by Sahara as well as reworkings of some traditional island songs. A significant chunk is taken up with a seven-track ‘medley’ entitled ‘Once Upon a Time in Uchina’. This song cycle begins with Rinsho Kadekaru’s familiar ‘Jidai no Nagare’, covers three songs by Choki Fukuhara, and ends with ‘Yaka Bushi’. The album then concludes with the simple ‘Hibi Kore Iichi’ (Every Day is a Good Day) with just Koja’s vocal and Sahara’s piano. 

Heiwaboshi Negaiuta is a 15-song, 68-minute masterpiece about Okinawa’s troubled history and a plea for peace. Even the more familiar traditional songs are surprisingly different and are revitalised by the singing, playing, and arrangements. It’s an album full of empathy while at the same time sending the important message (specifically stated in the CD booklet) of the need to fight against authority. Far from being too earnest, it also offers a melodic, immersive listening experience.

The only slight quibble is not with the album itself but with the 32-page booklet. It contains lots of photos and information as well as English translations of all the songs. While it’s great to have these translated, some of the English is a bit clumsy and it’s a shame it couldn’t have been polished into a more smoothly readable version.

Of course, it’s fine to sing of the joys of life on these beautiful islands as so many are fond of doing, but the sorrows should not be glossed over, and these songs address them directly. As Okinawa’s wishes are ignored by its coloniser Japan, and islanders are still forced to host an American war machine, this reminder of its lingering history and uncertain future is very timely.

Remarkably, this year is the 60^th anniversary of Misako Koja’s record debut as a child. She has had a glittering career and has made her mark as a huge figure in the history of Okinawan music. She is singing better than ever and with this wonderful album she may well have achieved her finest moment.

Heiwaboshi Negaiuta is out now and is released by Disc Milk.

http://www.kojamisako.com

Kamiya Family: Yubaru Utakata

This new release features three members of the musical Kamiya family from Tsuken Island, off Okinawa’s east coast. The three are Koyu Kamiya, his daughter Chihiro Kamiya, and son Yukitaka Kamiya. They all sing and play sanshin with a little help here and there from Noriko Kamiya and some other musicians.

Earlier this month, these musicians plus many others lending a hand, joined forces for a Kamiya family celebration concert in Uruma, Okinawa. The live event was a long time in the planning, and it was also decided to record some of the songs beforehand in the studio for a CD release to accompany and commemorate the live show.

By all accounts the concert production was a great success. Unfortunately, I left it too late to obtain tickets and the venue was sold out well in advance. I shall have to be content instead with this recording as an alternative to the actual live performances.

It’s tempting to focus on Chihiro Kamiya as she is probably the best-known member of the family nowadays and her two most recent solo albums (both reviewed here) are some of the very best to come out of Okinawa. She has the gift of being able to tackle traditional island songs alongside pop and shimauta – and does them all equally well. When I saw her earlier this year, she even pulled off a lively cover version of ‘Saturday Night’ by the Bay City Rollers.

This album is more of a diversion or a return to the roots for Chihiro as she and her father and brother take on many of the old songs plus a few of their own including the title track which was composed by Chihiro. Outstanding is Chihiro’s vocal and sanshin on the lovely ‘Inagumi nu Chirasa’ a song written and recorded previously by her uncle Koichi Kamiya.

Of course, this is very much a family affair and Koyu and Yukitaka also contribute greatly to the album with vocals being shared around between the three of them. There is a fine version of the well-known ‘Waido Bushi’ while the gloriously tacky but upbeat shimauta of ‘Tsukenjima Beach Song’ sings the praises of their tiny island.

No especially new ground is broken but these recordings show off three members of the Kamiya family doing the songs and music they so obviously love. For that we should be grateful. It must have been even better if you were one of the lucky ones in the audience at the concert in Uruma.

Yubaru Utakata is out now on Sinpil Records.

https://www.kamiyachihiro.com/

Harikuyamaku: Mystic Islands Dub

In the 1960s, a massive project was undertaken in which field recordings were made all around the Ryukyu Islands capturing the ordinary people, at work and play, singing songs from Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama. Subsequently, a selection of what was recorded was released by Columbia on 16 LPs under the title Okinawa Ongaku Soran. In the 1990s the best of these appeared as a four CD set. Since then, the complete original set has been released on CD.

So much for the history. Now comes a completely new album in a very different vein. This is a dub mix that samples some of these old recordings from the original 1965 LP-box and presents them in ways never heard before. It’s the project of Harikuyamaku, a dub engineer, producer, and DJ from Koza.

For these new recordings he combines some of the original vocals from more than half a century ago with his own electro sounds, and performances by live dub band Gintendan. The results are intriguing and veer from reggae/dub inflections to the occasionally discordant (in a good way) voices of islanders from the past, which makes some of these tracks sound eerie or indeed ‘mystical’.

Harikuyamaku began his musical career as a bassist and played rock and hardcore as well as travelling extensively abroad. He then returned to his roots in the Ryukyus with the release of an album Shima Dub in 2012. A significant event seems to have been his meeting with famed Japanese producer Makoto Kubota and the pair later released Kanasu Remixes as a split 7-inch vinyl.

Kubota’s Sketches of Myahk, released in 2009 as part of his Blue Asia project, seems to be an obvious point of reference here, as the album, generally hailed as a success at the time, bears some superficial similarities with this new release. But unlike that album, which contained new recordings of old songs, Mystic Islands Dub has older sources and they are treated in a less cluttered and busy way.

Mystic Islands Dub focuses not just on Miyako but on songs from all three of the major island groups and has a different focus grounded in dub. The first track ‘Toncharma’ begins with rolling sanshin and vocals before the dub backdrop slips in, and this, like several others, has a slightly subdued and slower pace.

‘Anigama’ is another measured subtle blend that works well with its juxtaposition of haunting vocals with electronics. Meanwhile ‘Machagama’ is livelier with an underlay of ska, while ‘Fuenushima’ opens with percussion and voices to build a mysterious atmosphere. There is a total running time of 40 minutes for the album, which is just right, and nothing overstays its welcome.

In commenting on the evolution of his music and this album, Harikuyamaku says: “When I was about 20 years old, I listened to the CD version of Okinawa Ongaku Soran and discovered the depth of Okinawan music, which led me to start collecting records and listening to a variety of Okinawan folk songs.”

He goes on: “I am very proud of being born and raised in Okinawa, and at the same time sad that it is being lost, these songs are my treasures and have become a part of me… I hope that when people hear the songs, as I did, they will respond in some way, and that it will trigger them to think about the past, the present, the climate, history, and other such things. Even if the songs are too deep and difficult to access as they are, I hope that my remixes will make many people listen to them and have an impact on them, even if only a little.”

Mystic Islands Dub is a bold experiment in presenting old songs in a new way. The question is always whether making the original field recordings more palatable is the ideal way to reach a wider audience and it’s no doubt intended that these remixes might appeal not just to audiences in the Ryukyus but to listeners much further away, including those overseas.

It’s a difficult balance, but far from diluting the old songs, Harikuyamaku has done a fine job of preserving them while moving them into a new era. The originals are always there. Now we have an excellent bonus in the shape of this new album.

Mystic Islands Dub will be released on 3rd November by Nippon Columbia (CD/LP/Digital).

https://columbia.jp/artist-info/harikuyamaku/