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Return to Main Page Return to Reviews Page MAKOTO KUBOTA & BLUE ASIA This Japanese producer has a musical history which extends back into the 80s with his group The Sunset Gang and then later The Sunsetz (i haven't heard any of either.) i guess about the late 90s, he and friends developed the music project which has become Blue Asia. to me, what these people are doing is reinventing Exotica, only now it is AUTHENTIC and not an imaginary one. each of Blue Asia's albums focuses on a particular cultural area. the four members reach out to musicians who have mastered the unique instruments of their homeland and invite them to record. each of these albums is entitled "Hotel" which is followed by a location name in the region. so Hotel Bangkok is Thai. Hotel Waimea is Hawaiian. and so on. In addition, Kubota himself has been compiling wonderful companion discs which are "Cafe" placenamed and collected from the numerous recordings in the Asian label, King Records' massive collection. Each album is like a delectable plate of unfamiliar cuisine. almost like a cybertourist, one finds each new song is a completely different sidetrail or alleyway in some shockingly new landscape. different tunings create radical shifts in feel. the pieces are all influenced by the music of the region and often there is a cover of a traditional. the singers are locals too. voices and ambient nature sounds from the homeland are intertwined throughout. while being very acoustic and true to the sound, in the spirit of Cheb i Sabbah's concept of "mixology," much of each album sounds completely postmodern, with traditional rhythms hooked up to hiphop, reggae or funk patterns. particularly in the later releases, i believe i hear some influences from Deep Forest and Wiliam Orbit, but if that is the case, THIS is the direction i always WISHED those guys would go in. the production is scintillating and i've often found myself comparing it favorably to the big, lush sound of Steely Dan or Orbit at their best levels of production. there are lapses - like where the pick-up on an acoustic guitar has a little buzz - but really it all seems to work and perfectly blend relaxing downtempo atmospheres. and this sounds much more authentic and "natural" than what say Makyo is doing (which feels fairly synthesized) and also his interests are mostly arabic and of India. this stuff is mostly southeast asian and Oceania (which i've been LONGING for!) I will write at length on these soon, but am giving my HIGHEST recommendations to: Spirit Of Healing - Bali (Della, 2005) Completely enthralling 50minutes of Balinese music and not just the gamelan but also jegog and other stuff, intermixed with modern beats and the Exotica sensibility. Features beautiful local singing and chants, field recordings of the local fauna, distant conversations in thai. some of the modern stuff sounds like it is mixed with french and hence cajun musics. the Kubota production touch and keen aesthetic is present throughout. Spirit Of Healing - India (Della, 2006) Oh, yeah, this album has to be considered among the cream of the crop in asian underground. this is better than Talvin Singh or Midival Punditz. it is like picking a perfectly prime stone fruit that still has the morning chill on it from a tree and eating it in the warm late morning air while watching the last of the mist disappear from the valley. it is like the sheer refreshment one feels when diving in the ocean after a long day in the sun. man, this is WAY better than Karsh Kale or Tabla Beat Science. you may have heard asian underground before, but have you heard it done by top asian musicians under the production of an ace producer STEEPED in the music of the region? and that is one of the cool things here: this actually IS the music of India with a subtle AUTHENTIC east asian twist! i would get rid of all my music by those other artists to keep this one. (good thing i don't really have to *heh*.) Hotel Ibah (King Records, 2001) i believe this is the first Blue Asia record. nearly 70 minutes and quite perfect in every way. it is based on the music of Bali, but here things are less sedate than on "Spirit Of Healing-Bali." in fact, it gets downright joyous, the kind of vibe i remember from the first Deep Forest disc that they for some unknown reason never got back to. this disc is like a mini-vacation. you can never predict what the next song is going to be like. the production pays great attention to detail and many times one is simply struck in awe with the beauty of it all. of all of these Kubota releases, THIS is the disc that i start wishing would never end when we're still only halfway through and then at the end of each song i'm wishing it hadn't ended. why can't albums like this just go on&on forever and never end? Hotel Bangkok (King Record Company, 2006) Blue Asia is a group originally formed with him in the late 90's, but Kubota has been around since the 80s -- and i'm just finding out about him. What a wealth of backlog for me to get! Blue Asia has recorded a number of albums, each of which takes a focus on a cultural area of the far east or mid east. The four person group then invites very competent musicians familiar with the local music to record with them. While the musical themes that they take up are often traditional, through the DJ science of Kubota, these ancient motifs are spun into a totally modern technoambient hybrid that really IS "asian underground." The work stands on a par with ANYTHING that Cheb i Sabbah or Makyo have done. The production values are obviously cognisant of greats like William Orbit or Deep Forest, but Kubota is really on to something here. He's not a "Westerner," this is music that really has grabbed the music by its roots. The tuning is that of the local cultures. The mix is so high gloss, i'm sometimes tempted to compare it to the best productions of Steely Dan. The performances are absolute high caliber from the hand-played percussion (there is apparently some drum programming, but i could swear that i'm hearing quite a bit of sophisticated hand work) to the precise and amazing vocalists, the entire album from beginning to end is a sheer sonic delight! Now, you might ask, "what does it sound like?" It sounds like Thai music that drank psilocybin tea and took over the midtempo room of a rave. However, the synthesis is tastefully placed as a complement to the human performances and rarely in the center of the mix. I have an album by Rama IV titled "Silk Mind" which i reviewed sometime ago and is a Deep-Forest-like mix of asian and rockbeats. It's a great western Thai pop album. Also, i'm reminded o f Jalan Jalan's two albums, "Bali" and "Bali Dua." This album completely blows them out of the water! The compositions themselves probably make immediate sense to Thai people, but to westerners these are strange, entangled things, easy to dance to but hard to immediately understand because everything is SO different from the watered-down drivel we've become accustomed to: the just intonation is a different vibe from our equal temperment, the vocal styles put "scat" singing to shame, the complex breaks defy our typical formulaes. you have to listen. but throughout, the mix is so LUSCIOUS, the performances so INTRIGUING and the compositions themselves so impressive that this stuff HAS to win over anyone who has been listening to and enjoying trance dance or world fusion, and those into psyambient or electrodub are more than likely to dig it. and i don't see how anyone who likes Deep Forest, Makyo or William Orbit Strange Cargo 3 could ever not immediately love Blue Asia. Hotel Waimea (King Record Company, 2002) I live in Hawaii and am always on the lookout for ambient Hawaiian musics or tribal musics with shamanistic drumming. there isn't as much of it as you might think because Hawaiian music is intensely colonized by american country music. old recordings of authentic Hawaiian are usually of low quality and the singing is often in the high nasal quality of native american singyelling which freaks out most westerners. okay: the bummer is that i have a natural antipathy to american countrywestern music because growing up it represented that part of society which hates and excludes people of my skin color and genetic background. to this day it pretty much gives me the creeps and the country-styled works of Brian Eno (like "Apollo") or of his guitarist brother, Roger, are about as close as i can stand. Even slide guitar in the country style appalls me and it took Robert Rich to rehabilitate the instrument for me. i'm not bashing country music, but informing you of my own limitations as a critic. now, of course, Hawaiian music took all that finger-pickin' and hoopsydaddle and gave it a signature Oceanic twist which is distinct, but i sometimes still start getting the willies. thank Kane they use a ukelele rather than a banjo or i'd go completely nuts. the singing style is quite different because the Hawaiians were able to adapt their native style to the colonizers' gospel choir and the result is a distinctly different sound that is quite appealing. that being said, let me say this about this album: it begins with a distinctive island hand-played percussion section and an introductory Hawaiian chant. in less than a minute, the guitars - steel, 6-string elec, 12 string + ukelele - kick in, the rhythm subtly changes to the country "bringin' the doggies home at sunset" clipclop and we find ourselves in a pretty standard hawaiian/country hybrid, guitar heavy with slide guitar sailing around. it is called "No Ke Ano Ahiahi," which means, according to me, "the dread of disrepute." a brief interlude of solo guitar and the sounds of people fooling around at the beach then leads into another country song featuring strummed ukelele and female vocals. the song is named "Ho'onani," which means to glorify, honor, exalt or adore. i find this interesting since it reinforces the first song, indicating the emphasis that Hawaiians have on Honor and Goodness in their culture. up to this point, these are two songs that could be on Hawaiian radio or on the music system where i work. they are pretty standard modern Hawaiian pieces, very much the kind of thing i don't look to buy because it is all over the radio and i hear it all the time. the next piece is a wonderful guitar piece which creates a feeling of serenity. it is like something Steve Hackett or Anthony Philips would do, like it could be on a windham hill record or something. it is followed by another slow country tune with slide guitar. on this piece, there seems to be some buzz in the pick-up for one of the acoustic guitars. i imagine Kubota left it stet to give the piece some fuzz or perhaps it was the limitations of the equipment that they had to work with. finally, we start moving into some groovier spaces at track 6, with a female vocalist chant-singing in Hawaiian, some hand drumming and Kubota's singnature organ with Exotica-style strings & harp. the liner notes dedicate Hotel Waimea in part to Arthur Lyman, one of the original greats in Exotica, and this piece shows the influence. this one I LIKE. then the guitars kick in again with an electric acoustic bass filling the bottom. i fancy this actually shows the more hawaiian side of the island country thing. nicely done combo piece. follows then the ukelele and what sounds like a group of women chanting together off in the forest. the sweet female vocals and beautiful harmonies create a delicate atmosphere and i don't really want to admit that it sounds like "polly wally doodle all the day" or whatever that crazy song in the back of my mind is (western brainwash maybe?) OKAY!! then track 9 "TIKI GOD" starts and this is what i live for. this is modern hawaiian exotica paying tribute to the Baxter, Denny, Lyman triad. too bad it is only 4 minutes long. i could see taking a whole album in this direction. is it from a cartoon or old movie in my memory? but i see totem poles covered with Hawaiian tiki masques walking upright on two legs, mantis like, while the wahines in grass skirts dance before them. it even has a momentary Bas Sheva sample! well track 10 gets back to the country. "Waimanalo Cowboys," indeed sounds like cowboys kicking back with a brew. did i mention that the so-called "Wild West" was in Hawaii? it is true. they did a lot of ranching of cattle in these parts and brought over many Mexicans to teach the Hawaiians how to be cowboys. you may not realize it, but along with the large Japanese and Phillipino communities, Hawaii also has a very sizable Mexican subculture. i LOVE being around all these brown people! after another ukelele with female vocals song, we get to another Kubota-penned instrumental which is perhaps the best at combining the hawaiian/country with his trademark far-east flair. this is followed by Rene Paolo playing the traditional "Hawaii Aloha" on live piano at Waikiki's Moana Hotel. you can hear everything that is happening in the lounge and the ocean outside, which is interesting. then Paolo has t o play "Happy Birthday to You" during the last 30secs... and the final piece is - guess what? - ANOTHER guitar laden instrumental with prominent steel slide guitar. so if you like contemporary Hawaiian music, this is a very mellow album that has lots of the Aloha feeling. on my second listening, i felt healing aspects to it, which surprised me. Aloha Therapy - Ambient Hawai'i (Kubota,et al) (FOA Records, 1998) I think i prefer this one to Hotel Waimea, as it has many more true ambient pieces, some interesting electronica, and downplays the guitar aspect. the first piece is a great tiki exotica piece with what sounds like big logs being struck. the second combines ukelele with ZITHER and the guitar in the background. the third piece is a slow drifter like something Brian Eno would do and here for once the slide guitar works great as supporting instrument. track 4 is a favorite, "Polihale," which is primarily synthesis with some birdsong and swirling calm ocean. this definitely would get airtime with the Darv. very delicate and uplifting. yet another song which suggests an entire album. with this song, a gentle vibe is introduced which is so sublime one almost wants to remain motionless in order to not break it. it lasts through the a cappella female "Greeting Chant" to the enchanting "Menehune" (the Hawaiian version of "Little People" like Leprechauns or Faeries) track 7 then brings the guitar and countrybeats back, but it is very languid and peaceful. this is around the place i can handle it. lots of love and no shitkickin cowboys for miles. next is "Lapita" which is like something Raphael & Kutira of Oceanic Tantra would do. very big, mysterious sound that i have to characterize as angelic music in the Raphael vein. it segues nicely into a piece which features native percussion and blown conch shells.the percussion quickly draws the listener into trance and soon a wahine sings a prayer above it. the tempo increases as the mana influx waxes. after more guitarsong and a reprise of the title track, we get a one minute dash of ambience which deserved a continuum and then a reprise of the slow drifter mentioned above. all in all, both Hotel Waimea and Aloha Therapy are good albums but much of it is pretty standard fair compared to what is in Hawaii. i find them not as intriguing as the other works. but now i DO own some Hawaiian albums and they fit in with my library. Road To Louisiana Harry & Mac Epic/Sony, 1999 What do you get when Makoto Kubota and renowned former bassist of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono, take a recording-vacation to New Orleans (literally: they went there) to record a Hawaiian- influenced cajun blues album liberally garnished with asian motifs and a spice of the French sauciness? Cajun blues sung in Japanese and Hawaiian? or, what, something like senor coconut getting his mojo on down the bayou? you can only shake your head in confoundment with an album that keeps you guessing and wondering *what the ???* The first few songs are asian vanilla bluesfunk reminiscent of Steely Dan's Gaucho era almost. i'm thinking specifically of "Night Shade," which Fagen definitely could cover. a short minute f0rty-eight follows, with the now-ironic "New Orleans" speaksong, with the opening line: "The rain and the ether dance down from the heavens, marring earth and sky...." This mindfuses into the highly eclectic mix of down'n'dirty blues like the colonel used to listen to with "Magnolia." The quite guard-off-taking Hawaiian country blues piece, mostly sung in Japanese, "Easy Rider," leads to the zyedeco, campy "ChooChooGattaGotto'99." the bluesy hawaiian "MalamaPono" with ukelele, sung in hawaiian. a beautiful 12-string piece, nice mac performance,in "Coyote Wedding Song." A charming cover of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" somehow expands the horizons to a pop sensibility. ok: now the truly mixed-out "Too Ra Loo" based on the Irishtraditional, sung in japanese&english with Hawaiian-influenced blues ballad.*whew* and so on.... Out-of-print but still available via the internet, this one is sure to bemuse blues and asian underground listeners. i don't really collect "the blues," but this one seems to make my odd collection consisting of Little Axe (dub-ambient blues) and Steve Hackett's wonderful "Blues With A Feeling" a bit more tantalizing. Someday i will really confuse a true blues aficionado! :)) Cafe Mekong Various Artists King Records, 2004 Cafe Siam Various Artists King Records, 2005 These two releases are compilations from the vast King Records catalogue by Makoto Kubota which are very intriguing selections of traditional and modern musics along with a sprinkling of self-penned pieces. Cafe Mekong is rather the companion disc to Hotel Vietnam and likewise Cafe Siam for Hotel Bangkok. If you are like me and would like to own a well-produced disc of authentic music from these areas, and particularly if you would like a dash of the modern with your traditional, i can strongly recommend these as very nice acquisitions featuring highly skilled musicians FROM the actual areas. I enjoy these equally as much as the Makoto/BlueAsia releases and it must be that i greatly enjoy Kubota's personal tastes! Just be aware that there is a fair amount of singing in the local languages and a lot of just intonation, so it will seems very exotic and odd to the unaccustomed ear. Hotel Istanbul Blue Asia KICP, 2002 TURKISH WORLD FUSION ALBUM FULL OF SENSUAL SURPRISES this disc brings my Blue Asia collection up to date and what a fantastic journey it has been! contrary to my expectation of harsh percussion and bleating vocals, this is a quite lush lounge album built around sambas and other latin rhythms which have been fused to Arabic music. one song has a pretty wild Sergio Mendes reference! i found myself pretty much being *WOWED* time and again, utterly taken off guard and surprised by how lovely and disarmingly endearing the melodies and production are to me. while the Latin influence is much more pronounced in this release than the hiphop influence (more than made up for in the treatment of select songs on the hiphop compilation Hotel Rechampur that i recently reviewed,) Hotel Istanbul still is saturated with Turkish influences in melody, guest musicians, location recordings and the mojo which makes Blue Asia one of the world's TOP global fusion projects (according to me.) a bit pricey as albums go (doubt you can get it delivered for less than thirty dollars,) i must say that Blue Asia is one of those artistic endeavors that i have no problem laying out the cash for. now if there was only a way to see a live performance.... Hotel Rechampur Blue Asia King Record, 2002 HIPHOP REMIX ALBUM AN EXCITING MULTICULTURAL RIDE!! Starting with riffs that almost sound like Talking Heads in their big band area, this album plunges headlong into an insanely creative melange of music and musicians from around the globe playing in their local cultural idiom into a remix that seamlessly drops in kicking hiphop beats that transcends the mixmasterly visions of the likes of Deep Forest or DJ Cheb i Sabbah, to a new level of exotic sound that i have no name for. It's hiphop exotica. It's exotica where hiphop has become the vehicle and means, rather than the point. perhaps like Chebiji's idea of *DJ science,* where the music retains it's cultural roots and feel, yet is internationalized by those modern beats. the songs are from various of Blue Asia's "Hotel" albums and are instantly recognized as the songs that they are, but also are endowed with urbane vigour by the modern production, mixing and BEATS. i would think that anyone interested in world fusion and cultural crosspollination would be stunned by this exuberant display of creativity and peace through music. Return to Reviews Page Return to Main Page