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Svetonio View Drop Down
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Points: 10213 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Kiyohiko Senba & His All Stars
    Posted: October 18 2011 at 14:21
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Kiyohiko+Semba


Edited by Svetonio - October 18 2011 at 14:41
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yam yam View Drop Down
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Points: 5814 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 18 2011 at 15:51
They appear to have done just two albums - "Haniwa" in 1983, and "In Concert" (1991, also available as a video). They are often tagged as 'art pop' and 'experimental rock', but the word 'progressive' is ominously missing, it seems.
The Haniwa All-Stars were a delightfully bizarre 1980s musical freak show, created by master drummer and musical provocateur Kiyohiko Senba. While their musical style was certainly never allowed to remain in one place for very long at all, their dress sense was actually pretty consistent - pyjamas or nurse's uniforms were very much the order of the day!
Guitarist and fellow experimentalist Henry Kaiser gives us a pretty good rundown on this tripped-out dada avant-pop ensemble:
"Mr. Senba seems to be one of the most successful studio drummers in Tokyo. I sure hope that he is very successful, as I'm sure that the music copyist bills alone of the Haniwa Allstars would bankrupt most small businesses. There are about one hundred people in this band. All on stage at once. 5 or six drummers. A big horn section. A huge section of traditional Japanese instrumentalists. A dozen vocalists. All dressed in pajamas and nurses uniforms. Many of the members are big pop and/or jazz stars in Japan. Senba is the writer-arranger-conductor-madman behind this band. I suppose that the only person that you might compare Senba to in America, in terms of scale of ambition, is Frank Zappa. (Although Senba's music has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Zappa or his musical interests.) Senba is spectacularly successful with his truly insane, giant, all style-encompassing musical vision. It's too bad you will never ever see this release in any American record shop. Too bad that we are so culture-bound over here."
 
What Henry DOESN'T mention here is just how utterly brain warping all of this sounds! Senba and his All Stars have been described in various places as "lunacy of herculean proportions" and "a screaming peak of the Japanese pop avant garde".
 
I have to thank you, Svetonio, for posting this on here - I absolutely loved it, and it's something I would never have found for myself even if I lived to be 100!
 
I'll eat my hat if they manage to find their way into the database though!!  Party
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Points: 17455 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 02:53
Haniwa All Stars were a puzzling project in 80s founded by a percussionist Kiyohiko Semba, learning traditional percussion (Wadaiko) and joining various pop / fusion projects around him.

I've listened to their "Haniwa", that sounds like traditional Japanese music with bizarre pop / comical / avantgarde essence, less rock texture.

As mentioned in Tom Waits' thread, they might play progressive music, not progressive rock I've felt. Smile
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Points: 32601 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 13:45
I have Haniwa and love the album, and would describe it more as avant pop.  I actually think it very suitable for PA, since even though it's half a world apart, it's not world's apart from bands such as Slapp Happy and Art Bears.  Definitely is rock enough for me.
Just a fanboy passin' through.
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Points: 32601 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 14:23
By the way, Haniwa along with albums by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Toshiyuki Miyama and His New Herd/ Mashiko Satoh, Masahiko Satoh and the Soundbreakers, and After Dinner ranks amongst my favourite albums from Japan.
Just a fanboy passin' through.
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yam yam View Drop Down
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Points: 5814 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 15:30
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

I have Haniwa and love the album, and would describe it more as avant pop.  I actually think it very suitable for PA, since even though it's half a world apart, it's not world's apart from bands such as Slapp Happy and Art Bears.  Definitely is rock enough for me.
 
If they ARE added on here then that's great! - I just couldn't imagine it happening when I heard the samples. Both the other bands you mention are in RIO/AvantProg, so maybe that team will evaluate Kiyohiko Senba too?
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Points: 32601 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 15:43
Originally posted by yam yam yam yam wrote:

Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

I have Haniwa and love the album, and would describe it more as avant pop.  I actually think it very suitable for PA, since even though it's half a world apart, it's not world's apart from bands such as Slapp Happy and Art Bears.  Definitely is rock enough for me.
 
If they ARE added on here then that's great! - I just couldn't imagine it happening when I heard the samples. Both the other bands you mention are in RIO/AvantProg, so maybe that team will evaluate Kiyohiko Senba too?


The sample off Haniwa is applicable, I think for PA (as it the album itself).  I haven't heard In Concert beyond those clips, but don't reckon that would be the album to check.  I think Avant Prog should check this first (I was certainly thinking of that category), but then Keishiro (Damo) who already posted IS a voting member on that team and he knows it.  If they reject it, then I would suggest it to Crossover as an avant pop band with, I think, sufficient rocky music (not music from rocky).  I think it has some similarites to bands I mentioned in my last post from Japan too (and those are in PA).  After Dinner from Japan (in Avant prog), by the way, also has avant pop characteristics (more avant chamber pop, but...). 

EDIT: I will mention it to the Avant team (give them the link to this thread), and provide them with more samples for evaluation (just from the first album cause that's the relevant one as I see it).  We'll see how it goes.


Edited by Logan - October 19 2011 at 16:03
Just a fanboy passin' through.
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yam yam View Drop Down
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Points: 5814 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2011 at 16:34
^ Thumbs Up
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