A Journey Through My Music Obsessions

Onto Fishmans:

While I have been into Fishmans for a number of years for the studio album Long Season (1996) and a few other things, it was really just last year that I grew to become huge on a variety of Fishmans music, including the way they do dub/ reggae. I have long loved psych kinds of music and dream pop. I tend to like atmospheric music. The genres on the Fishmans front page of rateyourmusic are: Neo-Psychedelia, Dream Pop, Shibuya-kei, Dub, Ambient Pop, Reggae Rock.

In 1996 when Long Season came out I was working in Japan as an English teacher, and I met my wife there. I have been back to Japan a variety of times and feel like its part of my DNA (I started turning Japanese, turning Japanese, I really think so maybe when I saw Shogun as a child). I love lots of anime, especially Death Note in TV and Studio Ghibli films, massive Zelda fan, and love many Japanese films (Tampopo to mention but one), and I love lots of music from Japan. I did not know Fishmans while in Japan, but I would have liked it and I wish I had seen them in concert (they were based in Tokyo and I was closer to Osaka anyway).

I especially love Fishmans live. They often would improvise for, expand on and evolve the music for concerts. each version sounds different to me. One of the biggest attraction to me in the music is the contributions of Honzi (she played vilion, pinao, accordian...) and she just lift the music to another level for me. He was not even an official member of the band. Sadly she died in 2007 at just 40 less than a decade after Fishmans effectively ended to the death of Shinji Sato who was the frontman, main songwriter, main guitarist, main singer and general leading man of Fishmans in 1999. A few months prior to that, Fishmans performed what is currently my favourite live album and most listened to by Fishmans, 8.12.28 Otokotachi no wakare. I wrote a review of it for PA, my Fishamns reviews, which are mostly not well-written (they got better, I think with my last two) are here: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=12922

I first listened to that live specifically for the over 40 minute epic, "Long Season" on it, and that mesmerised me. I then came to love various other music from it like "In the Flight", "Yurameki in the Air", "OH Slime" "Walking in the Rhythm" took me a few spins to really love, and "Night Cruising" is another highlight. Despite it being over 2 hours and ten minutes long, I wanted to play the concert over an over and quickly grew to love the whole thing.

Here are three highlight tracks from it:





(the amazing Long Season being mostly why I suggested this to PA)

One thing that has put various people off Fishmans is the singer's quite shrill falsetto vocals. To me his vocals have a fragility to them that makes the music more special, and I find it so endearing when he talks at the concerts.

My favourite studio album by Fishmans is not i]Long Season now, it's the subsequent Uchu Nippon Setagaya, which I have a five star review for. It did take me a few spins to really grok. Some immediate highlights were "Daydream" off it, ""Pokka Pokka", "In the Flight" (although I especially like the live version above) and "Weather Report".

Here is the very atmospheric Daydream off it:



Long Season '96-7 - 96.12.26 Akasaka Blitz赤坂 is another Fishmans live album that I really like and have reviewing and it is more of a harder funkin' album than I am used to from Fishmans. It has a great version of "Long Season" which seem recorded from a different session. For the rest of the album I feel the mixing and mastering could be better, Sato's vocals can be too much at the front (too prominent). Still a four star album for me. Here is "Go Go Round the World" from it.



Last night I listened to a bootleg of Fishmans featuring "Weather Report" live and I fell in love with this version (heard a better quality version with the whole thing):



As well as various other albums, I really appreciated 2011's return of Fishmans (minus the old lead Sato, and Honzi) called Piece of Future which featured Fishmans, the revival/tribute band Fishmans+, and guests. It is a live performance that was released on DVD. It's such a joyous experience. It really moves me and much as I miss Sato, it's wonderful to hear some of the vocal renditions of Fishmans music. I especially do like the female vocals, and that fits Sato's falsetto anyway. It features a 26 minute version of "Piece of Future" which was one of the last compositions Shinji Sato was working on before he died.

Here is "A Piece of Future" live (was never released on a studio album) from 1998:



Fishmans has brought me so much joy especially over the past six or so months, and while I find ti so sad that the band was cut short due to to Shinji Sato's untimely death, and I feel it could have moved to greater heights still (I loved Shinji Sato's direction maybe more then other band members did, there was conflict), I so appreciate what was done. I hope to see what is left of Fishmans plus guests perform in the future. I don't need much excuse to travel to Japan either (I love Japan).

Edited by Logan - June 02 2025 at 13:58

^ Glad you enjoy it. Hakase was the main keyboardist from 1990 to 1995 and then worked again with Fishmans after Shinji Sato's death. The keyboardist in what tends to be my favourite period from 1995 to the end of 1998 is Honzi. And she appeared in at least one revival concert of Fishmans after Sato's death in 1996 ( a year before she died). She's mostly known for violin, but plays keyboards/piano, accordion, mandolin, melodica, music box, and acts in the chorus. She was not officially a member of Fishmans and officially appears as a regular guest. Never-the-less she is a very significant ingredient in Fishmans' appeal to me (love her parts on keys, violin and accordion in Long Season). She is so wonderful with Fishmans and sadly died only eight years after Shinji Sato. She has a couple of album "solo" releases, one released possthumously. I should listen to those properly at one time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyuP909KKjw RIP Shinji Sato and Honzi. :(

Anyway, this whole 1998 concert is bliss for me (with some pathos thrown in). I love hearing the gentleness and a bit of bashfulness of Sato as he speaks to the audience and the interaction puts a smile on my face. And every time Honzi is highlighted, wow... One girl call Sato the best after he inquires about his guitar playing and he bashfully seems to respond with how he is blushing. It's a delight to me. I really love Fishmans live, and I'm not ashamed to call this my favourite live album. I feel so very fondly for this group. So warm, and brings me a lot of joy (and some sadness too -- can be a very bittersweet experience).



Definitely I think my experiences and time living in Japan helps me to appreciate this more. Makes me wonder how Keishiro (Damo) would feel about it (hope he is well).

^ Thanks, I wish I'd done a blog long before. It does help for organisation, and one one can expand on things and refine one's thoughts over time all the better, be it specific music appreciation or more general ideas...

Thought I might write a little something about Sufjan Stevens here that was another quite recent obsession of mine. I made an appreciation thread and the time thought maybe I should have done it a part of blog, but it ended up resulting in some good discussion. https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=134592

He is not included in PA, but is being considered for it (on hold as I was told). Here is his bandcamp: https://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/
And his youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@SufjanStevensOfficial/featured

In that Sufjan Stevens Appreciation topic I had hoped to explore all of his studio albums at least and comment on them. My most recent discovery by Sufjan Stevens was this cover of Castanets' "You Are the Blood" (which sounds very much of that 2009ish period of Stevens, I love it, but doubt it would be to most tastes):



These are the releases of his that I have listened to in full so far:

A Sun Came (2000)
Enjoy Your Rabbit (2001)
Michigan (2003)
Seven Swans (2004)
Illinois (2005)
*Osso String Quartet's Run Rabbit Run based on Enjoy Your Rabbit*
The BQE (2009)
All Delighted People EP (2010) (he calls it an EP but it is 60 minutes)
The Age of Adz (2010)
Carrie & Lowell (2015)
Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister - Planetarium (2017)
Carrie & Lowell Live (2017)
The Ascension (2020)
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner's Mind (2021)
Javelin (2023)

While I have very much liked Javelin, it is the up to 2010 period that had appealed to me the most. I do now really like Carrie and Lowell, and I like The Ascension a lot and various other music.

Looking at the ratings at RYM, I do "feel" that people are undervaluing various releases of his, especially Enjoy Your Rabbit (I actually do understand the noise element being off-putting to some, including what sounds like a dentist's drill, but I find the music great, and the BQE. Also the debut I love (listening now and reminded that I really love it), and The Ascension I seem to like much more than most. By the way, Enjoy Your Rabbit was redone by Osso String Quartet and is wonderful re-working of Run Rabbit Run (such great themes imo).

Sufjan Stevens has been quite diverse in terms of his expression, there is Indie Folk, Folktronica dn Chamber Folk, and Indie and Alternative Rock, Electronic Music, Glitch, Experimental, Funk, IDM, Progressive Pop and Art Pop, Ambient music, Synthpop.... I can understand that those who might, say, appreciate the more direct folk music of Carrie and Lowell might not enjoy the more bombastic and electronic and dancey feel of mushc of the Age of Adze. And those who enjoy the quite bomastic and big folky feel of Illinois might not enjoy the nose and experimental music of his earlier albums... People come in with expectations hoping for certain "sound" often. i tend to both appreciate and respect diversity.

i think he is brilliant artist, sadly he has health issues and has gone through lot so he not been able to focus on making new music. Still he has produced albums for some people like John Legend. I love the range of his music, it can be simple and direct, maximalist, bombastic, humble, ebullient, melancholy... I find sensitivity to much of his music that touches me and it can make me feel such joy. I do feel like his music is very spiritual (a term some don't like) -- it touches my proverbial soul. Magma is another band that touches me in a range of appropriate ways.

The albums of his I have played the most are Seven Swans, Illinois, The Age of Adz, All Delighted people EP, Michigan and Enjoy Your Rabbit. But I also love the debut, Carrie and Lowell, Javelin and The Ascension...

It's easy to find his albums, and playing full album sis the usual way to go for me, but I had enjoyed trying to choose four tracks from many of his albums that I love and here is the playlist I made some time back in chronological order of the releases of his I knew:



Next up could be a classic like Magma or maybe The Necks which is not yet in PA but I hope will be quite soon (the jazzy The Necks relation to post-rock, Krautrock, and Swans makes it pretty easily suitable to me), although the Necks has great appreciation thread already. Godspeed and Swans might follow that, but I shall see.