After Dinner (Japan)

A revelation, borne of diverse influences.

This release compiles work from different eras. Certain tracks are repeated but vary between performances; After Dinner seem to have a loose semi-improv ethic which colours even their shortest pieces - in any event, the track lengths are mostly irrelevant as this CD holds far more ideas than titled songs.

Early on we can hear parallels with Art Bears, given a playful spin that can seem sweet at times (a feeling mostly missing from great swathes of avant-progressive rock) and grotesque at others. Because Haco's vocals define the songs both in a melodic and a rhythmic way, the instrumentation often drops into minimal improvisation of strange varieties - sometimes electronically based but other songs are driven almost entirely by percussion, or else by asian traditional instruments - you'll hear a lot of zithering and drones. At one moment the listener can be reminded of Kabuki by a brilliantly-placed stringed sliding twang, and seldom can a solitary note bring such a smile to your lips.

Other songs are less abstract; the Sepiature tracks and "Cymbals at Dawn" fall somewhere alongside the mature, psychedelic Beatles compositions and show innocent touches of shibuya-kei (for the unacquainted, imagine a warped, arguably cuter version of ye-ye chanson.)

Any personal complaints about this album will be aimed at its distinct disjointedness, as about half of the record could be categorised as "avant-pop" - this out-Björks Björk by several degrees - while the other is actually rather quiet and experimentally cold (although there are exceptions - "Dessert" being based around a very warm interplay between what this reviewer assumes to be dulcimer, drones, tambla and some sort of whispering kazoo instrument.) So "Live Editions" is primarily recommended to distinguishing listeners of the improvised avant-garde - and pop music. ;)

Posted Monday, April 30, 2007, 14:46 EST
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After Dinner was an '80s Japanese art rock band that featured thedelicate and beautiful vocals of Haco (she of but one name). This 1989 album of theirs (originally a RecRec label LP) sees cd reissue in remastered form, and it is a true delight. Haco's vocals are matched by After Dinner's lovely music, avant chamber pop that is somewhat theatrical but always restrained (perhaps surprising given the thoughts of prog-rock overkill evoked by a list of the instrumentation used: harp, cello, flute, clarinet, glockenspiel, tung-saio, hichirki, oboe, piano, keys, tapes, bird sounds -- Haco herself is even credited with "volleyball" on one track!) The welcome reissue of this material (welcome especially to those of us who didn't discover it the first time around) is augmented by four additional tracks provided by an interesting international cast of remixers: Terre Thaemlitz, Ata Tak's Pascal Plantinga, Skist (Samm Bennett and Ito Haruna), and Joshua McKay of indie-ethno rockers Macha. This "Paradise of Remixes" can be considered bonus tracks in the best sense of the term: the original album stands fine without them, but they don't detract. All maintain continuity with what has gone before while updating AD's sound to the contemporary cutting edge of glitches and digital processing (for instance, the timestretching technique used by Thaemlitz to draw out one of Haco's utterances into a *timestopping* moment of vocal perfection), electronic approaches that bring to mind Haco's current work with Sachiko M and Michiyo Yagi avant-electronica trio Hoahio as well as Haco's recent solo disc "Happiness Proof". Well done!

by Aquarius Records
April 4, 2001