After Dinner

The Profile

After Dinner is a Japanese experimental/avant-pop group from Osaka led by vocalist-composer Haco. Active mainly in the 1980s, they are best known for Paradise Of Replica (1989), a concise, instrument-rich album released via the international experimental network associated with Recommended Records. The group dissolved in the early 1990s as Haco pursued a solo career.

Formed in Osaka by Haco; Paradise Of Replica (1989) involved 16 musicians and blends experimental, RIO, and art-rock traits; the project ended as Haco focused on solo work.

Rhayader’s review frames After Dinner—an Osaka project led by Haco—as a laboratory of sound that fuses Japanese traditions with avant-garde playfulness. Paradise of Replica (1989) gathers 16 musicians to craft an accessible yet dissonant, RIO-tinged, art-rock suite. References to Slapp Happy and Dagmar Krause surface via Haco’s vocals. The project later closed as Haco pursued a solo career. The album is hailed as a late-20th-century ukiyo-e in sound.