Akaten
III

The Japanese, as we know, are undoubtedly the craziest people ever to have lived on the earth's surface; it might be the earthquakes or all the raw fish they eat, but sometimes you wonder if they are for real or just pretending…

The Akaten are one of the many side projects of Tatsuya Yoshida, the acrobatic drummer of the Ruins, a Japanese prog duo; the genre of this other duo is pop for schizophrenics, Yoshida's fragmented drumming blends with the usual crazy bassist, but this time we are far from complex structures, we are in pop, the melodies are catchy, the sonic backdrop is amusing, the lyrics are mostly the title repeated endlessly, the tracks last a maximum of one minute, the singing is halfway between Yogi Bear and a tone-deaf crooner…

They might seem like a music joke, and perhaps they are, but I can't help thinking about what's hidden behind this mischievous and sick aura, this frenzy that we often attribute to our Japanese friends, which Akaten magnifies into artistic delirium where every everyday object can make music… in their live performances, they play guitar cases, scissors, wine glasses, cameras (impossible to describe, take a tour on YouTube)…

In Yoshida's music, what matters is the idea, the fleeting hint; the execution is ordinary, and he certainly doesn't dirty his hands with it. It is music (especially live) that makes you laugh, but it's laughter in the Monty Python style and certainly not like Vanzina… or maybe it's just a joke… who knows…