Masami Tsuchiya
Rice Music

A superlative guitarist, an experimenter of new sounds and an undisputed protagonist of the Japanese New Wave with one of the most influential and original formations of that movement: the Ippu-Do. A musician of great culture, capable of going far beyond the inspirations offered by the varied musical backdrop of his home country, Masami Tsuchiya has set a precedent in his approach to the instrument and in outlining that kind of "total" (and ethnically characterized) approach to composition of which David Sylvian was, in the West, one of the major proponents. Our artist also collaborated with Japan on their farewell album "Oil On Canvas," gaining visibility among the Anglo-American audience who had not yet experienced his instrumental skill and competence.

His solo debut, "Rice Music" from 1982, is a work of challenging listening, a worthy exemplification of a logic of synthesis and complex syncretism, deep, and meticulous in application. It is a sound collage resulting from the careful juxtaposition of many elements, numerous and diverse impressions organized into a coherent whole, such that in this album, even more than in any Ippu-Do album, one can discern the "peculiar" sound of Masami, his most recurring "trademarks": overlapping multiple rhythmic bases, extensive use of electronic percussion and keyboards, Funk-derived bass grooves, melodic sensitivity combined with a genuinely noisy, experimental, and irreverent instinct, with touches of "Zappa-like" eccentricity; to create a unique form of Synth-Pop largely indebted to certain expressive modules of contemporary Fusion, as one might imagine from the lineup of musicians involved: drums are entrusted to Steve Jansen, with Mick Karn and Percy Jones alternating on bass (in essence, Japan's complete rhythm section with the contribution of a master of British Fusion, who had also been with Brand X and a prominent session player). Both Karn and Jones specialize in Fretless Bass and deserve to be considered decisive figures in the evolution of the instrument and in the creation of a sound that became a trend, characterizing much of the Jazz landscape of the decade. Of the two, Karn expresses the more romantic, passionate, meditative side, excelling in the more subdued compositions with extensive use of slides and legatos, while Jones (superior in terms of execution speed) prefers syncopated rhythms and Pastorius-like cadences, thriving in the frenetic intensity of the more upbeat pieces. Moreover, Tsuchiya possesses much of the Fusion guitar style: his technique is impressive, capable of recalling the typical moves of electric McLaughlin but also of the more recent Zappa; pulled strings and trills executed with metronomic precision, almost "digital," and undoubtedly non-Fusion lovers of those years might sense a "coldness." In reality, Masami's style is perfectly suited to the very modern, extremely technological, and "artificial" context in which the ten compositions of the album are set, and the virtuosity is always contextual to the atmosphere of each track. A similar discourse applies to the choice of timbre, sometimes metallic and aggressive to the point of brutality, sometimes "full" and rich, especially in the slower pieces, sometimes "funky" and rhythmic to create a very unique form of offbeat "guitar dance".

Listen to the "title-track" that kicks off the album: the presence of electronics is strong, but it's partly softened by Karn's bass touch and Tsuchiya's very melodic lines, based on a metrically Blues-inspired structure but within a still playful, relaxed, laid-back context: the female choral counterpoints in the background are beautiful, but what strikes most is the overall sound blend, the perfect amalgamation between the instruments, and the admirable integration of guitar-bass-percussion to define a fresco with exceptionally vibrant hues. "Se! Se! Se!" serves as a showcase for another of Tsuchiya the guitarist's main qualities, speed, but it's also a demonstration of his familiarity with the language of distortion, dissonance, and feedback: precise and sharp interventions by the soloist that sneak between verses within a track dominated by the obsessive rhythm and contortions of Percy Jones' bass, which introduces the track by muting open strings in a descending sequence (a very common practice among "fretless" enthusiasts). Funk reigns supreme even among the clear echoes of "Superstition" in "Kafka" (where Ryuichi Sakamoto plays all instruments except the guitar) and in the kaleidoscopic collective improvisation (for instruments and voices as "robotic" as ever) of "Rice Dog Jam," a probable palimpsest of how the Mothers Of Invention might have sounded in the Eighties; within the overall chaos of the latter, Steve Jansen's rhythmic work is astounding for its difficulty. "Haina-Haila" is an interesting Tsuchiya experiment on Arabic scales and recalls something from Mick Karn's "Titles," while in "Tao-Tao" and "Secret Party" (very similar to "The Art Of Parties" by Japan) we approach the instrumental splendor of the contemporary "Tin Drum." "Silent Object" is an instrumental that already anticipates much of the "ambient" philosophy of the future Jansen-Barbieri duo, while the final "Night In The Park" (between sleepy vocals and languid fretless passages) is perhaps the best track on the album.

For the music's intrinsic quality, I would readily assign four stars, as the album isn't a masterpiece, but I assign it five stars precisely because of Masami's ability (extraordinary for the time) to create a complex yet excellent hybrid of Synth-Pop, ethnic-instrumental Fusion, and Japanese tradition with a decisively Glam-New Romantic vein, as some have aptly pointed out.

Happy listening.