Another one from the understatedly brilliant Soichiro Suzuki, aka World Standard. This is a completely different beast from the last of his records that I posted–it’s effectively lyricless, and is less a pop record than it is a somewhat anonymous amalgam of different folk traditions (though there’s plenty of Japanese folk in here). Hosono provides production and sounds; Hosono would later go on to release Soichiro Suzuki’s also excellent World Standard II on his then new FOA label.
This record is deceptive, heartbeaking, and again, understated–I think I probably heard it two or three times before I properly listened to it. It doesn’t command attention, but once it gets its hooks in you, they’re stuck. A slew of string instruments from all over, very tasteful percussion, and gorgeous wordless vocal layering courtesy of Pizzicato V (!) and Sandii (!). Alternately playful (opener “太陽とダァリヤ,” which, in perfect Hosono form, has an abrupt Beach Boys-esque reverb vocal harmony breakdown), moody (“逝ける王女のためのパヴァーヌ” is an appropriately cinematic version of Ravel‘s “Pavane pour une infante défunte”), and deeply emotive (“水夫たちの歌声” has left me in tears a few times). There’s something reminiscent of Penguin Café Orchestra–the music is pastoral and very evocative, but it’s not totally clear of where or what, and it feels oddly timeless. Weightless and heavy-hitting. If it’s for you, it’s definitely for you.
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
Recently scored a Japanese vinyl press that sounds wonderful. Love this one.
For those interested, Soichiro reissued and remastered this album (with a bunch of brilliant demos, bonus/unreleased tracks, and live takes) on an album dubbed: “World Standard – 音楽列車 (Lé Train Musical)”. Not to rain on Soichiro’s parade, but around this time, World Standard was actually the brain trust of two musicians, though of one sadly lost to history: Masaharu Mikami who played an insane amount of instruments (from samplers to vibraphone) and wrote a couple of songs as well. They might have met during Soichiro’s earlier punk(!?!?) group Suki Suki Switch. Thanks for sharing this one, Jen!
Just delightful! A simple fun sound. Thanks for sharing.
Ahh so nice to see this one getting some love Jen!
Does anyone know what’s up with the art discrepancy between here and discogs? https://www.discogs.com/artist/68607-World-Standard
The cover above is for World Standard II, also pretty good but a bit more MIDI sounding
whoops, thanks for catching–i actually edited an old post draft about world standard II and forgot to change the art! it’s been fixed, cheers
Suzuki’s records under the name Everything Play are also fantastic.
Just chiming to agree with everyone else that this is a really nice album.
thanks so much for sharing this Jen…halfway throiugh listening to this for the first time and can immediately tell I’ll be coming back to this many many times
as a Brit I totally hear the simalrities between PCO as well 🙂