Did Sadistic Mika Plan Pearl Harbor?
The latest sensation to "stun and amaze" the rock world (just paraphrasing Melody Maker's Chris Welch here) is Japan's first and so far most original rock band, Sadistic Mika Band. The first we cocky Caucasians heard of it was two years ago, when Kazuhiko and Mika Katoh, husband and wife leaders of the combo, showed up at a Roxy Music gig.
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Letter From Britain
Jonh Ingham
Did Sadistic Mika Plan Pearl Harbor?
The latest sensation to "stun and amaze" the rock world (just paraphrasing Melody Maker's Chris Welch here) is Japan's first and so far most original rock band, Sadistic Mika Band. The first we cocky Caucasians heard of it was two years ago, when Kazuhiko and Mika Katoh, husband and wife leaders of the combo, showed up at a Roxy Music gig. Henna hair, required rock star regalia, little command of English, they were in the country to buy a Rolls Royce. It was only later we found out that it wasn't because the band was huge, but that Kazuhiko had been Japan's biggest folk star, Having once penned a two million selling single. He still knocks out the odd number for the myriad of Japanese Tom Joneses to help maintain the style he's becotne accustomed to. But only "til the band takes off in a big way.
On their latest visit, Kazuhiko—his English near perfect—sported a very tasteful, very expensive pin-stripe suit; Mika modelled a selection from London's chicest jet-set shops. Bryan Ferry and those other parlour snakes have a thing or two to learn about elegance, believe you me. That first incarnation, one feels, was purely for fashion's sake and a sense of what was required of a rock star. Nowadays we see the real Kazuhiko, a self-confessed conservative fellow who studied economics at university before his group, the Folk Crusaders, took off and in one year had three hit singles and four hit albums r
Kazuhiko first became interested in music when he heard Bob Dylan singing "Blowing In The Wind" on the radio. He bought a guitar and a lot of records. When the Folk Crusaders broke up he went solo for a couple of albums, but the thought that Japanese rock groups were content to merely ape Occidental ramalama bothered him no end. He wanted to produce the real thing,, give Japanese kids some music to call their own."In 1972 he formed the Sadistic Mika Band.
The name, it is said, stems from Mika's cooking; after a few of her meals he called her sadistic. The members were culled from friends and friends of friends. In the Japanese pop scene the charts are dominated by traditional folk and MOR music, with endless recreations of Western originals, perfect to the last "doo-wop" and "oh yeah." Western rock competes in. its own charts. Consequently, there are a lot of studio musicians, but very few capable of any real originality.
When a Japanese youth leaves university he joins a company for life, working his way up. All positions of power are held by the middle aged and in the record industry that means they don*t understand rock. -When Kazuhiko wanted to start a rock band they thought him crazy to consciously turn his back on success;.lord knows what they thought when he enlisted his wife as his lead singer. He married Mika after he graduated from university. She had little interest in music, had never sung, doesn't like her voice, and seems to take it all with a grain of salt. She also happens to be the band's focal point, and many a callow Caucasian youth is going to think rude and lewd when he sees her hit the stage in her black leather Suzie Wong outfit.
Their first album was an immediate hit with all those in England who came across it. On the cover the band cavort in a sand-pit desert island: one guy sips soda pop, another sports a Hawaiian shirt and saddle shoes, a dog stares balefully with shades on its forehead, Mika looks like Carmen Miranda-as-charwoman. Not the sort of thing you'd expect. The record was even funnier, a wild amalgamation of T. Rex,, Stones, doo-wop, electronics, all anchored in a bottomless bass/ drums sound. In a collapse of laughter and enthusiasm Harvest Records signed them—this was obviously a band to reckon with. *
Being no fool, Kazuhiko employed Chris Thomas to produce the second album, Black Ship. Based around the intrusion of the Western world into Japan after four hundred years of isolation, it deals mainly in themes, though three minute tunes are readily present. There are some beautiful lyrical passages, and an underlying sense of Japan's traditional music overlayed with dynamite rockarama. The background is usually full of incredibly complicated guitar and funky clavinet runs playing configurations unique to Western ears, and the guitar solo of "Time Machine" (a rampant single) must be h«aW to be believed—God has shown up in the form of Masayooshi Takanaka, and maybe Hroshi Imai, if God plays keyboards.
Until now the Japanese youth mass has been slow on the uptake. "Time Machine" was the first record that could remotely be called a hit, but on a more refined, more influential level, they're taking hold, winning Rolling Stone polls (they have a local edition in ideographs), inspiring bands. Kazuhiko makes no bones about how important it is for Sadistic Mika Band to be accepted in Japan, and ultimately the rest of the world. He is very wary about what happens, managing most of the business back home, forming Doughnut Records for the product that interests him. So far that has only taken shape in his own group and a bunch of 17 year old self:styled punks called Rouge, whom he is producing. He doesn't readily trust people he doesn't know. In England Chris Thomas and former Roxy publicist Simon Puxley have been looking after the band's interests, and Sid Bernstein is more than interested in introducing them to America. When that happens, will you be ready for a Pearl Harbor in your brain?
