July 9–16, 1998

disc quicks|rock/pop

World Standard

Country Gazette

(daisyworld)

In the late 1970s Haruomi Hosono, then a member of Japanese rock/jazz group Tin Pan Alley, began experimenting with electronic music, rhythm and abstract sound in a way which is only beginning to be rediscovered in ambient music today. Hosono collaborated with Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto in Yellow Magic Orchestra and released several groundbreaking solo projects through the '80s. In his first release since 1996, Hosono is back with Sohichiro Suzuki, Larry Campbell and Mina as World Standard. Country Gazette (on daisyworld, Hosono's own label—if you want it done right…) is an audio landscape—a train ride through the cosmos. "The Lonely Driver 1952" is a banjo ballad riding an ambient groove. "Loving Spoonful" is the memory you never knew you had. On the final track, "Cowboys Don't Cry (Hank Williams Lost Lyrics)," is a spoken word resurrection of timelessness. Country Gazette is a pioneering exploration of new mediums pared with the simplicity of age-old instrumentation.

-Karin Samoviski