Half Japanese - Why Not?

 I was a big fan of Half Japanese's wacko, minimalist noize fest back in the 80's but since then I have lost touch with Jad Fair and his musical endeavors. As I've been revisiting some of my fave noize bands lately, I looked to see what was new with 1/2 J and discovered this CD, which I received as an Xmas present (thanks Ricky!).

In this 2018 release Jad sings and is accompanied by a full band of reasonably accomplished musicians - John Sluggett (guitar/keys/drums), Gilles-Vincent Rieder (drums, melodica, keys, percussion), Jason Willett (bass/keys and he did the mixing of the record, as well), Mick Hobbs (guitar/glockenspiel) and guests Sophie Bernadou on cello and Lydia Fischer on "wind". So, the sound is less chaotic than the earlier works that I am familiar with but still ventures into different musical dimensions via Jad's oddball vocal stylings and songwriting and the band's somewhat psychedelic textures.

With the opening "The Future Is Ours" the backing is kinda new wave/garagey with Jad's somewhat childlike, a-rhythmic, a-tonal singing/talking over it. The garage influences continues in "The Face", with a pulsing beat, crunching guitar chords and psych-ish keyboards, while Fair talks of the mythical beast and steals the werewolf poem from the horror movie, the title cut has more cool guitar/organ interplay, a neat descending riff and Jad's musical question repeated. There's more 60's styling in a Modern Lovers kinda way (as well as some glockenspiel!) for "Amazing", they get almost punk rock-ish - although still quirky, like early punk rock often was - in intensity for "Demons of Doom" with some alliteration lyrics, while "A Word to the Wise" ("look out!") is sorta a mutated, demented Bo Diddley beat, "Bring On the Night" is a musical genre-blender that Jad seems to almost be ad-libbing over, and "Zombie Island Massacre" is a hip, noisy soul/garage trip - love the guitar on this one! Probably my fave cut here.

The bands changes themes dramatically for the acoustic/Bahama Island feel of "Better Days", "Spaceship to Mars", is, appropriately enough, an echo-y, spacey, psychedelic instrumental, "Why'd They Do It" is sorta slow, horn-based, psychedelic/soul, kinda/sorta, with Fair quietly ranting that this is "not a perfect world", and more weirdness in the orchestrated ballad "Magic" and for the finale, "Falling", they kinda mix Eastern European accordion/psych/orchestration for Fair's evocation of love.

Not nearly as abrasive as the earlier work that I remember, this is still quite strange, mostly in the juxtaposition of Jad's odd ball vocalizing over a more normal psych/garage/rock/whathaveyou backing. But it all works in its bizarre way. Worth checking out, for sure!