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| People - Ceremony~Buddha Meet Rock |
| Cultural
distance is a funny thing. It can make the cool uncool, and vice versa,
simply from the shift in context (how many westerners into Jpop would
never dream of listening to their own country's mass produced radio
fodder?) It can make people more indulgent, more willing to give an
idea a try, simply because its relatively exotic nature pushes
different buttons, sidestepping the contempt that familiarity can breed. Case in point: imagine, say, an American record company getting the bright idea to give Christian hymns a hard rock backing, hiring a handful of studio musicians and giving them a non-descript name, then wrapping it all up in a package that said something like "Jesus ROCKS!!" Yeah, me neither. Yet, shift a couple of elements around...not Jesus, but Buddha, not hard rock, but psych...and you've got the one and only effort by People, which is, to this white guy, a very good thing indeed. While the above mentioned culture shift is part of it, there's also the rather important fact of People's approach. Rather than hit you over the head with the association...see, Buddha can be hip, too!...People allow the common ground between the two to emerge naturally. That said, objectively speaking, there's a measure of kitsch here, or at the very least dated signifiers. Opening with the sound of wooden shoes on cobblestones, "プロローグ" ("Prologue") quickly introduces David Axelrod's "Holy Thursday" into the mix. I'm not speaking figuratively: the producer literally took a copy of "Holy Thursday" and layered stuff on top of it. It's an interesting enough diversion, but if it continues in this vein... It doesn't, not exactly. "声明 Part 1" ("Statement, Part 1") starts taking full advantage of the common ground between psych and Buddhist ritual, namely the gentle, contemplative spirit. The secret weapon here is guitarist Kimio Mizutani, he of Love Live Life's "Love Can Make A Better You" and Akira Ishikawa's "Uganda." Here he takes up the theme of the first track and leaves out the cheese, quickly transforming it into a calm yet vital meditation, wah-wahing to his hearts content in the left channel as chants flow from the right. And thus the template is set, a gentle but firm melding of two very different aesthetics into a remarkable whole. It's still a tightrope walk, though. The sitar in "讃歌" ("Song Of Praise") sounds ever so stereotypical, although that's probably more the fault of my perception than anything else (what should they be playing, a tuba?) Even with that unfortunate but stubborn cynicism in place, Mizutani makes it work, leading the sitar with a clear eyed ease that strikes just the right balance. The track is both grounded and cosmic, keeping both in play without allowing either to dominate. "声明 Part 2" ("Statement, Part 2") takes an almost funk groove and, wisely, downplays it into an ambient quietude, sneaky but confident. Ultimately, it's that balance that (appropriately enough, given the subject matter) defines "Buddha Meet Rock:" the yin and yang of rock and Buddhism, complimenting each other without either one ever taking over. Once you get past the first track, it's smooth sailing...until "祈り Part 2" ("Prayer, Part 2") which replaces the placid atmosphere of the rest of the album with, er, orgasmic moans. It's amusing enough as a stand alone track in a goofy sort of way, but following the half hour blissout of the previous tracks, it's unpleasant: the balance is nowhere to be seen. Then there's the conclusion of "エピローグ" ("Epilogue,") which does the Axelrod thing again, thus (fittingly) leaving us where we started. So, is it cultural tourism that makes me willing to overlook the missteps? Maybe, maybe not, but it hardly matters: whatever the perspective, the bulk of the record is sublime, easily tipping the scales to the positive in spite of the jarring tracks that bookend the album (which, technically speaking, take up about eight and a half of its 42 minutes.) The idea man got lucky with this one, finding musicians who could blend the two worlds of rock and religion without the crassness that could have easily sunk the project. Worthy stuff. |