Cochin Moon cover

Cochin Moon

Released

It’s shocking that this album from Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder Hosono remained a Japan-only release for 40 years, such is its brilliance and influence. From 1978 when YMO were just starting out, it is one of the most forward-thinking synth albums you could ever imagine. It hints at its contemporaries in kosmische Krautrock experimentation, but just as much seems to channel echoes of the then far-future of 90s electronica: there are tracks here that could practically be Luke Vibert, µ-Ziq or The Future Sound Of London if they only had a breakbeat. It’s a wild, psychedelic, if occasionally noodly, ride, with synth timbres that don’t just sound advanced for their time: they sound advanced for any time.

Joe Muggs

Those electronics that blip up on Paraiso have now become the primary focus of Hosono’s attention and his bank of synthesizers yields one of the wooliest prog albums of the era. The apocryphal origin story behind Cochin Moon is that while in India conceiving of a project that would touch on Bollywood soundtracks and Indian classical music, Hosono contracted a stomach bug so serious he felt near death. The delirium of the swirling electronics – conjuring everything from sweat drips and aural hallucinations to mosquito buzzes and feverish vortices – feels apt indeed.

Andy Beta

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