Customer Reviews

Memories Are My Only Witness

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I've been hoping for another CIBO MATTO album, I had also been curious to hear what Yuka Honda might come up as a solo artist, not only based on hearing her imaginative contributions to the CIBO MATTO sound, but also from her work as a producer or remixer for such varied artists as Miu Sakamoto and Medeski, Martin, & Wood. My guess is that Yuka could easily take her own music in a variety of directions, and here she opts for an instrumental album. At times the music proceeds through a series of short sonic sculptures, at other times Yuka explores musical ideas at a bit more length. There's a bit of funk, then sound effects, then hip-hop, then ambient passages, and so on. Yet somehow taken as a whole there is a coherent vision to the eclectic parts, with a constant emotive depth amid the sometimes rapid shifts in sound and mood.

Although at times the music sounds like CIBO MATTO at their funkiest, the difference here is that the songs avoid the structure of contemporary pop songs (even the onbeat-offbeat C.M. ones cut with Miho Hatori). In other words, a lot of the music doesn't support a melody and/or melodic hooks, but rather stands on its own. Furthermore, jazz-like improvised solos are few in number, which for me meant listening to the CD several times to fully appreciate Yuka's music on her own terms, not my preconceptions. I suppose my jazz background had me at first wanting Yuka to stay in and develop each groove for...well 10-15 minutes each (that's the Miles Davis fan in me). However, I quickly grew to love Yuka's choice not to stay in one place very long...it's kind of like traveling and landing in a different country every few minutes at random. As long as Yuka Honda is the tourguide I don't mind.

Yuka's music is wonderful. At first I missed Miho's voice layed over Yuka's music, but I soon came to appreciate how great this is as a lyricless album. All of the tracks are deeply atmospheric, and often experimental. If you were a fan of Cibo Matto, or not, do yourself a favor and check out this album.

I don't have much to say but this CD is one of those CDs that you instantly love at first listen. I enjoyed Yuka Honda's work with Cibo Matto and the GrooveBox CD but this one is just fantastic... thanks Yuka for a brilliant album

Yes, the title of this review was too long to fit in the things, as an homage to Yuka Honda's monstrous track titles. This is really a magical album. Any fan of defunct off-pop duo Cibo Matto would love this, especially since Yuka is half of the mitoticized Cibo Matto. Yuka has such vast talent and potential as a musician and thinker (I would assume), and the liberation of her music has created such a beautiful mosaic of melody and rythm. Yuka's A.D.D. is manifest in this collage of color and sound, which is a very refreshing departure from traditional (commercial) song construction. It's an instrumental, which is the best type of music, meaning it is pure art. When you listen to it, one word that is destined to float to the top of your head is ART, because that's what it is. Yuka doesn't fool around. She just busts 'em out.

The other best thing about this album (besides the music of course, silly) are the gargantuan titles to some of the tracks. Here, for example, is the title of track 2:

Why Do We Distrust The Machines We Made? a. Do Creators Hate Us? b. A Happy Day, I Quit A.A., I Never Went Away c. My Tears Form A Pond In Your Garden

And that's the end of the track name. Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you, it has three sub-track titles. I could imagine somebody calling a radio station and requesting that song ....

"Yeah, will you play Yuka Honda's "Why do we distrust the machines we made ... uhhh ... does a creator hate us ... uhh .. A happy day, something about A.A. and then it went away ... uuuuhhh .... something about a garden .... you know the one I'm talking about? Hello?"

Perhaps this was Yuka's intention. She seems to dislike or even abhor the limitations set on popular music. ("Each song must have a short, catchy, chewable name!") Stereo Type A, Yuka's 1999 accomplishment (as part of Cibo Matto) seemed to be sticking its begging cup out in front of the popular music scene, with track lengths ranging between 3 mins and 6 mins at the longest, and track titles never exceeding 3 words. Memories Are My Only Witness, however, has tracks ranging from 45 secs to 8 mins, and .... well, I've already explained the track titles.

Another thing that sets this album apart is the typography of the cover. The front cover doesn't include Yuka's name (tho it is boldly stated on the back side), and the album title is half-way off the side. I almost didn't see it the first time I looked at the cover, then when I saw it I was like, "That's cool."

The best thing about the album, hands down, is the undeniably cute (tho way too small) picture of Yuka on the back, bearing her shoulders from behind a, I don't know, some sort of musical equipment, and looking off into the distance. Way cute. I want to get a bigger version of it.

Bottom Line: Get this album if you're sick of commercialized [music]. It'll expand your musical mind a little, if it doesn't totally blow you away and introduce you to a whole other musical universe you were never aware of in your cultural deprivation chamber.

Yuka demonstrated in Cibo Matto's "Stereotype A" that she is a multi-talented musician who can bring a colorful kaleidoscope of sound to the world.

With "Memories are My Only Witness", Yuka Honda confirms that she is one class act, using her incredible ear for jazz, funk, electronica, blues and rock to prove she is truly a fantastic musician and producer. I love the work of Brian Wilson and I sincerely believe Yuka can match his brilliance song for song, note for note.

"Memories are My Only Witness" demonstrates that quality, original, creative music is still available in this corporate, music-by-committee world. I especially enjoy the tunes " The Last One To Fall Asleep With" and "Night Diving". Production values on the cd are absolutely fantastic.

If you like Cibo Matto, MMW, Pizzicato Five and/or Cornelius (who I think is over-rated), Yuka's solo cd will not disappoint you!

The only sad thing, in my opinion, is this album hints at what could have been a further exciting evolution of Cibo Matto's sound and development as a group. Thank God Yuka gave her fans this beautiful album so our ears are full of her musical expressions of hope, faith, friendship and love.

Peace to all....

I never thought this her first solo album is so beautiful,powerful and imaginative.Everytime listen this CD,Feel like short trip Tokyo to Yokohama,or circling Manhattan.Just great.I have nothing to say about it more.

I've heard that Cibo Matto won't make third.It makes me so sad,but meaning she'll drop next solo someday at least,right?
OK,Deal.

This album is full of interesting sounds. I sampled it and just
knew I had to have it. The songs don't have words, it's a wide
variety of really cool sounding electronic music and SFX. While
I was listening to it I thought mabey she was good enough to be
called a female Nobuo Uematsu. He does slightly simmilar music for the
Final Fantasy game series etc. I reccomend those soundtracks but
not necessarily the games.

Anyway my favorite song on this album is Schwaltz. Very classy
sounding and exciting indeed! There's some very nice music on
ALL of this album's tracks. I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.
But I'm kind of stingy about giving out 5's.

-saechan

This is a very interesting album. I did'nt quite know what to expect of this one, being without the cool vocals of Miho Hatori.
But, the musical brains behind Cibo Matto has done it.

This album departs from her previous work with Cibo Matto, and is just as good, if not better than a lot of her previous work.
These instrumentals are very surrounding and deep. For example, listening to "Schwaltz", you may picture yourself in a spinning room surrounded by a group of evil mimes. Something new pops up every time you listen to this one.

An exciting Electronica album. Strong rhythms, colourful and strange sounds, creative production and some great melodic writing. Yuka Honda's album is an almost perfect example of modern Japanese dance / pop / electronica.
I guess that it could be said that there all sorts of elements and styles on this album - a Kraftwerkian electronic feel, a little Lounge, some Hip Hop beats, some Jazz-fusion and a dose of Trance.

I was going to list some standout tracks but I like them all. Listen to "Why do we distrust the machines we made?", "You Think You Are So Genorous, But It's the Most Conditional "Anything"" [yes, Yuka like loooonnnnnngggg titles] and the spooky "Some Days I Stay In Bed For Hours" for a feel for this album.

I am very glad I have this album, Yuka Honda is another artist to watch in the future. It goes very nicely with John Foxx's "Tiny Colour Movies". Maybe Mr. Foxx and this young lady should get together?

I have Yuka Honda's "Eucademix" and that album is well worth investigating, too.

i JUST saw her live 2 days before writing this (opening for Le Tigre in Boston) and it was the first i had ever heard of her. she was absolutely amazing. she played amazing songs and had some trippy and fantastic video projections behind her. i cant imagine that her CD would be bad.