[Peaceful & laid-back]
No.233 "Hoshi-kuzu" by Makoto Kubota & The Sunset Gang
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Hoshi-kuzu" (Stardust) by "Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang".
We recently learned an interesting fact from some articles on the internet.
But a new generation of music fans in the West have freshly spotted this peaceful & laid back ballad rock, "Hoshi-kuzu" (Stardust) of "Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang" as one of the seeds of Japanese "City-Pop".
Yeah. You are right.
Honestly, we were not really conscious of the possibility of that, we have known the song for years though.
So, we would like to introduce this good track to you with a respect for them.
If you like please listen to.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Hoshi-kuzu(Stardust) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang |
| Album Title | Dixie Fever |
| Catalog Number | UVPR-50024 |
| Track No. | 5 |
| Duration | 4:02 |
| Released | 1977 |
| Publisher | Showboat |
| Lyricist | Yōsuke Fujita |
| Composer | Yōsuke Fujita |
| Arranger | Makoto Kubota |
About the creators
Yōsuke Fujita Lyricist & Composer
The lyricist & composer, "Yōsuke Fujita" is a member of the performing band of this song as well.
So, we would like to come back to him in "About the artist" section later.
References
For more details on "Yōsuke Fujita", please have a look at the references linked below.
Makoto Kubota Arranger
The arranger, "Makoto Kubota" is also a member of the performing band of this song.
So, we would like to come back to him in "About the artist" section later.
References
For more details on "Makoto Kubota", please have a look at the references linked below.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Simple & relaxing
This seems to be a simple, country music like earthy, & relaxing Pop-rock song in a slow 4-beat rhythm.
Gentle & acoustic
The acoustic guitar, electric piano, drums, bass, electric guitar, and percussions begin an acoustic and soothing introduction, and main part starts.
In the main part, beautiful ensemble of backing chorus also join, and brings out a cool vocal of "Makoto Kubota".
In the bridge, the soprano saxophone performs a lovely solo play, and the string synthesizer softly supports it.
Musicians
The musicians took part in this track were as follows.
Hoshi-kuzu (Track 5)
- Makoto Kubota
- Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar
- Kenny Inoue
- Guitar
- Yōsuke Fujita
- Guitar, Backing vocal
- Takashi Onzō
- Bass, Backing vocal
- Ronnie Barron
- Electric Piano
- Harry Hosono
- String Ensemble
- Tatsuo Hayashi
- Drums
- Motoya Hamaguchi
- Percussions
- Roger Bailey
- Soprano Sax Solo
- Sandi A.Horn
- Background Vocal
- Travis Fullerton
- Background Vocal
Reference
Google translate(en)
Wikipedia JP, Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang
About Google translate
About the artist
Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang A pioneering Japanese R&B group
"Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang" was a 4-5 piece rock-a-ballad, blues, country, ethnic,funk, and Pop rock group active from around 1973 to 1990.
Their music seemed to be based on the New Orleans R&B, but they always added some plus alpha factors which reflect the era, like Psychedelic, Hippie culture, ethnic, or Synthe.
And in a sense, they have been a unique, and the only one group in Japanese rock scene.
In fact, "Sunset gang" shares important part of the early half of "Makoto Kubota"'s' music career, who was the leader of the group, and suddenly came under the spotlight recently as a former member of a legendary, Noise, avant-garde, and Psychedelic rock group "Hadaka-no Rallies" (Les Rallizes Dénudés).
And the music of "Sunset gang" actually reflects himself a lot, so we would like to also refer to a music history of him.
"Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang" debuted in 1974 with their first album, "Sunset Gang". Since then, 7 singles, and 12 original, 2 live, and 2 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang)
Early times
Acoording to some references, a Japanese musician, "Makoto Kubota" started his professional career in 1970 when he was still a student of "Dōshisha" university in Kyoto.
The first single record that he, or his group "Makoto Kubota & Bizarre Hogehoge band" released was a topical college folk "Shōwa-Genroku Hogehoge bushi" *, and sang a slap-happy social situation ironically.
And it was almost certainly a parody of "Shōwa-Genroku harenchi bushi" (1968), a theme song for a comedy film of the same title.
"Showa-Genroku Hogehoge bushi" means a traditional style folk song singing ironically against the sybaritic & idol life style, as well as optimistic and nonsense-leaning social situation.
"Showa-Genroku" is firstly a figurative phase to mean an "economic boom", but it also means a "sybaritic & and idol life style in happy-go-lucky atmosphere of the society".
"Hogehoge" is not really an onomatopoeia, and has no clear meaning either, but has nuance like "empty", "absent", "spaced-out", "fool" "stupid", "no backbone", nonsense" etc...
And "Bushi" (節) is a type of traditional Japanese folk song, often found in "Min-yō" (民謡).
And almost simultaneously, "Kubota" participated in a Noise & psychedelic rock band "Hadaka-no Rallies" (Les Rallizes Dénudés) as a bassist, since the group was led by "Takashi Mizutani" who was one of "Kubota"'s music peers at the music circle in his University.
Since this band has recently come under spotlight in overseas, and there are a few good articles like this one, or this one writing about "Les Rallizes Dénudés" as well as "Makoto Kubota".
Both are excellent articles, and we can recommend them for you to have a look.
In 1971, "Kubota" suddenly took a temporary leave from school, and travelled around the United States to go through San Francisco Rock, since he was strongly influenced by "Mizutani" who had an ample amount of knowledge in this area.
Indeed, "Kubota" spent this precious time only for listening, and experiencing the music he was wishing to see, and after seven months, he returned to Japan.
After sometime from his return from the US, "Kubota" began to prepare for launching his first album
And in 1973, it was released as his debut album "Machi-bouke" (stood up).
The beginning of "Sunset gang"
Around 1973, he was also involving the activity of "Les Rallizes Dénudés" at a legendary, but short-lived music pub & live venue."OZ" in Kichijōji, Tokyo.
But on the other hand, "Kubota" also teamed up a small session unit with "Shunichirō Shōda", a drummer of "Les Rallizes Denudes", and started to perform gigs parallelly at "OZ".
Interestingly, the musicians like, "Takashi Onzō" (B), "Yōsuke Fujita" (G, Slide G), and "Kenny Inoue," (G) joined with the session team soon.
"Kubota", and the three of them formed a new group around late 1973, though "Shoda" (Dr) was not able to join.
The members began to call the group "Sunset Gang", and it was the start of the unique band.
Virtually, the debut album
The activities of new band were naturally integrated into the recording of "Kubota"'s second album.
The members performed well on the ten tracks of this album, and shaped it as a great R&B, or folk rock album.
Only "Shōda", the drummer of the band, was not able to continue, then "Takashi Matsumoto", the former drummer of "Happy end", and also became a great lyricist later, was promptly invited as a substitute.
And needless to say, "Matsumoto" did an excellent job on almost all tracks of the album.
Gorgeously, the rapidly rising singer-songwriters, "Minako Yoshida,", and "Taeko Ōnuki" were also assembled as backing vocalists, and added great value to this album.
And this new record Sunset Gang", which was also famous with its cover art featuring "Godzilla", was launched in 1973 as the second solo album of "Makoto Kubota".
Although the album is often categorized as "Kubota"'s solo album, but fans usually presume this as the debut albums of "Makoto Kubota & Sunset Gang"
Haruomi Hosono
An important name of the musician who involved in this album, and we cannot forget to mention is "Haruomi Hosono".
In fact, "Hosono" has been a helpful music partner to "Makoto Kubota" since this album. And involved almost all albums of "Sunset gang", "The sunsets", and the solo albums of "Kubota" until now as a musician, producer, or just a friend.
So in a sense, "Hosono" is one of the most important, and like-minded music colleagues for "Kubota".
In 1973, the music producer of the album "Sunset gang" invited "Hosono" as an arranger, bassist, and keyboardist to the recording, since he believed that "Hosono" will be the best person to handle a unique music like "Sunset gang"'s.
Indeed, "Hosono" did a great job in common with other professionals called.
And contributed to make their album more attractive.
While working together with "Hosono" on the recording, "Kubota" found "Hosono" really interesting. And even after completed the album production, "Kubota" continued to contact with "Hosono", and whenever possible, "Kubota" visited the residence of "Hosono" to talk.
Fortunately, "Hosono" and "Kubota" were on the same wavelength, and noticed that they could talk same language not only about the music, but also on more general topics.
On another day, "Kubota" asked "Hosono" to be a music producer for the next album of "Sunset gang", and also requested to him to come to Hawaii together with the band for the recording.
"Hosono" welcomed his proposal, and decided to go with them.
And in 1975, "Makoto Kubota & Sunset Gang" successfully released their second album, "Hawaii Champroo" by having a powerful support from "Hosono".
In a similar way to the last mission, they booked a studio in Hawaii, and started the recording of their 3rd album "Dixie Fever" which was planned to release in 1977, and the one we are introducing today.
More American musicians took part in this album, and perhaps therefore, this album is rich in sound, and has more refined and authentic taste.
Their album seemed getting nice step-by-step.
One more notable change on this album was the participation of a brilliant Pop singer, namely "Sandi A.Hohn" (Sandii).
Actually, you can also hear her charming voice on today's song "Hoshi-kuzu".
And "Sandii" became a lead vocalist of "Sandii & the Sunsetz" later.
Sandii & the Sunsetz
"Sunset gang" or "Sunsetz" constantly released fine albums until around 1981.
But simultaneously, the band started a joint work with "Sandii" since around 1979.
And in 1982, Pop singer "Sandii", and a rock group "Sunset gang" run into one group, and started as "Sandii & the Sunsetz"
Back in 1980, "Sandii" released her 3rd solo album "Eating Pleasure" by having strong support from "Haruomi Hosono" and "Makoto Kubota".
Especially "Hosono", who was just unleashing his incredible talent as a leader of "Yellow Magic Orchestra" (YMO), became a music producer of this album.
And "Hosono" not only provided excellent songs as a composer & arranger, but also gathered the members of "YMO", and performed the latest, and most stylish synth Pop sound as a backing band.
And as it turned out, the album became a edgy, but lovely new-wave, synthe-pop album, which was later praised by a great Rock singer "David Bowie".
In 1981, "Sandii" finally joined "Sunset gang" as a main vocalist, and the group changed its name to "The Sunsets".
And in the same year, "The sunsetz" released their first "Synth-Pop" album "Heat Scale" by inviting "Haruomi Hosono" as a producer again.
Luckily, the album was launched in 17 different countries including UK and Japan.
And particularly in the UK, it created a stir among music fans, since they knew "Sandy", who were already gaining popularity through her last album "Eating Pleasure", was also a member of "The sunsetz".
In reaction to this, the group changed the name to "Sandy & The Sunsetz".
Seeing world wide
In the early half of the '80s, especially 1981 and 1982, "Sandii & The Sunsetz" had sparkling experiences in the UK as a new-wave rock band spent a large amount of time in London where was one of the centres of world music scene changing rapidly & dramatically everyday at that time.
They toured around the UK, and played festivals with the musicians like, "Blondie", "Eurythmics", "INXS" or "David Bowie".
"Sandii & The Sunsetz" also worked collaborated with "David Sylvian" and his group "Japan", and went along with their UK, Europe, And Asia tour as a guest band.
Or, "Sandii" herself befriended with "Siouxsie Sioux" and "Budgie" of "Siouxsie And The Banshees", etc, etc.
Like this way, "Sandii & The Sunsetz" became a rare Japanese band experienced an exciting '80s music scene of London as a player.
For more detailed history, please have a look at the page of "Sandii & the Sunsetz" at "en.wikipedia.org".
In the latter half of the '80s, the band moved their stage to Japan, and continued to seek their music.
And just before the '90s, the members of the "Sandii & The Sunsetz" returned to solo musicians. And started their new life again.
As a solo
In the beginning of the '90s, "Sandii" remained to cooperate with "Makoto Kubota", and continue to seek out their music, namely the fusion of ethnic music and new-wave rock, or other category music.
Although, they were a team, the albums were released as a solo album of "Sandii"s, and "Makoto Kubota" willingly remained as a producer.
In fact the concept like "the fusion of ethnic music and new-wave rock" was mainly coming from "Makoto Kubota", but he might not be able to create the albums like these without having the great singer & performer "Sandii".
Actually, some people praises three albums of "Sandii"s released in the '90s, namely "Mercy", "Pacifica", and "Dream Catcher" as the best albums of her.
In 1996, "Kubota" & "Sandii" released another fine album "Watashi" (Me) as "Sandii"'s 9th solo album.'
And by launching this, "Kubota" & "Sandii" finalized their activity as a team, and each of them started their solo career again.
Way for each one - Sandii
"Sandii" had been a seeker of hula (Hawaiian) culture since long time ago, and naturally returned to the life to study hula more intensely.
And after years of devotion to learn hula culture, she successfully earned the title of "Uniki, Kumu Hula" (Certified, or graduated teacher of hula tradition) by 2005.
Since then, she has opened her own hula school, in Japan, and is teaching hula passionately to many students.
On the other hand, she has been being a singer since the '70s.
In 2018, "Sandii" released her latest Pop album "Hula Dub", by having powerful support from "Dennis Bovell", a Barbados-born British Dub master.
Way for each one - Makoto Kubota
Comparatively, "Makoto Kubota" continued to take his way, and has been pursuing his interests against folk music, and ethnic music of Asia, South America, and Africa in particular.
He travelled all over the world to experience local music, and wrote a book after studied them deeply, scientifically, and even philosophically.
And since around 2000, he is focusing on introducing some of those precious folk music which could be treasures of human being.
And this is also a place he arrived after long journey on seeking music, but he is eagerly releasing World, or healing music as a team or solo, like "Hotel" series, "Spirit of healing" series, or "SPA" series.
If you like, please listen to.
References
For more details about "Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang", please have a look at the references linked below.
-
(Ref: www.makotokubota.org/about,
profile)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: www.makotokubota.org/press,
press)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: biscuittimes77.hatenablog.com,
Kubota, Hosono talk show)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a music clip of today's song "Hoshi-kuzu" (stardust).
Fortunately, it has been uploaded as a topic on Youtube with permission from the copyright holder since last year.
So, please have a look.
And we also would like to present you one more summer song of "Sunset Gang" from their 2nd album "Hawaii Champroo" just for your info.
The title of the soothing, and Hawaiian like pop song is "Shoka no kaori" (The Scent of Early Summer).
If you like, please listen to.
Music Samples
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Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 星くず(Hoshi-kuzu) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団(Makoto Kubota & Sunset gang) |
| Album Title | Dixie Fever |
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