Whilst I’ve not attempted much research into her background & career of  ‘60s/'70s singing sensation Carmen Maki, the general feeling I get from her music & it's presentation is that of her being seen as a slightly more ‘serious’, rock / folk-based artist than as a conventional pop star, and indeed the two songs on this excellent 1969 single very much reinforce that idea, rejecting the ubiquitous orchestration and studio polish of most vintage Japanese pop for a stark, acoustic approach that at times almost recalls the sterner end of the British folk revival.

Anyone who picked up Maki’s collaborative album with the band Blues Creation when it was reissued by a few years back will have heard her wrapping her tonsils around a heap of mechanised, Zepplin-esque heavy boogie, sounding a little like Japan’s cooler and less annoying answer to Janis Joplin in places, but here we find her at completely the other end of the late ‘60s musical spectrum, delivering gentle, understated folk that sits very well with the ‘gambolling with goats’ cover art (well, I guess she was that much of a pop star, at least).

Accompanied only by a soft acoustic guitar, a flute and a single, lonesome horn, ‘Faraway Country’ finds Maki perfectly capturing that very particular spirit of haunting, minor key melancholy that makes Japanese pop so unique, the sparse arrangement allowing her to tap into the rural, folk-based roots of the enka tradition without ever giving way to the melodramatic bombast that often drags such material down when it hits the city. A definite keeper, this one is all wind whistling through the snow-capped mountains of the North country, Meiko Kaji or Junko Fuji walking away sword in hand from some harrowing showdown as children play amid the scrubland…. and not one parping trumpet or cheesy orchestral flourish to get in the way. Really beautiful.

‘Just Two, Alone’ on the B is a slightly more laboured and ornate affair that perhaps doesn’t captivate me quite as much, though I still like it a lot, with Maki’s exquisite vocal delivery and the surprising presence of some Morricone-western-soundtrack style clip-clopping hooves both pleasing me greatly. There is an odd kind of ‘marching band and spoken word’ interlude in the middle of this one that leads me to believe it must be a narrative ‘story song’ of some kind, and presumably not a happy one. My sub-Kindergarten level Japanese allows me to inform you that the lyrics at least partially concern two children, possibly going to school…. but beyond that, you’re on your own. Just like they are, if the translated title is to be believed. Sad stuff, no doubt.

Labels: Carmen Maki, Japanese Record of the Month