The members of Port of Notes are good, but they aren’t infallible.
Complain Too Much, the duo’s 1999 first full-length album, was practically flawless, but its 2001 follow-up, Duet with Birds, was hit-and-miss.
The pattern was even reflected in singer Hatakeyama Miyuki’s solo work. Her 2002 album, Diving In Your Mind, was strong and forceful, but a pair of cover albums and second studio album, Wild and Gentle, were mired in sentimentality.
Hatakeyama’s earnest croon deserves as much great material as it can, so the news of a new Port of Notes album in 2004 was welcome. After three years pursing their own projects — Tajima Daisuke recorded under the moniker DSK while Hatakeyama released her solo work — could the pair still produce that same chemistry?
Let’s get the comparrisons out of the way — Evening Glows isn’t as fetching as Complain Too Much, but it holds together far better than Duet With Birds.
At the same time, it isn’t the fastest album to warm up to.
The songs on Evening Glows don’t contain the hooks that immediately grab a listener’s attention. Nor are the songs fitted with much studio flourish.
Given their bossa nova-leanings and gender dynamics, Port of Notes has drawn numerous comparrisons to UK duo Everything But the Girl. Such comparrisons were rendered obsolete when EBTG retooled its sound for techno and drum ‘n’ bass.
The first half of Evening Glows sounds closer to later-era Sade. “Sorezore no Umi” has the kind of sparse arrangement that would have fit well on Lovers Rock. “Dead Angel”, on the other hand, could have been an outtake from Hatakeyama’s Diving In Your Mind.
The album loses a bit of steam on the overly long instrumental “Woodnote” but picks right back up for its midpoint peak. “Sunshine in the Rain”, featuring Matsutoya Yumi, serves as a perfect lead-in to the exuberent “Trace of Dream”.
After that, Evening Glows retracts the momentum, drawing the album inward. It’s not a particularly bad move, but the second half of the album tends to blur into a single, slow-tempo haze.
For four straight songs, the duo limit the instrumentation pretty much to themselves — vocal and guitar, with maybe a trumpet to comment on the action. It wouldn’t seem so out of place if the first half didn’t build up to “Trace of Dream”.
“Pacific Morning Dance” demonstrates Tajima is not quite Ben Watt to Hatakeyama’s Tracy Thorn. He doesn’t posses very strong vocals, but that’s not half as distracting as his accent on his English lyrics.
Evening Glows reveals its charms after a number of listens, and its understated moments serves it well at some points. On others, they get lost among themselves.
Port of Notes aren’t infallible, but when they are good, it shows.
Source: Bounce.com
Hatakeyama Miyuki and DSK reunite as Port of Notes to release a new album in October. Titled Evening Glow, the new album is the pair’s first since releasing Duet With Birds three years ago. Guest musicians on the album include Matsutoya Yumi (who collaborates with Port of Notes for the first time), Matsunaga Takayoshi, Sakada Gaku (Polaris) and Horikawa “Bobo” Hiroyuki. Uchida Naoyuki (Dry & Heavy) engineered the album. A limited edition first pressing of Evening Glows also includes an 8cm CD containing “Dead Angel (Naoyuki Uchida dub)” and “Walk Through Happiness (instrumental)”.
Source: Bounce.com
Hatakeyama Miyuki and Kojima Daisuke reunite as Port of Notes with a new single titled “Trace of Dream” to be released on June 30. It’s the first new work from the pair in three years. Polaris’ Sakada Kagu appears on the title track, while 54-71 drummer Horikawa Hiroyuki plays on the duo’s cover of Caetano Veloso’s “Mihna Muhler”. Artwork for the single was done by Kojima’s younger brother, Yousuke. Hatakeyama and Kojima both embarked on solo projects in the last two years.
Lazy American journalists — such as myself — always need to compare Japanese artists to Western artists.
It’s quick and easy, and readers most likely to be fan of one band just might be interested in another like it.
Still, it’s pretty tired to see constantly that “Band A is Japan’s answer to Band B”. At the risk of being tired, let me just get this off my chest: Port of Notes is Japan’s answer to Everything But the Girl.
Not latter-day Everything But the Girl of Walking Wounded or Temperamental, where club beats and ethereal synthesizers drive the duo’s music.
No, Port of Notes is akin to Amplified Heart/The Language of Life-era EBTG.
Credit that to Hatakeyama Miyuki’s clear, emotive voice. She’s not as technically proficient as Tracey Thorn, but like her UK counterpart, Hatakeyama possesses the ability to imbue each phrase with a subtle, unmistakeable emotional edge.
Although her English diction isn’t as smooth as ex-m-flo Lisa or fellow jazz-pop contemporary Minako, Hatakeyama still manages to make those words her own.
Then there’s “Like I Lay Down” from the duo’s 1999 album Complain Too Much. Kojima Taisuke’s guitar work could have been plucked by Ben Watt, and no one could have told the difference.
On the surface, Complain Too Much is a jazz-pop album in the vein of Sade and Basia. But like late-80s EBTG,
Port of Notes infuses enough alternative rock influences into its music to sound more like Tears For Fears.
The backmasked guitars on “With This Affection” owe more to the Cure than to Django Reinhardt. So does that rock chorus and analog drum machine beat.
Port of Notes does take some time to pay tribute to its less-rock-leaning influences. A tropical beat drives the lyric-less “Unknown Language”. “Ecrice” is straight-forward cabaret tune, and the seven-minute “Complaining Too Much” starts of with a light, bossa nova and ends with a dark salsa.
Hatakeyama’s brilliant voice coupled with Kojima’s expert instrumentation makes Port of Notes one of the most engaging duos around. There’s little to complain about their music.