Ash in the Rainbow

by Haco + Sakamoto Hiromichi
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, UK, 2003
CD-ROM,ReR HACO3, £11.50
Distributor’s Website: http://www.rermegacorp.com.

Reviewed by Mike Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University

mosher@svsu.edu

Haco's vocals are in Japanese with bits of t-shirt English, and the lyrics' full English translation by Christopher Stevens is printed on the booklet that accompanies the CD.  Haco’s voice has an interesting range, for "Moonfish Dance" offers up a variety of vocalisms like Bjork, both whooping and whispery anguish.  "Airhead" is odd and anarchic, Haco's voice less a Brechtian growl than a yawp from Jarry's Ubu plays.  "Chanelling" bleeps along with an analytical and scientific sound, like Laurie Anderson in the processed world.  "Deep Sky" remains pensive despite vocorder-bent vocal bursts, and the sound of someone trying to unscrew something.

In this collaboration, multi-instrumentalist Sakamoto Hiromichi is likely the sensibility responsible for the pseudoclassical lieder  "Zero Hills" and the delicate and fragmentary "Sign of the Seahorse." "Drunken Strings" is carried by Sakamoto's solo cello.  "Standard Smile" seems to belong in a collection of children's songs with an eerie musical saw.  I envision a troupe dancing on tiptoes to it.

The team also displays a sensibility often in tune with the popular and radio-friendly. "Hot Road" delivers clear vocals on a pop song worthy of Celine Dion. The opening title cut "Ash in the Rainbow" is melancholy in its use of reversed rhythm machine, that musical saw (the poor man's theremin?), cello, and vibraphone.  This track is the hit single and cries out to be employed as the theme song from an anime about a dying planet.