REPORT ON CICALA MVTA LIVE AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, MELTDOWN FESTIVAL, JULY 2 2000.

The night before they left for Europe, Japanese group Cicala Mvta (pronounced Chicala Muta) played for about 50 people in Tokyo. About par for the course for them. When they arrived in London the next day, theirs was the hottest ticket in town. Well, sort of. Cicala Mvta was supporting Blur on the final night of the Meltdown Festival, at the Royal Festival Hall. Now established as one of London's most esoteric and formidably exciting festivals, this year the artistic director was Scott Walker.

Each year, a celebrated muso is given the chance to put together his dream line-up, mixing up arts and artforms, the obscure with the exalted, giving the downright weird and unsung a chance to share a stage with more notable yet creative counterparts. Following in the footsteps of among others, Elvis Costello, Laurie Anderson and Nick Cave, 60s pop icon, Scott Walker, who later as a cult hero, influenced everything from psychedelia to ambient to Brit pop, had put together a suitable program. Thus Asian Dub Foundation, American avant garde composer Jim O'Rourke, jazz saxophonist Evan Parker, Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead were all on his fantasy festival list. Blur were so honored to have been chosen by their hero, they had decided Meltdown would be their only live appearance anywhere this year. Thus the unprecedented demand for tickets.

As the person who, unwittingly and indirectly, had introduced Cicala Mvta to Scott Walker, I found myself in London with not only a surplus of tickets, but watching the final of Euro 2000 with Damon Albarn and the boys from Blur. Cicala Mvta had had to receive the Blur seal of approval as well, but with the game still going on and destined for extra time, I don't think any of them actually saw their honored Japanese guests. Indeed, at least half of the audience were probably still in the pub watching France eventually beat Italy, as Cicala Mvta made their overseas debut, with at least for me, a feeling of half anticipation and trepidation. Exactly what a Blur audience would make of a Japanese instrumental band, mixing elements of chindon, a Japanese street music, with Balkan, Turkish, Nepalese and other brass and wind instrument music from around the world was unclear.

Cicala Mvta was formed by Wataru Ohkuma, who had taken the unlikely switch from playing guitar in a punk and noise band to clarinet in a chindon group. Colorful chindon groups used to be a common sight in Japan, marching in the streets noisily banging a chindon drum, while saxophones or clarinets would pick out the melody to the hits of the day. Another person, usually a chindon 'undergraduate' would carry a large banner announcing the opening of a new store or pachinko parlor. That is, until the advent of TV almost took away their livelihood as an advertising medium. The music is a strange brew of Japanese traditions, mainly from the original pre-classical version of kabuki, when it was still a street music and western military band music that marched it's way into Japan in the Meiji period.

Ohkuma tramped the streets of Tokyo for 7 years playing clarinet as part of a spluttering tradition, until the late 80s when together with the group Compostella he started to revive chindon music by mixing it with other elements. Cicala Mvta has taken the music a step further. Only occasionally featuring the chindon drum, Ohkuma's perky clarinet is ably abetted by an unusual line-up of musicians, each bringing with them a sense of individuality to form an unlikely but cohesive unit. Hiromichi Sakamoto is anything but an average cello player. Instead he carts around his own box of tricks containing a variety of electronics and gadgets to produce screeching, sawing, searing and squiggling sounds. Favorites are his electric massager and an electric drill with a metal grinder attached that lets sparks fly around the stage, much like his own personal fireworks display. Unfortunately, his 'piece de resistance' was deemed too dangerous for the RFH, without prior permission. Nevertheless his other antics, made him probably the visible focal point of the group. Guitarist Yoshiki Sakurai, is a picture of calm serenity that belies the dexterity of his playing, whether it be racing Frank Zappaesque rock solos, (more than once, people drew a musical similarity between Zappa and Cicala Mvta), or African hi-life style. Tuba player Takero Sekijima takes on the role of the bass player, steadily puffing out a meaty tone, occasionally letting fly with a rip-roaring solo. Drummer Masahiro Uemura is constantly striving for a 'cheap sound' from his drum kit. The antithesis of the stereotypical drummer, his small frame and hands blaze around the drum kit, not wasting a joule of energy, hardly breaking sweat.

At the Royal Festival Hall, the Blur fans gradually warmed to Cicala Mvta. Garnering a rousing response was "Suki Ni Natte, Gomenasai". Based loosely on a Turkish tune, it launches into a frantic rock workout, with the oddest middle break complete with cello electronic effects and Mongolian throat singing by Sakamoto and Ohkuma. The final number "Shi Chome" was a chindon standard tune that starts off very fast, and gets implausibly faster over each repeated refrain. With the musicians close to out of control by the end, and the melody now barely decipherable, Sakamoto usually screeches things to a halt with his cello saw routine. With this option vetoed, instead he chased a balloon around the stage, determined to spike it with his cello, his perseverance triumphing much to the delight of everyone as colored pieces of paper flitted in the air. Blur's set steered mainly clear of their big hits, instead showcasing new songs. All had well thought out arrangements and great hook lines, the most surrealistic moment being the arrival of new London mayor Ken Livingstone as Blur's rapper.

At the aftershow party, the pioneers of Britpop and the chindon revival finally got to meet. Scott Walker, a reclusive character, had left, but his manager passed on his enthusiastic best wishes. Blur's manager too had seen Cicala Mvta. "Next time, we're in Japan you're playing with us, right!" he exclaimed as we went out the door. Now, that might be an even stranger experience.

 

CICALA MVTA- a biography

Cicala Mvta, might just prove to be one of the most important albums to come out of Japan in the 1990s.

It is the first solo project by Wataru Okhuma, clarient, accordion, piano and guitar player, whose name has cropped up regularly on several other groundbreaking albums throughout the decade. He was a member of Masami Shinoda's Compostella 'chindon' unit, who first brought this colourful instrumental music storming into the new decade.

Chindon is the music popular as a street form of advertising. The musicians used to be a regular sight in Japan announcing the opening of a new store or 'pachinko', (pin-ball) parlour, but with the advent of television gradually died out. Compostella and it's predecessor Tokyo Chindon, went on to influence several other artists, many of whom Wataru Okhuma has had a hand in. He produced and played on Okinawan Tetsuhiro Daiku's 'Uchina Jinta' album, that combined Okinawan music with chindon with spectacular results. Japanese rock band Soul Flower Union, were in turn impressed with Tetsuhiro Daiku and formed an acoustic unit Soul Flower Mononoke Summit to play their own brand of chindon influenced music. Okhuma joined Mononoke Summit and later Soul Flower Union as a full time member. Other projects include producer of the highly acclaimed (especially overseas) Shisars album, 'Kuwa no Shita de Biru', a Klezmer unit, Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer and most recently co-producer and musician with Soul Flower's Takashi Nakagawa solo album Soul-Cialist Escape, partly produced by Donal Lunny and featuring several of his band.

Although originally formed in 1994, this album is the first by the Wataru Okhuma unit under the name Cicala Mvta. A culmination of Okhuma's eclectic influences from Chindon, to Klezmer, Eastern European,Turkish and Nepalese music. Exqusitely performed, the album features several other fine musicians, and presents perhaps the most exciting side of the current Japanese roots music scene.

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CICALA MVTA- CHING DONG, THE RETURN OF JAPANESE STREET MUSIC- sleeve notes for European release (Tropical Music)

The Japanese have a saying. 'The nail that sticks out needs to be hammered down'. The utopian Japanese society is one of conformality, where, including in music, little exists outside the norm. Equally however, little is normal, in the normal sense of the word. On the face of it, traditional culture is preserved with a devout passion; until you discover the students are only studying as a means to get married. Music schools and preservation societies abound and remain deeply conservative, while at the other end of the scale, the mainstream pop world is still (but less so) overpopulated by talentless 'talentos' with their ever so-karaoke-friendly, mind numbing form of blandness. Those nails that do stick out however, those musicians with the strength of personality to be free from institutionalisation, display an enormous capacity to create and experiment. After all, change and progression, often with a total disregard to the past, is the lifeblood of the Japanese.

Following the war, and in their rush to embrace American culture, many Japanese musicans did seem to forget their own rich and diverse musical heritage. Parrot like boogie woogie, rockabilly and jazz bands proliferated. Mickey Mouse may still be king, but gradually the demon of transfixion with all things western has been exorcised. Whatever the genre, these day's there's plenty of original, inspiring and challenging music, mixing up all kinds of elements. Japanese musicians really do possess an extraordinary ability to adapt their own tradition and absorb outside influences. No one more so than Wataru Ohkuma.

Wataru Okhuma is an extraordinary clarinet, saxophone, vibraphone and accordion player who has participated in several groundbreaking albums throughout the last decade. He was a member of Masami Shinoda's Compostella 'chindon' unit, who first brought this colourful instrumental music storming into the new decade. Chindon is the music that was popular as a street form of advertising about fifty years ago and before. The musicians used to be a regular sight in Japan announcing the opening of a new store or 'pachinko', (pin-ball) parlour, but with the advent of television gradually died out. Compostella and it's predecessor Tokyo Chindon, went on to influence several other artists, many of whom Wataru Okhuma has had a hand in. He produced and played on Okinawan Tetsuhiro Daiku's 'Uchina Jinta' album, that combined Okinawan music with chindon with spectacular results. Japanese rock band Soul Flower Union, were in turn impressed with Tetsuhiro Daiku and formed an acoustic unit Soul Flower Mononoke Summit to play their own brand of chindon influenced music. Okhuma joined Mononoke Summit and later Soul Flower Union as a full time member. Other projects include producer of the highly acclaimed Shisars album, 'Kuwa no Shita de Biru', where Okinawan music met grundge, in addition the Klezmer unit, Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer and most recently co-producer and musician on Soul Flower Takashi Nakagawa's solo album Soul-Cialist Escape, partly produced by Donal Lunny and featuring several of his band.

Although originally formed in 1994, this album is the first by the Wataru Okhuma unit under the name Cicala Mvta, and is a culmination of Okhuma's eclectic influences. "The album is a mix of chindon, other traditional music and my own compositions" says Ohkuma. "It's pretty multicultural. For example there's Nepalese music, Turkish and Balkan music. In fact all over the world there's brass music."

Challenging, powerful and exqusitely performed, the album features several other fine musicians, and presents perhaps the most exciting side of the current Japanese roots music scene. The unit's name, Cicala Mvta, is Italian, and is written on the gravestone of a politically minded Japanese poet, who at the time around 70 years ago, unable to speak his mind in fear of being thrown into prison, likened himself to having a cicada stuck in his throat, a 'mute cicada', the meaning of Cicala Mvta.

This is not in any way, a Japanese traditional album. Even the homegrown musical forms, chindon and it's close cousin, the dance style 'jinta' are in repertroire and instruments too modern to be labelled as such. Some believe that the word 'jinta' was originally used by Japanese people to imitate the sound of western instruments when they were introduced into Japan during the Meiji Period, (1868-1912), although this meaning has largely been forgotten. Perhaps for some this album does not represent the 'real Japan' , ie. the one before westernization 130 years ago, although nowadays this is little more than the Japan of the imagination.

Nothing is more 'real' today than the happy co-existence of the old and new. Whether in music, the modern metropolitan nightmare most musicians inhabit, or the somewhat time locked, scraggy, neglected countryside they may have once left behind. In Japan where convenience is everything, music too often needs no effort to listen to, and no heart to perform. Cicala Mvta help to put the heart back into Japanese music.

TRACK LIST.

1. OHFUKU JINTA Jinta is a type of Chindon tune and dance, this one composed by Wataru Ohkuma while walking in the streets of Kichijoji in Tokyo, before a concert.

2. PUNKA MANCHA NO ODORI Dedicated to Punka Mancha, the heroine from a Nepalese folklore picture book.

3. RAJAMATI KUMATI Based on a traditional Nepalese Wedding Brass band tune.

4. MICHIKUSA NO TAMENI (MUSASHINO 7/8) Composed by Wataru Ohkuma in a restaurant while waiting for a bowl of udon, (Japanese noodles). Musashino is an old name of a suburb of Tokyo, where Wataru now lives.

5. AZUMA HAKKEI Based on a melody from the Edo Period that was used as background music to performances of Kabuki (Japanese theatre) and Rakugo ( a type of Japanese comedy) that later became a chindon standard.

6. FRATANISATION SONG Composed by a German composer Paul Dessau originally for Brecht, but given a radical arrangement by the members of Cicala Mvta.

7. OKUNI TSUJIRU TOBIRA The title of this tune, meaning 'a door that opens onto the rear' is taken from a quotation on a painting by Paul Klee.

8. TURKISH DANCE Inspired by a traditional Turkish melody that includes the Turkish rhythm, 'Aku Saku' and dedicated to the Bulgarian saxophone player Nicole.

9. NEKOMUSHI GA HAIRU KARA Another original Ohkuma composition, with the strange title 'Shut the door because of the cat insect', although no such insect actually exists!

10. AOHIGE NO YU-UTSU A tune composed for a play which features the tuba of Takero Sekijima.

11. SHI-CHOME Another tune that originated as background music to Kabuki and Rakugo, which became a standard final number for chindon performers, and as finale on this version features the cello-saw playing of Sakamoto.

12. PUNKU MANCHA REPRISE