Kanashibari

Kanashibari has always been one of our most popular songs, certainly of our most memorable numbers. Often, people who had caught our act just us, and years ago, still remember it.
Let me tell you a little about the songs history.

The entire piece generated out of a bass line which was a favorite of Tom Debor, Xenophonia`s bass player. Ascelin Gordon came up with the reggae guitar to go over it. It was up to me to come up with the melody and the lyrics. A few times we had worked on it in the living room at
The Ice Palace, and the melody for the A-pattern was pretty much set. The original theme, however, was about nuclear waste or pollution and I even might have improvised once about alien invasions.

While the song was in the process of being written, I had a very traumatic and exhausting Kanashibari experience. For non-japanese,this expression might need explanation, and I think
the lyrics of the song preety much explain what it is.

On a sultry summer night, as I slept, it seemed as if a face, human yet not of the flesh, zipped right up to mine,pressing right up against me. I felt as if I were paralyzed by an electric ray-gun, my whole body tingled like a foot that has fallen asleep. when I inhaled, it seemed as if a hurled
upwards and crashed into the ceiling and then crashed to the floor as I exhaled.
This probably went on for a few seconds, but it felt like the proverbial eternity. For a few days after that my whole body felt Charley Horse.

When I told Tom about my experience he sympathized and said that he often had had similar ATTACKS himself. Obviously, this phenomenon is not uncommon in Japan as there is a set expression for it, which is commonly known.

We decided to make this unusual reggae song into something about Kanashibari.

I remember righting the lyrics and the chorus melody as I walked all the way to Tsuchiura(over 2 hours) and I especially remember crossing over the bridge at the Sakuragawa River. Our first recording was done at The Ice Palace in my Tatami room. Ryutaro Kawakami laid down the crazed sax solo in what I remember as one take.

We later recorded the song again as The TenGooz, during the Inertia recording sessions. Tanaka changed the feeling of the song with his slide guitar.

We have been keeping the song alive in concert and most recently Michael Frei on sax and Thomas Mayers on guitar have performed it and the rapt faces in the audience as well as post gig comments show that the song is still a favorite.

www.jamendo.com/en/album/873
or
www.jamendo.com/en/album/2425

Avi Landau