Description
This double LP offers forty five (45!) odd, gorgeously wide-eyed pop songs. Even the briskest of these (say, the 29 second “春 printemps”) gives enough space for an unexpected decision, a fearsome hesitation, a dramatic crash. Tori Kudo has spent many decades creating a music that is simple, spontaneous, and wild. When Curtains toured with Kudo’s band Maher Shalal Hash Baz in 2004 I begged Greg Saunier to tell me EVERYTHING about it, and wow did he deliver. “The first night of the tour,” he explained, “Maher played 30 or 40 songs, most of which Tori wrote on their flight to the US.” I didn’t ask or even wonder if he liked it, because I had/have so much faith in Kudo’s way of making songs, how could someone not like it? ‘Studio Village Hototoguis’ matches my imagination of that night, all the immediacy and tumbling and surprise. Every song is great: I like the little scratchy ones, I like the emptied-out laments too. I like the Donovan, Bob Dylan, and Jutok Kaneko covers. And I think “休日出勤 travail de vacances” is probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful song written in this century and if I made you a tape or DJed your party in the last seven or eight years you heard it already. Our house is full of records that Tori Kudo played on, our computer is full of oblique bandcamp releases that I can’t always keep straight. You could come over and spend a whole 24 hours listening to them with me, which I appreciate can be daunting! But if you asked me what one record you should own of all the things we listened to, I would probably say Reiko Kudo’s ‘夜の稲 = Rice Field Silently Riping In The Night’ but if you asked me what two records I would say that one and this one! Even if you had a million dollars and could buy ‘Return Visit to Rock Mass’ or the Guys & Dolls record.
Released 2024 by Bruit Direct Discques, black vinyl, full color gatefold sleeve
studio village hototoguis 2007-2022 by tori kudo
