Tokyo's Coolest Sound

Correspondent Nicholas D. Kent went to the "Godzilla Legend" concert held recently in New York. Here's his report!

"Godzilla Legend—Music of Akira Ifukube"
April 28, 2017 at Japan Society, NYC

For the past few years I had seen Tokyo concert announcements from time to time announcing a special concert called "Godzilla Legend" with performances by Hikashu. But I was never in town when one was scheduled. I was thrilled to discover that one of these concerts was set to take place at Japan Society in NYC, for the first time outside of Japan.

The man behind the project is Inoue Makoto, who originally played keyboards for Hikashu in the late 70s though departed as a band member in the early 1990s. He greatly admires the Godzilla film scores of Ifukube Akira (1914-2006). Ifukube composed the score for the original "Godzilla" in 1954 and wrote many but not all the Godzilla scores up until 1995 as well as a number of other Toho non-Godzilla giant monster films (Like "Rodan", 1956) that take place in the same fictional universe.

The Godzilla Legend concerts feature Inoue as musical director and Hikashu as the core band and then add guests to fill out the brass section (Tatsumi Kogorō, Gotō Atsushi, Yoshida Ryūichi) and featured guests Charan-Po-Rantan with sisters Momo and Koharu singing vocals + Koharu on accordion.

The show opens with the first scene's music from the first Godzilla film. There is a melancholy song sung by Charan-Po-Rantan which was originally sung by the sailors on the ill-fated ship the Eiko-maru who soon have a fatal encounter with Godzilla. The audience is launched musically into a number of classic Godzilla themes. One of the things I consider a "trademark" of Hikashu is the ability to perform a sort of freak out improv and then snap on the beat into a very tightly arranged melody. That's something that takes place a number of times and always impresses.

Besides the brooding suspense and rousing marches, a number of the films contain some sort of imaginary ethnic, sometimes primitive music. We hear some on King Kong's Island in "King Kong vs Godzilla" (1962) with Makigami Kōichi singing. Though a group, I'm sure Makigami is often referred to as Hikashu's frontman. During the evening he plays Theremin, does what I believe is Tuvan overtone chanting and occasionally plays a big gong and at one point a pocket trumpet.