Phew is the Japanese avant-garde vocalist Hiromi Moritani. In the late 70’s she was a member of the legendary Osaka-based punk band Aunt Sally, which released a self-titled album in 1979 via Vanity Records. The vocalist would go on to work with Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Ryuichi Sakamoto, who produced her debut solo 2-song single in 1980, before she released an extensive discography as Phew that includes collaborations with members of bands like Can, DAF, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Cluster. This year the artist put out her LP Light Sleep via Justin Simon’s NYC-based label Mesh-Key. Recorded at her home in Tokyo, the album’s first vinyl pressing has already sold out, but a repressing is now available.
Today we check out the track and video for the LP’s second cut, “CQ Tokyo.” A buzz of droning ambiance and swarming, insect-like percussion set a sweltering stage here for Moritani’s vocals, which seem to issue from somewhere behind the alien foliage. The accompanying visuals were directed by Diego Barrera, who first caught our eye with his short film for Xiu Xiu’s cover of “Into the Night.” The artist’s striking neon palette is once again at play, as well as the use of idiosyncratic costuming and mysterious scenarios that conjure mythic dimensions. In addition, Mappo Klampaiboon stars, after features in Xiu Xiu’s “A Knife in the Sun,” as well as “Into the Night.” Possibly playing a “Rain Maker/Water Magician,” Klampaiboon is seen alternately clutching a crystal ball, long-stemmed flowers, and a triangle shaped shard of glass, while Barrera’s dream-like imagery seems to flow from somewhere deep in the Unconscious. Don’t miss the director’s poetic take on the video, which we’ve included after the embed below.
Watch: Phew “CQ Tokyo”
Rain Maker
Water Magician
Dew * Secret fire of the alchemist
Creation of the schizophrenic God
Sacrifice * Continuity portal * Continuity through death
Destabiliza Male / Female
“Je est un autre” Arthur Rimbaud
Break the fixed identities
Indistinction * confusion
Decategorization
Categories = monetarization
“Recognition of ones body is always misrecognition, always giving a false impresión of unity to something that is essentially fragmented or desunified” Jacques Lacan
