MIKAMI, KAN - 1979

Twelfth solo album from Kan Mikami in as many years -- and, seemingly, the last in this monumental series. Mikami is Japans undisputed, one and only voice of urban folk surrealism. 1979 presents few surprises for the converted -- tightly gripped clusters of electric A-minor riffing, weird phrasing, and those unmistakable honey-over-broken-glass vocals. Even better than usual are Mikamis bizarre and incisive ruminations on the state of modern Japan (megaliths in the garden, a Gibson guitar hang from the rafters of a rural shrine, the return of Elvis, sake-guzzling crabs and the resurrection of the dead). As a poet-analyst of middle-aged male frustrations and everyday epiphanies in the toilet, Mikami has no equal (well, maybe Richard Meltzer). Comes with full English translations of the lyrics and linernotes. - Alan Cummings.