
Kan Mikami: Makeru Toki Mo Aru Daro
Mikami's songs have their ostensible roots in the folk movement of the '70's in Japan. Upon listening carefully, you can hear hints of the blues, rockabilly, traces of torn down Neil Young (Hibari Misora's Watch -Jo-You, track 4) or just forlorn jaggedness and the peculiar comic that is all Mikami. It s a feverish amalgam of things familiar and vague, alien and confrontational. On track 12 (Black Point Hirano) of his Live CD, Black Point Hirano (Archival Box-Set only release PSFD-122, Track 2 on I'm the Only One Around), Sun Studios beckons in the modalities of the playing and also in the vocal style. Likewise, Jo-You is filled with songs we might more readily associate with the Delta Blues or traditional American folk. Contrast this to any song on Live in Heisei Vol. I & II (with Haino and Yoshizawa PSF 5&6) which just sounds flat out Martian, utterly alone and freezing, and you have an idea of the complexity of Mikami. Between these two poles lies the breadth of work that only someone of Mikami's caliber and experience can deliver. (Kelly Burnette, He's the Only One Around: Mikami Kan and the Language of the Japanese Blues)