Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

The week started badly, and ended with a…  What? It’s only Thursday?

Well, Hell.

So, it’s been a trying week, so far. I’ve had injury (wrenched back), illness (rhinovirus), family issues (no comment), excitement (took our neighbor to urgent care after an accidental toddler-induced head-butt), day-job frustrations (left hand…have you even met the right hand?), and finally, last night, disbelief (I pressed the button to close the garage door and watched as the motor bucked, juddered, and then, with a thunking crunch, deposited bits of plastic, pieces of metal, and one long, greasy chain onto the top of my car).

And it’s only Thursday.

So, what’s a cowboy to do? Or, more apropos, what’s a crabby old fart with barely a scintilla of patience to do?

As I did before this wretched week started, I shall turn to music.

Kaoru Ishibashi is a Seattle native who grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, studied classical violin, and then took his talents to the indie music scene. He founded and/or played with several groups (Regina Spektor, of Montreal, etc.), none of which really hit it off with me. But in 2012, when he pivoted to a solo career, his music and my tastes found immense tracts of common ground

The name for these solo projects is Kishi Bashi (get it? Kaoru Ishibashi is K. Ishibashi is Kishi Bashi? Well, I thought it was clever.) and in them Ishibashi builds soundscapes that are unique in my experience. Take a listen to “Manchester” (below, or here) while I try to describe the music I’ve been enjoying for the last twenty-four hours.

Hard pressed to define him, the music industry has put Kishi Bashi in that marketing olio called “Alternative” which, until they create a more meaningful label for music that blends elements of classical, electronic, acoustic, pop, swing, ambient, world, techno, and rock genres, will have to do.

Each track Kishi Bashi presents is different, sometimes radically so. Sometimes he’ll even switch it up within a song, or create a small preamble track that set up the longer tune. One track may be simple vocals over the spare instrumentation of cello, ukulele, and mandolin (“Q&A”), while the next track will be pure studio with sampled violins, techno arpeggiation, synth drums, all backed by doo-wop singers and a brass section (“Once Upon a Lucid Dream”). He will let a deep and unshakable ostinato provide the foundation for a frenetic snowstorm of sound, then weave a clean-lined melody through it all like a single thread-of-gold in a baroque tapestry.

Listening to his albums, I am consistently reminded of other bands I’ve heard–I can sit back, close my eyes, and hear echoes of Pink Floyd, Genesis, ABBA, Queen, The Strawbs (yes, I’m that old), Asia, Supertramp, Chicago, Renaissance, Toto, Tangerine Dream, The Wicked Tinkers, and a dozen others.–but Kishi Bashi is never reminiscent of the same bands, and never is he derivative.

Despite this broad and unpredictable nature, there is a constant “feel” to Kishi Bashi’s music that pulls it all together into a consistent sound profile. The sheer eclectic melange he presents is one facet; there is no song that doesn’t pull in some unexpected element, such as the electronic mouse chorus in “Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!” His albums also hearken back to the days of prog rock in that they are definitely albums, meant to be played in order, one song carrying over elements from the previous track in symphonic structures.

There’s also an unusual emotional counterpoint in Kishi Bashi’s work. There is no joy without a tinge of regret, no sadness without a recollection of better times. In this, Kishi Bashi will use his lyrics as an additional layer, often juxtaposing words and music that don’t match up but, rather than creating dissonance, they successfully ramp up the overall complexity of the song.

Like life.

And perhaps that’s what it is for me. Kishi Bashi’s musical complexity, this…brocade of disparate elements…is so reflective of modern life that I find it ineffably soothing during difficult times. Anything I might be feeling finds a resonant note in his songs.

k