AFTER BEAT COVERS - sugarfields (JapanFiles download)

Covers albums are a risky proposition. The line between inspired reinterpretation and insipid regurgitation is a thin one, and too often, these projects dance across the line with all the co-ordination and subtlety of a herd of pissed-up wildebeest. Science tells us that every action must have an opposite and equal reaction, so for every Johnny Cash American album there has to be something like Duran Duran's Thank You (if you ever want to get someone out of your life, send them the execrable cover of Grandmaster Flash's ‘White Lines', then stand back and watch your friendship crumble).

This whole area is clearly a minefield, and those who undertake such an album are either very brave, very foolish, or simply don't give a fuck. I've never met him, but I'm guessing that one-man music maker Hara Tomonobu falls into the latter category. Not only does he do the whole covers album gig by himself, he takes on songs by sacred cows of Western music such as Nirvana, James Brown, The Doors and The Stone Roses. The results are so good that the only downside to AFTER BEAT COVERS is wondering what monstrosity it will spawn as its equal and opposite reaction.

AFTER BEAT COVERS reflects Hara's eclecticism as it takes in lo-fi indie, skanking acoustic pop and anything else that catches his magpie ear. There are covers of some old J-Pop songs (as far as I can tell), but not knowing what the originals sound like I can't say very much about them. The same can't be said for ‘Sally Cinnamon', ‘All Apologies', ‘People Are Strange' and ‘Sex Machine' (yes, that one). Hama's versions tend to sound vastly different to the originals, but there's never any doubt as to what the song is. His pronunciation is defiantly Japanese and will probably bug some purists, but that's their problem, not his.

‘Sally Cinnamon' was probably The Stone Roses' shiniest pop moment. Someone deciding to cover it might think about dramatically different ways to redo it - how about a sub-Throbbing Gristle industrial clang-fest, or an out and out heavy metal version? Hara eschews any such option and instead gets his kazoo out (at least that's what I think it is), and buffs up the song until it's a blinding pop gem. ‘All Apologies' gets a more dramatic makeover, as Hara takes Kurt Cobain's tortured torch song into blissful territory that in the Nineties would probably have been called ‘trip-hop'.

This album is good, and not because of any novelty value derived from a Japanese take on some well-known Western songs - Rocket K's uninspired attempt at ‘Video Killed The Radio Star (in which the pronunciation is basically the only thing that distinguishes it from the original) is ample proof that such an approach doesn't work. AFTER BEAT COVERS is an example of this genre at its best. After listening to the album and being amazed you'll want go back to the originals and find things in them that you'd never noticed before, or in the case of the J-Pop songs here (especially ‘Tokyo') you'll find yourself seeking out the originals to see how they measure up to these versions.

Buy it on shiny CD here, or ephemeral download here.

A couple more blogs worth checking out

Cover versions can go either way. The very best ones will make you look at a song in a whole new way. Take Johnny Cash’s dramatic reworking of Hurt, for example. What was the once the pinnacle of Trent Reznor’s mardy ouevre became a rumination on life and a man’s impending death. Less dramatic but equally as startling is sugarfields’ cover of Sally Cinnamon (I’ll get round to reviewing the album eventually). Already a classic pop cut, Tomonobu Hara imbues it with his own pop sensibilities, giving us a hint of what The Stone Roses might have sounded like had they grown up in Tokyo rather than Manchester.

On the other hand, cover versions can be the last refuge of a fading star or the first refuge of a newly crowned TV talent show winner. Remember Robson and Jerome? Remember Wet Wet Wet ruining a perfectly good Troggs song (R.E.M. covered it first but even that can’t redeem it). Darius did it, Will Young did it, Gareth Gates did it, and no doubt all future winners of Pop Idol will do it.

Thankfully, the Copy, Right blog goes more for the former rather than the latter. Ever wondered how Guns ‘n Roses Don’t Cry would sound when tackle by Mogwai? Did you think it was impossible to make The Killing Moon anything other than sinister sounding? Check out the Copy, Right for the answers to those questions and more.

Another blog I’ve been frequenting in the last few days is Lost-In-Tyme. Here you can download obscure and hard to find albums in a number of categories including Prog, Krautrock, Funk and New Wave. There’s a shitload of stuff there so it might not be a good idea to visit the website if you’ve got some work or something that needs doing - it can end up being a bit like checking one clip on YouTube. Before you know it the sun’s coming up and that report you were supposed to finish has been long forgotten about.

Sugarfields on JapanFiles

The email screamed, "ONE MAN, NINE ALBUMS!" What's this? The Japanese Conor Oberst? Thankfully, no. The one man in question is Hara Tomonobu who goes by the name of sugarfields. Nine albums of his "upbeat, heartfelt melodies" (their words, not mine) are now available on JapanFiles. He also has a MySpace page here, and if you decide you want to buy his music but don't trust the ephemeral nature of the mp3 (i.e if you're over thirty, have a computer that may go into meltdown at any moment and can't understand why you should pay money for music but not have anything physical to show for it), you can buy his CDs here.

I've downloaded all the albums, haven't listened to much yet, but I did like his covers of Sally Cinnamon and All Apologies. More later.