For quite some time I’ve been a P-Model fan and a Susumu Hirasawa fan. His music is fairly hard to describe. It was late seventies early eighties “techno-pop” according to the glorious truthhole we call “wikipedia.” Though it wasn’t nearly as polished as some of the other cliche “techno-pop” artists from that timeline. He would use quite a few various amiga programs not only to create music but most likely to create some of his ridiculous early videos. There’s a certain cheese factor that is quite robotic and somewhat adorable. It’s robotic, but an intelligent robot with a spirit and good dance moves. I reccomend Susumu Hirasawa to people who like Goatbed and Soft Ballet. P-model, and most of his solo stuff is pretty straightforward. Though there are some side-projects such as Shun and Mandrake that delve into the strange realm of progressive amiga techno-pop rock types of styles. It’s futuristic sounding, but in a weird retro sort of way. If you’ve Satoshi Kon works such as Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, or Perfect Blue then you’re already familiar with his work. You can find quite a bit of his creations for free through legal channels on the internet.
One of the reasons I like Susumu Hirasawa is because he brings something new to the table. Even though it’s a lot of
conventions that we’ve had for a while. He does it in a very unique way, and is always thinking of doing new creative things even though he still stays within his own realm of style. You can pinpoint his music at least as “electronic” but it’s not just cut and dry like a lot of electronic music sets out to be these days. If you’re game, check out “P-model or Die” by P-model. Check out the soundtrack to Paprika and check out the album “Vistoron” by kaku P-model.
