beta music mode

You & Me was released back in October 2008, but I only got around to giving it a listen a few weeks ago.

For almost his entire career, Oshio Kotaro has operated alone - just one man and his custom Greven, creating a warm, rich sound that few guitarists can emulate. His distinct open tuning, finger-tapping style has been heard in countless commercials, he’s appeared at world music festivals and even played the Mario song on TV.

Oshio’s is a sound I love, but it does get repetitive - 6 albums’ worth of acoustic guitar solos has been pretty much overkill. A great way to shake things up then, with You & Me, a collaboration album featuring some very unlikely partners-in-crime. Most surprising of all is rapper Bro.Hi from SOUL’d OUT, who lends his beat-boxing skills to the breezy, refreshing Here We Go!. Equally impressive is the collaboration with accordion player coba, bringing a whole new dimension to Purple Highway. To be honest, I’ve never really listened to accordion-heavy songs - it always reminds me of terrifying polka music, but coba works really well with Oshio here.

Most of the other tracks are fairly standard but still very interesting orchestra/piano collaborations. Saito Neko and his 70-strong orchestra add a lush, expansive feel to Kimi ga Kureta Jikan while Kihara Kentaro’s A Wonderful Day starts off sounding like your typical soaring, Hollywood-movie style piano piece but surprises by breaking into a jazzy duel between Oshio and Kihara midway through.

There are still two tracks that feature only guitar though - the album’s opening and closing tracks feature veteran Char, another of Japan’s top guitarists. And they’re certainly anything but boring; the contrast between the two’s styles makes for what is best described as aural bliss - which is also a fitting way to describe You & Me, certainly the freshest and most innovative album Oshio Kotaro has made to date. It’ll be a challenge for him to follow this one up.