Apryl Fool -

Apryl Fool was a Japanese psych-rock band from Tokyo that released a 1969 self-titled album on Columbia. Three-fifths of the band hailed from beatsters The Floral. Organist Hiro Yanagida subsequently played in Food Brain and Love Live Life + One. Singer Chu Kosaka issued multiple Seventies solo albums. Bassist Haruomi Hosono and drummer Takashi Matsumoto formed half of folk-rockers Happy End. Hosono later recorded solo and become one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Members: Hiro Yanagida (organ, piano), 菊池英二 [Eiji Kikuchi] (lead guitar), 小坂忠 [Chu Kosaka] (lead vocals), 細野晴臣 [Haruomi Hosono] (bass), 松本隆 [Takashi Matsumoto] (drums)

Background

Apryl Fool formed in Tokyo in spring 1969 when singer Chu Kosaka, guitarist Eiji Kikuchi, and keyboardist Hiro Yanagida rebuilt The Floral with bassist Haruomi Hosono and drummer Takashi Matsumoto.

The Floral formed in February 1968 through a recruitment campaign by the Japanese Monkees Fan Club. Kosaka fronted The Floral on the 1968 Musicolor/Nippon Columbia singles “Namida wa Hanabira” and “Samayou Fune.” The band played dance halls in Shinjuku Kabukicho and discos in Roppongi after its second single.

Hosono had worked with Yanagida’s elder brother, and Matsumoto had played with Hosono in Burns. The five musicians began rehearsals during March. Hosono proposed Apryl Fool as the new band name.

Apryl Fool

Apryl Fool released their self-titled debut album in September 1969 on Nippon Columbia.

The album pairs organ-led blues-rock forms with phased and tape-treated passages. Apryl Fool group wrote eight of the nine tracks and added the Bob Dylan song “Pledging My Time.”

“Tomorrow’s Child” coils around warped organ and a fuzz guitar line, with the lead voice placed in a sharp, acrid front. “Another Time” lopes through a plain 12-bar-style sequence and low verse cadence. “April Blues” quickens around rolling piano figures and fuzzy lead turns. “The Lost Mother Land (Part 1)” smears Japanese lines through phase treatment and darker ensemble surge.

“Tanger” stretches into open-ended lead passages and a loosened middle reach. “Pledging My Time” lurches through a clipped, direct verse pattern. “Sunday” drifts through low-register minor cadence and languid Japanese lines. “Honky Tonk Jam” staggers through loose room-party motion. “The Lost Mother Land (Part 2)” dissolves into tape effects and brief closing debris.

A1. “Tomorrow’s Child” (4:27) – Kosaka / Kikuchi
A2. “Another Time” (7:19) – Matsumoto / Kosaka / Hosono
A3. “April Blues” (4:14) – Yanagida
A4. “The Lost Mother Land (Part 1)” (7:18) – Matsumoto / Kikuchi

B1. “Tanger” (4:30) – Kosaka / Hosono
B2. “Pledging My Time” (3:42) – Dylan
B3. “Sunday” (6:05) – Matsumoto / Hosono
B4. “Honky Tonk Jam” (1:58) – Matsumoto / Yanagida
B5. “The Lost Mother Land (Part 2)” (2:25) – Matsumoto / Kikuchi

Apryl Fool arranged and self-produced the album in June and July 1969.

Takeshi Onishi designed the gatefold cover with photography by Nobuyoshi Araki.

Postlude

Apryl Fool broke up soon after its 1969 album, and bassist Haruomi Hosono and drummer Takashi Matsumoto continued together in Happy End. After three albums, Hosono started his solo catalog with the 1973 album Hosono House, worked in the Tin Pan Alley circle, and formed Yellow Magic Orchestra with keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi.

Matsumoto left regular band work after Happy End and built a lyricist career. He produced early-Seventies albums by Yoshitaka Minami, Nobuyasu Okabayashi, and Morio Agata, then made his lyricist debut with the 1974 Agnes Chan song “Pocket Ippai no Himitsu.” Hiromi Ohta recorded his 1975 lyric “Momen no Handkerchief,” and Akira Terao won the 1981 Japan Record Awards Grand Prix with “Ruby no Yubiwa.” Matsumoto also wrote nine songs for the 1981 Eiichi Ohtaki album A Long Vacation and later supplied lyrics for Seiko Matsuda, including seventeen of her twenty-four consecutive No. 1 singles.

Chu Kosaka entered the Japanese production of Hair in 1970, then issued the 1971 solo album Arigatō. He formed Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half in 1972 and recorded the 1975 album Horo with the Tin Pan Alley circle. His work changed course after his 1976 conversion to Christianity, and he founded Michtam Records with Kei Ka Kosaka in 1978 as a gospel label.

Hiro Yanagida followed Apryl Fool with the 1970/71 one-offs Food Brain and Love Live Life + One, recorded in tandem with his first two solo albums, Milk Time and Hiro Yanagida. He went full solo with the 1972/73 albums Hiro and Hirocosmos, followed by the 1978 release The Encounter With UFO.

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