![]() ![]() Phew and Yamamoto joined Yoshihide for 1999's Otomo Yoshihide Plays the Music of Takeo Yamashita, a tribute to the television music composer that also featured Haco, Sachiko M, and many other artists from Tokyo's underground music scene. Two years later, Yamamoto and Phew collaborated on Shiwase No Sumika, a set of comparatively poppy songs. ![]() Phew, along with Yoshihide, Boredoms' Seiichi Yamamoto, and drummer Masahiro Uemura among others, then formed the genre-defying supergroup Novo Tono, who released their debut album, Panorama Paradise, in 1996. That year, she and Kondo also teamed up for a cover of Blondie's "Sunday Girl" that appeared on the compilation Megabank Presents Tribute to New Wave. Another effort that mixed challenging and pop-oriented fare, it counted Otomo Yoshihide and Tatsuo Kondo among Phew's collaborators. Phew remained busy for the rest of the '90s, first working with Anton Fier on 1993's Dreamspeed and the following year's Blind Light, then delivering her third album, Himitsu no Knife, in 1995. She signed to Mute for the following year's album Our Likeness, which reunited her with Plank and Liebezeit and featured contributions from Alexander Hacke and Chrislo Haas in its wide-ranging experiments. Phew returned in 1987 with View, which balanced her avant-garde impulses with pop polish, and emerged again with 1991's moody EP Songs. Largely improvised, 1981's Phew won praise for its expressive mix of electronics and post-punk as well as Phew's voice, which earned her comparisons to Nico. For her first full-length, Phew worked with Can's Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit at the German studio of Conny Plank, who also produced the album. To make her debut as a solo artist, she worked with Yellow Magic Orchestra's Ryuichi Sakamoto, an Aunt Sally fan who produced 1980's single "Finale/Urahara" in turn, Phew appeared on Sakamoto's single "Shuukyoku." That year, she also performed on singer/songwriter and actor Agata Morio's album Norimono Zukan. When she returned, she formed the punk group Aunt Sally with guitarist Bikke, keyboardist Mayu, bassist Kataoka, and drummer Takashi Maruyama, but the band split up soon after releasing their 1979 self-titled debut album, which was released in a limited edition of 400 copies. By the time of 2021's mesmerizing New Decade, Phew was finally receiving the international acclaim she deserved.īorn Hiromi Moritani in Osaka, Phew got her start in the 1970s, when she became so fascinated with punk music that she flew to London in 1977 to see the Sex Pistols. Following 2010's playful covers album Five Finger Discount, she focused on experimental soundscapes woven around her distinctive vocals, as on uncompromising releases such as 2015's A New World and 2017's Light Sleep. When she returned to her solo career in the early 2010s, Phew created some of her most striking music. ![]() Following 1995's sultry Himitsu No Knife, collaborations dominated her music, and her work with the Japanese experimental supergroup Novo Tono, the punk band Most, and various projects with Otomo Yoshihide kept her busy well into the 2000s. For her 1980 solo debut single, she teamed with Ryuichi Sakamoto and worked with members of Can on 1981's Phew and 1992's Our Likeness, both of which proved her formidable vocals and experimental sensibilities could match her collaborators' legacy of challenging their audience. After leaving the pioneering Japanese punk band Aunt Sally, she worked with a who's-who of other innovative artists from around the globe to express the different sides of her artistry. A boundary-breaking artist with a lengthy career, Phew has explored rock, electronic, and avant-garde sounds on her own terms since the 1970s. ![]()
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