The Best of "Lone Wolf and Cub"
Reviewed by Jostein Hakestad
January 13, 2005

It is always interesting to listen to something that’s completely new to one’s ears. The orientalism of Hideakira Sakurai is certainly such an experience. The music is taken from the soundtracks of a series of films titled The Baby Cart Series, all of them made in the 70s. I’ve yet to see these films myself, but the liner notes state that they have been very influential on a number of filmmakers, most notably John Woo and Quentin Tarantino. (Editor – Just to provide a sense of the scope of this series’ popularity, the original six-film Baby Cart series from the 1970s has since been adapted to dozens of Manga (Japanese graphic novels), and is currently being developed as an American remake by director Darren Aronofsky, acclaimed director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream.)

The ensemble Sakurai employs is definitely a unique one – Japanese string instruments coupled with flute, electric guitar, and an array of percussion, and occasional use of brass. A lot of it is quite grating and minimalist, to be honest, and you’d be hard pressed to find it an enjoying listen, interesting though it is. The experience is more interesting as an aural soundscape than music.

There’s a strong western influence to the music as well. An example is the aforementioned electric guitar, another is the use of horns. It occasionally gets into a kind of Lalo Schifrin-groove. Ultimately however, the Japanese music is what’s at centre. The score featured long passages of drumming and string plucking that unfortunately didn’t please my ears or tickle my imagination.

In the end I can’t really recommend this music as music, but it’s most certainly interesting for the purposes of studying the musical roots of this music, the music of Japan, and how it is mixed with certain western influences noted above. This is an album that will appeal primarily to the fans of the films.

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