Established music acts are always looking to break into new markets, but it’s not every day such an act uproots to another part of the world in pursuit of that goal. Even so, that’s precisely what Hotei Tomoyasu did when he quit Japan for Europe in 2012, settling in the British capital London. In 2014, the guitarist released the aptly-titled New Beginnings, and earlier this year, it was revealed his fifteenth album Strangers would be released in Europe on October 16th by Finnish label Spinefarm Records, under the mononym HOTEI.
The contents of Strangers is a mix of new tracks and holdovers from New Beginnings. As with that album, HOTEI’s voice is almost entirely absent here, save for some backing vocals on Kiss or Kill. Singing in his stead on the half-dozen vocal tracks is an impressive cadre of guest performers, most notably American rock icon Iggy Pop. However, Pop’s contributions are not the instant highlights some might expect.
How The Cookie Crumbles is good enough, and does make a punchy counterweight to the leisurely opening instrumental Medusa. The real disappointment is Through the Night, being let down both by repetitive riffs and Pop’s weak lyrics. His spoken delivery of the verses in a gruff whisper doesn’t help matters, particularly when he tells the listener “Meet my tongue”. Mercifully, the other vocal offerings are uniformly better.
Most striking is Kill to Love You, a collaboration with Bullet for My Valentine frontman Matt Tuck. HOTEI has said the song was conceived as a song for a spy film, and would’ve make a much better theme for recent Bond film “Spectre” than Sam Smith’s anaemic Writing’s On The Wall. Tuck reveals he has the same affinity for orchestral showstoppers as Welsh compatriots Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey.
Elsewhere, American singer-songwriter Shea Seger (no relation of Bob Seger) puts her own spin on New Beginnings holdovers Texas Groove and Kiss or Kill, the latter of which is a dramatic improvement on the original. Really, the only vocal track to fit the classic HOTEI mould, wherein the vocals are subordinate to the guitar work, is Move It, performed by Emigrate frontman Richard Z. Krupse, best known to the world as lead guitarist of German industrial metallers Rammstein.
The other half of Strangers is given over to instrumentals that explore a surprising array of textures, ranging from down-tempo ambience to the sort of beat-heavy electro-rock that’s become HOTEI’s hallmark. The album closes with his most famous instrumental of all, Kill Without Honor or Humanity, the inclusion of which in “Kill Bill Vol.1” has to some extent made HOTEI’s international career possible.
It’s not immediately clear what HOTEI’s aiming to achieve with Strangers. By not singing on his first international release, is he trying to make sure he’s seen first and foremost as a guitarist rather than a singer-songwriter? Was he concerned his signature style might not be to Western tastes? Or did he just fancy a break? Of course, these are questions only time can satisfactorily answer.
For now, what can be said for certain is this: HOTEI isn’t relying on the star power of big-name collaborators to cultivate his own international profile, and his guitar work is, on the whole, as sharp as ever.
