Beau Sky is the debut album by London Based Japanese musicians Hide Takemoto and Mojo Ozawa, recorded at Cowshed studios in London. Hide is a classical guitar genius who somehow isn't a household name, but possibly ought to be, he has teamed up with Mojoz as a classical blues folk duo whose playing is impeccable throughout, reminding me why I was so gobsmacked on seeing Hide live at the tail end of last year.
The album opens with Asturias Intro a brief slice a classical guitar magic. Talkin Bout U is gently folk-rock song with Mojo's bruised vocals telling us how much he is dreaming of this particular woman, with some delightful acoustic picking really lifting this in-between the verses.
Back To You is a plea to get back that woman in your life, set against a gently strummed guitar, with all sorts of flourishes to accentuate the vocals as they try to make her smile once more, this tune should do that all by itself.
Sunday Blue mixes Japanese vocals with just wondrous acoustic guitar that's doing all sorts of stuff to accent why they are so blue on a Sunday. Before some super speedy and rather fiddly acoustic guitar that trips out as it tries to chase away the blues with this intoxicating music.
Love Song is all cool pleading and begging for that love you crave over classical folk guitar figures as you plead with her not to leave.
Back Street re-works the Stray Cat Strut into a gorgeous Japanese/English love song to stroll down the back streets looking for fun and adventure too.
Kanon In H demonstrates Hide's technique with a wonderful classical guitar solo set against Mojoz gentle strumming, this really is stunningly beautiful music. Tribute To RJ is a short musical flourish as tribute.
No No No is the down-home acoustic blues where Mojoz rails against anyone claiming he's drunk while telling people he doesn't just give his details out, this has a modern madness will drive you to drink blues, so don't ask him for his name and address, but you can have a guitar freak out instead as well as some near perfect harmonica.
The album closes with Looking At The Sky a reflective song full of memories of 1992, how it totally changed things, one injection and the damage it can do, one bad reaction to a vaccine, leaving you staring into space, redolent blues as it moves forwards in time to the never ending care they need for years to come this is a very touching and emotional ending to the album.
Find out more at www.hideguitar.com https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088511094412 https://hideguitar.bandcamp.com/album/beau-sky?fbclid=IwAR2zaENO6lzqptwsaAbMIJjuliv6M5OSKX-eHvtJ8lE-ZJQ-IdHt3ZQK9X8 https://www.facebook.com/hide.takemoto
