Fujiya & Miyagi 'Transparent Things' album

Fujiya & Miyagi are David Best, Steve Lewis and Matt Hainsby. The trio met while warming the subs bench during Sunday league football and discovered a mutual hero-worship of world heavyweight sumo wrestler Kendo Nagasaki (from Wolverhampton and like the boys from F&M, not a Japanese cell in his muscle-bound body), seventies krautrock and early nineties electronica. Transparent Things has international press and DJ’s going nuts for these boys from Brighton. Errol Alkan, James Murphy, Optimo and Andrew Weatherall are among the celebrated artists/DJ’s to proclaim their love for these electronic maestros. Fujiya & Miyagi borrow from some of the best: Can (they supported Damo Suzuki three times in 2006), Kraftwerk, Air and even Talking Heads. Track 10, Reeboks In Heaven, is a US exclusive, named for David’s grandfather, professor of aerodynamics, golfer, and lover of his trainers. As for Fujiya, it’s the name of a record player, and Miyagi, just like you thought, the wise martial arts master from The Karate Kid. Already received to major critical acclaim in the UK, get ready for some major waves this side of the shore.

Biography

Transparent Things is the title of a book by Vladimir Nabokov, and also the title of the latest album from Fujiya & Miyagi.

Following the sell-out success of their three Tirk 10"-vinyl-only singles, In One Ear & Out The Other/Conductor 71, Collarbone/Cassettesingle, Ankle Injuries/Photocopier, this latest album release compiles new versions of those six tracks, available for the first time on CD, with three previously unreleased scorchers: Sucker Punch, Transparent Things and Cylinders.

Fujiya & Miyagi are David Best (Miyagi, vocals, guitar, occasional but strictly non-progrock Moog), Steve Lewis (Fuyija, keyboards, beats, programming), and Matt Hainsby (Ampersand, bass guitar).

The story of how they met and formed the band variously reports a mutual hero-worship of world heavyweight wrestler Kendo Nagasaki (from Wolverhampton, and like the boys from F&M, not a Japanese cell in his muscle-bound body), and a shared interest in krautrock and early-nineties electronica discovered while warming the subs bench during Sunday league football.

And the name...?

David: Miyagi was taken from the film 'The Karate Kid' and Fujiya was the name of a record player. It just looked really nice written down. And it was the only name we came up with.

Fujiya & Miyagi produce a sound that has been located by the music and media fraternity as somewhere between Can, Happy Mondays, Alabama 3, Kraftwerk and Talking Heads. This, combined with David's eclectic line in lyrics: I've got a slow, a slow, a slow metabolism, has won them an excited legion of supporters, among whom may be counted DFA, Tiga, Andrew Weatherall, Chicken Lips, Damo Suzuki, BBC 6 Music's Tom Robinson and Xfm's John Kennedy.

Tack by Track

Ankle Injuries
Is about walking to school as a kid and finding a porno mag in the middle of the road and realising that a female's genitalia is different from a male's.

Photocopier
Is about working in an office and daydreaming about other things.

Collarbone
David: This is the story of how I brok my collarbone twice. The first time I broke it I was five years old and carrying an armful of toy guns back to my house in Kenilworth. I tripped over my shoelaces and somersaulted into a lamppost. A week later I got chicken pox. The second time was a few years later, training for a school sports day, I was overtaking a kid called David Moore who deliberately tripped me up. He felt really bad about this and locked himself in the school toilet for the whole of the next day, sobbing.

Transparent Things
David: The verse talks about all the things that bug me and the chorus is trying to calm me down so I don't get wound up about litterbugs, questionnaires and cyclists.

Conductor 71
This track is an instrumental. The title comes from the Pwell & Pressburger film A Matter of Life and Death. It's got David Niven in it.

In One Ear & Out The Other
Is about not listening to people and not being listened to.

Sucker Punch
Is about being sucker punched by a girl.

Cassettesingle
Another Instrumental. The obligatory krautrocker track.

Cylinders
Is about synesthesia, which is where the senses get muddled up. For example, if you were to smell bacon you'd think of a greyish blue colour.

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Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things