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SCMP Reporter

Veteran Japanese rocker Kyosuke Himuro has gone back to his roots for the latest album, I.DE.A.

  Himuro, a former member of seminal band Boowy, has put a lot of energy and power into the new release.

   While the style of his last work, Missing Piece, may not have been familiar to many fans, the new stuff rocks a bit more.

  The first singles from the album, Native Stranger and Heat, have both made a big impression on the charts in his native land.

  Himuro invited guitarist Steve Stevens, noted for work with Billy Idol, Michael Jackson and Robert Palmer, on board for the venture.

  'Stevens intuitively knew what I was going for,' said Himuro.

 The aim was 'an unvarnished, timeless rock 'n' roll sound', which Himuro said was hard to accomplish.

 'It is not about dexterity, it is not about any of that stuff. It is like a good offensive line in [American] football. You do not want anyone to stand out. You want to work together as a team.'  He said he was unsure about when his next tour would be.

  'I don't want to get into that endless club thing,' he said.

  The album, on Polydor K K Recordings, is distributed in Hong Kong by Cinepoly. Radio stations' initial reaction to Heat had been positive, said marketing manager Lau Mei-yee.

  'We are hoping to get as many people as we can onto the record. People know what he is, he has a decent base, and now it is up to the song.'   Born in 1960, Himuro formed Boowy in 1981. Seven hit albums and a mass of singles later, they split up at the height of their powers, in 1987.

 Boowy are said to be the fathers of contemporary Japanese rock and Himuro, as vocalist and band leader, has a significant place in music history.

 His previous solo albums included debut Flowers and Algernon, which went to No 1 in Japan.

 Later releases included Neo Fascio, Higher Self and Missing Piece.

  The latter, released in 1996, sold one million on its first day in the record stores.



Rockfather's new I.DE.A