Final verdict: 6/10 ★★★☆☆
“Philharmony” is just a weird ass sampling experiment, with a couple of poppier songs thrown in there for good measure.
To those who regarded Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “B-2 Unit” as pretentious… behold “Philharmony”. Because it’s nothing but 37 minutes of Hosono noodling around on synthesizers and samplers, an over-the-top display of his undeniable competence in the field.
Now, it’s well established that pretentiousness isn’t an inherently bad thing. But this album would admittedly be pretty boring, if it weren’t for one thing – its goofy element.
Songs like “Living-Dining-Kitchen” and “Sports Men” are hilarious but also very catchy, making up for the fact that some other tracks are plenty forgettable, and ultimately saving the album from falling into the “snoozefest” category. “ホタル” is another song I like, because I’m a sucker for silly synths like that in general. “Birthday Party” is funny, only because of the stark contrast between the song and its title – I am aware birthday parties aren’t always fun, but man, this song is far too fucked up to be titled that. Oh, and “Platonic” is cool too, I suppose.
Other than that? Not much is noteworthy. Nothing personal against this album though. It’s cool and I could hypothetically enjoy it a lot, under the correct circumstances. Said circumstances are hard to come by though, so I feel a 3/5 rating is only fair for this album.
Silia 
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