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Ooberfuse joins forces with Japanese musician on Hiroshima anniversary


At 8.15am on 6 August 1945, the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber released its deadly cargo into the early morning skies of the waking Japanese industrial town of Hiroshima. The roar of its engine announced the beginning of the apocalyptic chapter in the story of man's inhumanity to man. 'Little Boy" took just 50 seconds, after its release from the aircraft, to detonate in the morning sky 600 metres above Hiroshima.

This Thursday marks 75 years since sinister nuclear capabilities were demonstrated on a largely civilian target. London band Ooberfuse joins forces with Japanese legendary musician Hibari to expose the hollow rhetoric of peace and justice, rhetoric used like a band-aid to cover the truth and reality of what happened on that day 75 years ago. Re-inventing 80s synth pop classic Enola Gay, Hibari tells the story from the Japanese point of view, a song that perhaps others do not want to hear.

You can see the music video and hear the song here: https://youtu.be/bLQytpbDc6Y

Tokyo chip tune and straight edge artist Hibari says : "We learned about these pictures and videos in school when we were children. Everyone should know the tragic pictures of war. Some say the atomic bombing was necessary to end the war. They try to say 'People who die from the atomic bomb were needed for the current peace.' My song is not what people want to hear ...it challenges the myth that Hiroshima needed to happen in order to spread peace throughout the world."

Hal St John of London band Ooberfuse, adds: "We live in Woolwich, the place in the 1940's where Britain's wartime firepower was assembled, tested and stored. It is possible to see behind the veneer of Woolwich's newfound prosperity remnants of this past. We have travelled and toured with Hibari in India, the Philippines and Japan. We wanted to do a collaboration with our good friend and travelling companion to capture how Japanese today feel about Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Ooberfuse front person Cherrie Anderson says: "It is such a difficult subject to confront because the images are deeply disturbing and have caused me actual nightmares. On our last tour in Japan with Hibari we spent two days in Hiroshima. Music speaks into the silence that nuclear holocaust leaves in its wake. We should not turn away or cover up what happened 75 years ago if only to remind ourselves that this should never happen again and should never have happened."

Hibari

Hibari is a straight-edge chiptune electropunk artist from Japan, capturing the energy of Tokyo's famous street performers. Hibari delivers his unique music with the punk-rock attitude rarely found in a country that lives by the proverb 'the nail that sticks out will be hammered down'. Clad in tattoos and piercings, non-conformist Hibari refuses to be hammered down and is the epitome of Japan's growing alternative scene. Read more about Hibari here: www.facebook.com/straight.edge.hibari

Ooberfuse

Ooberfuse are a songwriting duo composed of Hal St John and Cherrie Anderson. An influential UK music critic says: "Ethereal electronic pop with the complex beauty that Ooberfuse has will endure." Well-crafted songs delivered through powerful, emotional and heartfelt vocals combined with east- meets-west electronic music are Ooberfuse's trademarks.

Visit their website here: www.ooberfuse.com/

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