I haven’t posted anything in a couple of weeks. I’m in the middle of a move right now (great timing, I know) and that’s been taking up a good chunk of my time. But boy, a lot sure has changed in the world since I last wrote anything here, huh? Shit, a lot’s changed in the time between me starting this post and ending it!

Trump lost! Yay! Good!

COVID cases are spiraling out of control! Boo! Bad!

In conclusion, October and November have been a land of contrasts.

My move to a new apartment is still ongoing and will take some time. I’m not leaving Japan, don’t worry. Shit, I’m not even leaving my current building. I’m just upgrading to a bigger place so my boyfriend can move in with me (double yay). But I have about a month to go before the move is final and I still have to buy some more furniture, hook up internet, schedule the movers, get rid of a shitload of junk I don’t need, and arrange to have someone from Disk Union come out to buy an extra few hundred records that I don’t want to lug up to my new place because I already have so many records that I’m going to have to get custom shelves built once I get settled in the new apartment.

I’m not an addict you’re an addict shut up.

Let’s enjoy the impending end of the the orange autocrat with some relaxing (or excitng?) synthesizers and keyboards.

Koichi Oki – Exciting Keyboards: Four Seasons

It’s funny, for some reason I’ve been thinking about Vivaldi’s Four Seasons quite a lot lately. I wonder why.

This is not the first version of Four Seasons that I’ve shared on this blog. Shit, it’s not even the second. It’s the fourth. One was an all koto arrangement, while the other two were largely synthesized affairs. All were from Japan. Japan sure loves arranging Vivaldi. I think that’s because Japan has four seasons.

That’s an English teacher joke and trust me it’s hilarious.

This rendition of Vivaldi’s classic work is by a man named Koichi Oki. He released a few albums in Japan throughout the 1970s, and his work represents a unique subset of the Japanese record market of that time. Nearly all of his release were made, marketed, and sold solely to promote Yamaha keyboards. There were a ton of these records in the 70s and into the 80s here in Japan. The sub-standard ones really fill up the bargain bins. Yamaha really wanted people to know about their electone line of electric organs.

Oki’s albums aren’t even shy about this. On many, the Yamaha branding is downright omnipresent, and the name of the electone or synthesizer he’s playing on the album is often name-dropped in the album title as well. You have titles like Yamaha Superstar! Koichi Plays GX-1, and Koichi Oki Meets GX-707. These are basically demonstration records that Yamaha had the audacity to slap a price on and sell.

And I’m glad they did! Because the good ones are really good. This album owns. Comparing it to the previous synthesizer Vivaldi albums I shared, I would say it’s not as good as Frank Becker’s version of the suite, but it’s better than the Shigeaki Saegusa version. I really like Becker’s take since it’s just synthesizer and violin. Saegusa’s version features much more of a full band, almost too much at times. This one is a good middle ground. This record was made to showcase Yamaha’s keyboards after all, so they get the center stage, but a bit of guitar and some rad drumming on here as well. The opening of the Summer section, for example, slaps with some fantastic banging on the skins. I was not at all surprised to learn that the drummer on this is Akira Ishikawa, a legendary jazz drummer in Japan whose records are often sought after by DJs and producers because if their sick beats. Dude is a legend.

Of course, this is an Oki abum, so he takes the spotlight for most of it, and I really enjoy the sounds he’s able to pull out of that electone. The electone was an electronic organ, but I think that he has the thing patched through some other synthesizer to give it extra oomph. It’s not a combination you hear a lot (if at all) and it really stands out when compared to other synthesizer records of the era. He goes out there with some really crazy sounds at times, but he also knows when to reign it in with more traditional sounds that you’d hear from a normal-ass organ. It’s a great mix. It’s part classical, part rock, part funk, with a light dash of jazz thrown in on top.

Strangely, this album was released many times, often with different titles and artwork. In was first released in Japan in 1973 under the name Electone Fantastic – Vivialdi Four Seasons. Big electone branding for the domestic market, not surprising. But the album was also released in a few different overseas territories. Discogs only has the Dutch and Italian copies listed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it got released in other markets as well. In the Netherlands, the album was renamed Four Synthesizer Seasons, with simple classy artwork showcasing each season. In Italy, it was just called Le Quattro Stagioni – Vivaldi, which translates to, duh, The Four Seasons – Vivaldi. That cover is very similar to the original Japanese cover, but the caricature of Oki on the cover was replaced with what I assume is a cartoon portrait of Vivaldi. I will not stand for such synthesizer whitewashing!

However, I have none of those versions. For some reason, the album was re-released in 1978, with an entirely different title, Exciting Keyboards – Four Seasons. I mean, I like this album a lot, but I don’t know if it’s exciting. Fun, maybe? Refreshing? Uplifting? Sure, but exciting? Let’s not get carried away.

Speaking of getting carried away, check out that rad as hell album cover! The one at the top I mean. The one with the naked lady jumping rope with a freaking laser beam! In space! Forget what I said earlier, that’s some exciting shit for sure. I wish I could take a better picture of it, but I already packed up my records for the move, wrecking my back in the process. I sure as heck am not going to risk further injury just to take a high-res photo of the naked laser space jump rope lady. Sorry. Maybe some other time.

If you’re traveling through space with a naked lady and a laser jump rope, let me know if this album is a fitting soundtrack. Although please do the responsible thing and delay and trips (intergalactic or otherwise) until the coronavirus cases decrease a bit. Seriously. Stay at home. Listen to wonky 70s electronic albums and order a pizza. You can always go see your family and consume unhealthy amounts of turkey next year. Please.

Tags: Koichi Oki

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2020 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Complete Albums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.