I know I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but writing this blog is becoming increasingly difficult. Three times last week I sat down to write a post only to realize the songs I wanted to write about and share were already in print, or I covered them years ago. I’ve been doing this thing for over ten years after all.

So, don’t expect any rare or hard-to-find cuts by mainstream or even well-known cult acts for a while. Of course, that could change, I could stumble into a lucky 12″ single like I did with that PWEI one. But I don’t expect it. Instead, expect more weird Japanese synth-pop and strange experimental electronic records from the 70s. As that’s what I’m digging the most at the present time.

Also expect really odd shit like like.

SUPER GUN MOTHERFUCKER.

I’m not one for sound effects records, because they’re kind of pointless. I bet if I would’ve been aware of their existence when I was a kid I would’ve dug the shit out of them. But as an adult I really don’t need a collection of car sounds or thunderstorm ambiance.

I certainly didn’t think I needed a compilation of gun sound effects, but hey, sometimes you surprise yourself.

This is actually a bit more than just sounds of guns going off, so don’t quit on me yet. This is Super Gun, and as far as I can gather, it’s a companion album to the film The Beast Must Die, a movie about a reporter who goes off the deep end and embarks on a violent crime spree. What better to accompany a dark and disturbing film than an album that demonstrates various gun sound effects with an almost fetish-like attention to detail? It doesn’t just feature the sounds of the guns when they’re being fired, it also includes introductions (in English) by American gun experts.

Oh, and it also features DOPE FUNK.

The album opens and closes with a slow jam theme that’s good but pretty much forgettable. However, after a few tracks of nothing but dudes blasting guns, we’re given a break from the ballistics and treated to “Firing,” which is three and a half minutes of groovalicious funk for funking things up.

This song is taken from the film’s proper soundtrack album, which credits Akihiko Takashima as the composer. I think this track might’ve been performed by Arakawa Band, a jazz-funk group that’s credited as the backing band on the album. Regardless of who performed it, it’s fucking rad. So much that I’m including it as a separate download.

Super Gun (Complete Album)
Firing (song only)

Want to hear all the music and gunfire that Super Gun has to offer? Click the first link. Just wanna funk out? Then click the second.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Japanese funk is the secret best funk.

I have a tumblr because why the fuck not. I don’t know if I “get” tumblr. My friend who is hella into tumblr said that, based on the tumblrs I’m following, I like “synthwave” and “aesthetic” but not “vaporwave.”

I barely know what that means. I like synthesizers and 80s shit I guess. Gee who knew?

Speaking of synthesizers and 80s shit….

Various Artists – Digital Trip Catalogue Synthesizer Fantasy

For the past couple of year I’ve occasionally touched upon the Digital Trip Synthesizer Fantasy records. These albums are a collection of anime/manga themes re-imagined (almost) entirely on synthesizers.I’m not a big anime guy. I know, I’m a nerd living in Tokyo so that’s weird, but it’s just not my thing. But what is my thing is dope 80s synthesizer music, and these albums have that in spades.

I’ve only posted one Digital Trip album in its entirety, the Lupin the 3rd one, which happened to be the first one I found. Since then I think I’ve posted the occasional tracks from others, but I really didn’t want to go out and post another album in full. I was trying to instead focus on the highlights of the series and then craft my own sort of greatest hits of them all. Little did I know that they went ahead and did that for me in 1983.

Digital Trip Catalogue Synthesizer Fantasy is a compilation of tracks from the various albums in the series that had been released up to that point. By that time, only half of the series had been released, but they still had a quite a few standout titles to choose from, and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with what they chose.

They also went out of their way to showcase and a wide selection of artists who had contributed to the Digital Trip series, which is really great because it allows you to compare and contrast their different styles. Not all synthesizer cover artists are created equal you know.  For example, on one hand you have Osamu Shoji, who favors heavily modulated and layered sounds to create an almost explosion of synthesizers, while on the other you have an artist like Jun Fukamachi, an insanely talented jazz pianist who favors a more minimal arrangement.  I personally favor Shoji’s kitchen sink approach, but both are great and really work to showcase just how much variety you can get out purely synthesized arrangements of already written music.

Synthwave is good, for sure, but if you really wanna embrace electronic music and fall in love with everything synthesizers from the 80s had to offer, you’ll ditch that synthwave and go head first into Japanese Jazz Funk Synthesizer Anime Music….wave.

Naming genres is really hard.

Golgo 13 Original Soundtrack
My father owned a video store until the late-90s. Around 1994 or so, he started to carry a lot of anime. The section was instantly popular with many of the high school kids in the area as he was the only store that dealt with it. All the other stores in the area were chain stores that didn’t even bother with the stuff.

I still remember that first batch he got in, stuff like Akira (of course), Wicked City, Riding Beam, and this – the first animated movie based on the Golgo 13 manga.

I, being about 13 at the time and entirely ignorant of manga as a whole, had no idea that the movie was based on the manga. I didn’t even know that the manga existed. Instead, I assumed the movie was based on the NES video game, which I played the shit out of when I was much younger. I loved that game, even though it was punishingly hard and disgustingly unfair. That didn’t stop me from playing it for hours on end. Shit, I even played the sequel and managed to somehow nearly beat it.

1994 me hadn’t played the game in a while, but I still loved it, so I jumped at the chance to watch a movie that I assumed was based on it. I snagged it from my dad’s store the second I saw it and popped it in on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

My mother was very displeased with the somewhat graphic nudity early on, but I recall her rolling her eyes and letting me continue to watch it. My mom is dope like that.

To be honest, I don’t remember much of the film. Reading the plot description on wiki, only snippets come back to me. The (disgustingly misogynistic) ending does ring a bell, but the rest of it is a blur. I certainly didn’t recall the soundtrack when I picked it up a few months back. I bought it mostly for nostalgic reverence for the video game, and the super dope cover.

I’m glad I picked it up though, because it’s pretty damn rad. The movie came out in 1983, but if the soundtrack is any indication, disco was still the hottest latest in Japan. The main theme is very disco, as are many of the instrumental numbers that accompany it. One thing that does surprise me is that it’s a predominately analog affair. While some dope keyboard riffs do pop up from now and then, the entire thing sounds very organic, more like mid-70s disco than the more electronic-influenced dance music that was popular in Japan at the time. It still sounds great though.

The composer is Toshiyuki Kimori, who worked on several other anime films in the 80s, including Dirty Pair and Arcadia of my Youth. He also released a Super Mario Bros. covers album in 1986. That goes for a pretty penny online, but I can entirely see myself caving and buying it in the relatively near future. I have no willpower for such things.

This soundtrack was only released once, in 1983, and appears to have been out of print ever since. The seller offering the sole copy available on Discogs is asking over $70 for it, which is about how much the last copy went for on the site. Happy that I found mine for less than $20! Living in Japan has so many perks.

Enjoy the assassination jams.