All Bound For Mu

June 7th, 2017

I’ve been ridiculously productive this past week. I revived Game Music Revue to write about the Famicom Game Sound Musuems, and I wrote a blog post about my struggles with converting analog-to-digital. I can’t believe I’ve been doing that for over ten years now. Does that make me an expert? I don’t feel like an expert.

Here’s a cassette tape. I hate them.

Kamiya- Mu
I hate cassette tapes, did I mention that? So I feel like such a hypocrite whenever I buy one. I was just on a podcast (coming soon) and I literally spent a good five minutes rallying against tapes and their unexpected and inexplicable revival here in Japan, only to then go out and immediately buy one.

It wasn’t my first choice though, if I would’ve seen this one on vinyl I definitely would’ve chosen that format first. I mean, look at that cover. That deserves the full 12″ treatment. (Yikes, that sounded like a euphemism.)

Anyway, I didn’t really know what it was when I bought it. I just saw that cover and assumed it was some crazy newage/synthesizer/jazz/funk thing. And I assumed right. I know that sounds like a stretch, but seriously, it feels like every other Japanese album from 1978-1981 fits in that genre.

This album is a real rollercoaster, swinging across all of those genres with some experimental and dissonant stuff thrown in as well. While it does run the gamut, its certainly more towards the easy listening, smooth newage side of the spectrum. If Kamiya was from the states, this would’ve been released on Windham Hill Records.

My favorite cut on the album is without question “Appalachian Road,” a jaunty jazzy little number with excellent vocoder use and a killer melody that’ll get stuck in your head for days. Peter Frampton by way of Herbie Hancock. “Barbarella” is a choice cut too. I imagine playing this in my space lounge, sipping space martinis with my space boyfriend – who is just my current boyfriend but with a jetpack.

Kamiya’s full name is Shigenori Kamiya and I found out after buying this that I actually have another one of his records. In 1982 he released a “soundtrack” to the manga Tomb Of The Pharoh. It was part of the Synthesizer Fantasy series, a collection of albums that present synthesized versions of popular anime themes, as well as a few original soundtracks inspired by manga. I’ve shared some Synthesizer Fantasy records before, they’re on the shortlist of my favorite things ever. If you ever find yourself shopping for vinyl in Japan and you come across any record with that label on, I suggest buying it. You probably won’t be disappointed.

Posted in Complete Albums | 1 Comment »

Moog (Technically ARP) Tchaikovsky

June 4th, 2017

My continued self-imposed Twitter exile has brought me more joy than I could’ve possibly imagined. Not only am I now joyfully unaware of what millions of worthless fuckball asshats have to say about important issues regarding society and the environment, I also have more time to dedicate to my writing and even some art projects I’m working on.

I mean, as I write this, it’s 7:30 on a Sunday morning. This is usually the time where I would be diving headfirst into Twitter, not only using it as a launching board to read several news stories across the web, but also to read reactions to said stories. And let me tell you, there’s no worse way to start your day than reading what Nazis think about climate change. In addition to being needlessly rage-inducing, it also is a real shitter on my productivity.

So now, instead of me wasting an hour of my life on needless bullshit that doesn’t matter, I can instead use that time to write about late-70s electronic covers of classical music.

You know, the important stuff.

Kraft & Alexander
1812 Overture, Op. 49
Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
I’ve lost track of how many Moog and Moog-like (new phrase, I coined it) albums I’ve covered and written about in the 10+ years of Lost Turntable. I’m fairly certain one of my very first posts was a write-up on a Beatles Moog record. I’m not going to look that far back because it’s just embarrassing.

Regardless, I’m sure I spend many of those posts talking about how nearly all of these albums came in the wake of Wendy Carlos’ massively successful “Switched-On” series, which took classical compositions (and other works) and reworked on the then-new technology of modular synthesizers.

This doesn’t surprise me, it never surprises me when a trend, no matter how obviously limited, is milked for all its worth by the less-creative peers of the originator. But I am continually surprised by just how many of these albums there were, and for how long they were made.

1812/Nutcracker Suite (herein referred to as 1812) was released in 1977, nearly a decade after Carlos’ original Switch-On Bach album. Could there have really been an audience for this stuff for so long? And for so much of it? I’ve lost track of how many Mooglike albums I own, probably over a dozen at this point, and I routinely see more that I don’t buy; either because they look too stupid even for me (I don’t need Moog Nashville, thanks) or because they’re so rare in my resident country of Japan that they’re priced beyond the point of me caring (I refuse to spend $30 on an album of Moog pop music covers). If I went out of my way to buy every single Mooglike album on the market, even just limiting myself to the initial wave that came out in the 1970s, I’d probably fill an entire record shelf with them. I just can’t believe they lasted as long as they did.

Like I said, 1812 came out in 1977, which is rather late in the game for this genre. As such, its rather advanced when compared to similar releases. For example, this was not recorded on a Moog. It was record on various ARP synthesizers, including the Odyssey which was actually able to play more than one note at the same time, unlike the earlier synthesizers used on the Switched-On records. It also makes use of the ARP Pro Soloist, a super-early example of a preset electronic synthesizer (no big bulky patch units required). As such, it has a slightly more lush and “big” sound than some previous albums of its type.

That doesn’t necessarily mean its better. I still prefer the early works of Carlos. Her performances have more personality, and I appreciate the (relative) stripped down sound they have compared to this. But I do enjoy this record quite a bit, if nothing else for the rather ambitious subject matter. I’m sure a lot of other “Switched-On” type records tried to tackle The 1812 and Nutcracker Suites, but I think this is the only one to perform both in their entirety.

1812 is credited to two performers, Jack Kraft and Larry Alexander. It’s hard to find much on Jack Kraft, that’s what happens when you share a name with a college basketball coach, but I think this was his only credited release.

This is also Larry Alexander’s only album, although he has a long list of credits working behind the scenes. He did remix work for Paul McCartney and Lou Reed, among others, and also worked in the studio with artists like Sisters Of Mercy and Diana Ross. He was an engineer at The Power Station, a famous studio where artists such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and, yes, The Power Station all worked at one point or another.

I wonder if any of them ever heard this record?

Posted in Complete Albums, Moog | 6 Comments »

Second Hand Fan-Fiction and Sister Sledge

June 3rd, 2017

I 90% quit Twitter this week. You can read why here. You can also read about my love giant Hard-Offs. I’m not going to explain that sentence. You’ll have to click the link to find out.

As I say in my blog post about Twitter, I will still check my mentions on the regular. So it’s the best way to get a hold of me if you have any questions about my blog, Tokyo, or collecting records. That’s by far my favorite thing about Twitter, so I’m not giving that up.

Anyways, here’s a goofy single.

Sister Sledge
He’s The Greatest Dancer (Remixed by Brutal Bill Marquez)
We Are Family (Remixed By Marley Marl)
I actually bought this record at a Hard-Off for 108 yen, or about a buck, making it the cheapest record I think I’ve bought in well over a decade. So that’s something.

This record was released in 1998. If Discogs is to be believed, it was a Spanish release. So, at some point between 1998 and 2017, this record made its way from Spain to Tokyo, eventually landing in a Hard-Off discount used hardware store in the outskirts of Tokyo.

Here’s what I think happened:

It was originally bought by a Spanish DJ. It was the late-90s, global economy was booming, he gets a gig at a lavish disco-themed dance club in downtown Madrid. It becomes the hottest dance club for your vintage grooves and a big tourist destination for international clubbers. One day, while mixing some Chic tracks, he catches the eye of a beautiful Japanese tourist. They fall in love.

But she has to return to Japan to finish school. With nothing weighing him down financially, he decides to ditch his home country to be with the girl he loves. All he has to his name are his decks and a crate of records. So he packs them up and heads out for a new life in Japan.

They’re in love but life can cruel, life in Tokyo. The club scene is different there, and he’s having a hard time finding work. The occasional gig comes along every now and then, but he’s not making ends meet. She just finished school. She’s a new recruit at a company. The money is decent, but barely enough to support them.

He’s about to give up and head back to Spain. He loves his girl but he doesn’t want to be a burden. Then he finds out that there’s a market for Spanish teachers. Luckily, he does have a degree, it’s in electrical engineering, but that’s all he needs to get a visa to teach. So he puts his DJ work on the back burner and takes up teaching.

Turns out he’s really good at it and soon he’s making enough money not to be a burden on his girlfriend anymore. Relieved of financial pressure, the two get married. He likes to DJ still but it’s just not financially feasible anymore. The teaching pays so good. He’s getting private corporate teaching gigs now. That’s too much money to pass up.

The wife gets pregnant and they decide that the city is no place to raise a child. They head out to the outskirts, toward Saitama. They find a nice neighborhood with good schools. Their place is even pretty big (for Tokyo standards anyway) but those records, turntables and mixers are taking up a lot of space. With a heavy heart, he decides its time to move on. He keeps one turntable, he still likes to play music at home, but he packs up the rest of his gear and his B-tier records (Sister Sledge single included) and hauls them down to the local Hard-Off. He doesn’t get a lot of money for them, but he’s able to take the wife out for a nice dinner that night.

Sometime later, a giant gay man from Pittsburgh buys the record and plays it for his boyfriend. He tells his boyfriend that the “He’s The Greatest Dancer” remix is okay, but the “We Are Family” one is a lot better. His boyfriend agrees.

Posted in remixes, Sister Sledge | No Comments »

M.C. Godzilla drops gamma beats

May 31st, 2017

The Destruction
Godzilla’s Coming To Town
It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone to say that I’ve been a bit down lately. Nothing serious I guess, just, y’know, the current state of global affairs is kind of a bummer, that’s all. Retail therapy isn’t entirely healthy (or sustainable) and I know that. But sometimes when I go out record shopping I find something so marvelously bizarre/stupid/great/amazing that it does help to dull the pain of reality at least for short time and bring a smile to my face.

Such is the case with the album I purchased today, Howl: The Grunts and Growls of all Toho Monsters. Like the name suggests, it’s an album comprised almost entirely of the sounds made by various Toho kaiju, including but not limited to Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus and many more. But that’s not why I bought it. Sure, having 20+ minutes of various monster growls, howls and roars is fun, but for me, the centerpiece of the album is the opener, “Godzilla’s Coming To Town,” a megamix of monster sound effects set to a killer backbeat.

This existence of this makes me so very happy. It’s Art Of Noise with monster roars. It’s great.

This is credited to “The Destruction” but a quick skim through the liner notes shows that the track was composed and arranged by one Kenji Iwakura. Never heard of him before, but apparently he was in a little-known Japanese synthpop band called Spy. They released one album in the 80s. It was produced by Kazuihiko Katoh, who is one of my all-time favorite musicians. I guess that means I’ll be picking up that record in the near future. Iwakura also worked on a few (lesser) Yukihro Takahashi records as well as an album of Hudson Game Music. Between his kaiju work, Takahashi collaborations and his game music releases, quite frankly I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard of him sooner.

The track also features Hirofumi Tokutake on “acid country guitar.” Never heard of him before either, but thanks to Discogs I now know that I have at least four releases that feature him (including this). He’s on the YMO album Technodon, as well as the accompanying live CD. He also shows up on the Takeshi/Jensen collaboration PulsexPulse and on a Sketch Show album as well. This all ties into my theory that if you buy any Japanese electronic music release from 1978 to 1999, you’ll find at least one person who worked with at least one member of YMO at some point.

This is stupid. Please enjoy.

Posted in soundtrack | 2 Comments »

George Clinton’s Extended Beef

May 28th, 2017

Me: I’m going to buy an old VCR this week.

Literally everyone I know: Of course you are.

In case you’re wondering, I’m looking for an old VCR/DVD dubbing machine and if I score one then expect maybe the very first Lost Turntable video feature.

Yes I know I could buy a video capture unit for my PC but have you tried to do that shit? It’s hard. My A/V expertise begins and ends with phono.

George Clinton
Bullet Proof (Extended Version)
Do Fries Go With That Shake (Extended Remix)
Scratch Medley: Do Fries Go With That Shake/Pleasures Of Exhaustion (Do It Till I Drop)
Double Oh-Oh (For Your Ears Only Mashed Mix)
Some of these tracks have been on my Lost Turntable playlist for nearly five years. I have no idea why I’ve never gotten around to uploading them here. I’m such a slacker sometimes.

I definitely need more 80s George Clinton in my life. I’ve said before that “Atomic Dog” is a perfect song that I could listen to all day, and while these tracks aren’t perfect, they’re sure fucking close. “Bullet Proof” might have some of the illest drums of all time. Just a monster track for sure.

This sound is making a comeback of sorts, is it not? Or is it just Bruno Mars dipping into that nostalgia well and no one else? More people need to get on that shit. Hell, more people need to mine vintage R&B sounds. Modern R&B is just boring as all hell. When Dumptruck got elected a lot of idiots were saying that it would be good for music because we would see the return of vicious and revolutionary protest music. Well, it’s been nearly six months now and I’m still waiting for that. Secondly, while I’ve long been clamoring for the return of politically insightful music (especially in R&B and hip-hop), I would also settle for the return fun and upbeat pop music.

The pop charts are a dour disaster zone right now. It’s like everyone is depressed, but not woke enough to write socially conscious songs, so instead they’re just writing mopey-dopey songs about how much partying sucks. Partying is dope. Write about how dope partying can be while how shitty the world is. And try to have fun doing it.

What I’m saying is, more songwriters need to listen to Maggot Brain.

Additionally, I would a top ten hit single akin to “Do Fries Go With That Shake” but gay. It’s not fair to the gay community that the only super-popular openly gay singer in the world right now is Sam Smith. We’ve been through enough.

Thank you for listening.

Posted in George Clinton, remixes | 4 Comments »

Bass In Yo’ Face

May 22nd, 2017

I’ve been having a hard time of late figuring out what to write in this space right here. One thing that I’ve always taken pride in is that my site is…different, I guess? Any asshole can put up a bunch of MP3s ripped from vinyl, steal some copy from Wikipedia and give themselves a blog post (*cough* burning the ground *cough*). I’ve always aimed to be a bit more than that, not only in terms of music writing, but in terms of just sharing my thoughts. It’s always been important to me that this is as much a blog as it is MP3s.

But yo, life has been a real motherfucker as of late. And as much as I want to contribute to the current political discussion and showcase my utter contempt and hatred for Trump at every possible moment, I really don’t know what to say aside from “fuck that guy I hope he gets cancer and dies.” And while that feels good for me to get off my chest every now and then, it’s not really all that constructive, is it?

Maybe I’ll recommend some lesser-known non-profits to donate to? Dedicate a blog post to areas where you can contribute your resources to help those who need it? Or just provide a thesaurus of swear words so you can find more ways to describe Trump aside from “motherfucking cocksucker.”

Although, if it ain’t broke…

Towa Tei
Sound Museum (Haruomi Hosono Remix)
Time After Time (Blaze Remix)
GBI (Latin Narrow Light) (Lisa Carbon Remix)
Higher (Appaloosa Remix)
Happy (DJ Die Remix)
BMT (Bizzy B & Pugwash Remix)
It took me a while, but I’m finally falling headfirst into a Towa Tei hole (ew, that came out wrong). I think me and him got off on the wrong foot. I started out with his first album, and it just wasn’t my thing. Since then, I jumped forward about 15 years to his more recent stuff and really fell in love with it. I can’t recommend his newest record, Emo, enough. It’s a fantastic collection of dance-pop, picking up where Metafive left off in some really fun and exciting ways. I also highly recommend his 2013 album Lucky, which features the amazing title track and “Radio,” the latter of which was remade as a Metafive track a few years later. Really fantastic, upbeat super-fun pop music that just doesn’t get old.

These tracks are from the mid-90s, and very much sound like it. This is the Towa Tei who was in Deee-Lite, not the Towa Tei who crafts perfect pop songs today. That’s certainly not a knock against these tracks, it’s just to say that they sound dramatically different than his new stuff.

Of this bunch, my hands-down favorite is the last one. Got that Biz Markie, that Mos Def and an amazing rolling drum and bass backdrop that just kicks my ass all over the place. Dopest jam.

Prince
Purple Medley
Purple Medley (Edit)
Kirk J’s B Sides Remix
We’re just one month away from the release of the massive 3CD+DVD super deluxe edition of Purple Rain, and I’m hella stoked. I was reading impressions when it was first announced and was surprised by the negative response. Sure, it could have more, but that goes without saying; Prince was an insanely prolific artist who never stopped recording. I’m sure Warner Bros. could fill a 10CD box set of recordings made during the Purple Rain sessions, but that doesn’t mean they should. I’m happy for an abridged 3 disc set featuring a handful of unreleased material alongside hard-to-find classics like the “God” instrumental and extended versions of the album tracks. And the concert video (and it’s a video, hence no HD so don’t complain) should be incredible. I’m negative about enough stuff right now, I refuse to be negative about this. Now, if Warner Bros. never gets around to re-releasing the Prince side-projects like Madhouse and The Family, then I’ll get pissy.

“Purple Medley” was originally released in 1995. It was a single release only, it did not appear on any proper album. The B-side, entitled the “B Side Remix,” has no actual B-sides on it. So you explain that one to me.

I originally posted this track nearly seven years ago (holy hell) but that was taken from an very scratchy vinyl.  This is from the CD. So even if you downloaded it back in the day, you’ll probably want to download this one to replace it.

Posted in Prince, Towa Tei | 3 Comments »

Black Days

May 19th, 2017

I had the immense privilege of seeing Cornell with both Audioslave and Soundgarden. And he was probably one of the greatest vocalists I ever saw perform in person. The world has lost an amazing talent and person. And I am heartbroken as I realize that my generation will be sorely lacking in old rock stars.

Soundgarden
Gun (Live ’90)
Get On The Snake (Live ’90)
Superunknown was one of the first albums I bought with my own money to listen to on my own. I didn’t have to buy a lot of music with my own money when I was a kid, mostly because my mom and I had very similar musical tastes. Having a mom who was way into Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana really saved me a lot of money at the time. Thanks mom! My mom is dope.

Anyways, for some reason I can clearly recall buying Superunknown used at a CD Warehouse and playing the shit out of that album. I would listen to it when I played Doom, read comics or mowed the lawn. I honestly think the main reason that album became my default background music was simply because it’s so damn long. That album is 15 tracks and 71 minutes long. And it doesn’t have a single piece of filler on it. That just never fucking happens.  How many classic, amazing tracks are on that album? Six? Seven? Eight? I mean, shit, “Black Hole Sun” might be the worst song on that album, and it’ s one of the greatest rock singles of the 90s. But it can’t hold a candle to “Spoonman” or “Kickstand” or even the title track. It’s downright criminal that Superunknown isn’t spoken with the same reference as Nevermind and Ten. It’s the Thriller or Hysteria of grunge; every song could’ve been a single. And again, at 15 tracks long that’s a holy shit statement.

For the longest time there were countless Soundgarden rarities. Unlike Pearl Jam or Nirvana, there didn’t seem to be anyone keeping track of the Soundgarden archives. Thankfully, that started to come to an end a few years back. Between the deluxe editions of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, and the 3CD rarities compilation Echo Of Miles, a good portion of the rare Soundgarden tracks worth a listen are now easy to score, and I suggest you do that. Be sure to check out their oddly sedate-but-great cover of Devo’s “Girl U Want” and the amazing Moby remix of “Dusty,” which I prefer to the original.

These live tracks are from the CD single to “Blow Up The Outside World.” To the best of my knowledge, they were never included on any of the various re-issues, but if I’m wrong please let me know.

FYI: the “movie no one saw” that Cornell references in the beginning of “Get On the Snake” is Lost Angels. He’s certainly right, no one saw that movie, but the soundtrack, which included The Pogues, Toni Childs, Soul Asylum and Apollo Smile, was hella dope.

Audioslave
Show Me How To Live (T Ray Remix)
Set It Off (Live From Letterman)
Gasoline (Live From Letterman)
I’ve always felt that Audioslave is an underrated band. At the very least, their first album certainly is. It is such a great record, a fantastic hard rock album that came out at a time when those were few and far between. I got to see Audioslave live three times, and each time they delivered a stand out show. If you’ve never given the band a proper chance, I really recommend that first self-titled record. And while those second two albums don’t hold up when compared to that stellar debut, they both have some solid tracks. Scope them out on iTunes, each have some buried gems. I’m a big fan of “Man Or Animal” and “Somedays,” myself.

Audioslave doesn’t have many rarities to speak of. I think their only commercially released B-side was “We Got The Whip” and you can get that on iTunes no problem. These three tracks were the only ones in my collection that I couldn’t find commercially available.  They’re all from various singles from the first album. The two “live” tracks don’t sound very live. You get zero crowd noise on these. I suspect that they’re rehearsal recordings. They still sound good though. The remix of “Show Me How To Live” is the highlight of the group though. It’s a good remix of a great song that adds some layers of electronic and psychedelic effects. Simple, but it works.

…

Sigh. Why does everything have to suck so much?

Posted in Audioslave, live, remixes, Soundgarden | 1 Comment »

I have nothing of value to add to the current discourse so here’s some ZZ Top.

May 12th, 2017

Geez.

ZZ Top
Gimme All Your Lovin’ (live)
Sharp Dressed Man (live)
I Got the Six (live)
TV Dinners (live)
Got Me Under Pressure (live)
Legs (dance mix)
Legs (Album Version)
All of these tracks are from the 2008 Collector’s Edition of Eliminator, which was released in 2008 and has been seemingly out-of-print ever since. For some reason (and whatever the reason is, it’s a bad one) all digital versions currently being sold only have the single edit of “Legs.” Some CD versions have the album version still, while others use the single edit. It’s pretty hard to tell which has which just from looking though. Both are perfectly fine versions, I don’t prefer one over the other, but it would be nice to have the album version on the album (duh).

Completely exclusive to this release is the dope as fuck super extended “Dance Mix” which really jacks up the sequencers. It’s basically “I Feel Love” with blues riffs. A great concept that I’m really bummed more people didn’t get behind in the 80s. The live tracks are decent, but let’s be honest, this is an album that was never made to be played live. It’s a studio creation through and through.

I recently bought the remastered vinyl of Eliminator. It came on cherry red vinyl to match the Eliminator car and it sounded great. That is, until it got to “Legs” and it just suddenly cut out near the end of the song. No fade, no breakdown, it just cuts out entirely. What I suspect happened was that they pressed the original album version on a groove that was allocated for the single edit, which is over a minute shorter.  Whatever the reason, it’s pathetic that Rhino, who released the disc, never issued any sort of public recall for the LP. I emailed them twice, with neither message getting a response. I eventually had to return it to my local record store.

Anyways, between the error-riddled vinyl and the out-of-print 2 CD edition, Rhino/Warner Bros. really need to get their shit together on this one. Eliminator is one of the greatest albums of the 80s. They should teach it in music school and the class should be called “how to sell out for cash and still make a kick-ass record.” Because, let’s face it, a Texas blues band adopting a synth-heavy sound in 1984 was about as hard a sell-out as humanly possible. But they made it work.

Posted in live, remixes, ZZ Top | 7 Comments »

Ruth White’s Short Circuits

May 5th, 2017

Hey do you like old synthesizers that look more like telephone switchboards than proper musical instruments? Then check out my other blog for a picture gallery/write-up on an amazing exhibition of vintage equipment (much of it used by YMO) that I got the pleasure of seeing last week.

And then listen to this Moog album after that.

Ruth White – Short Circuits

I’d never heard of Ruth White until I bought this album last year. A fact that is rather embarrassing as she is A: an early electronic pioneer whose work rivals Wendy Carlos and B: from Pittsburgh, a city I called home for a decade.

Her discography is rather impressive, predating electronic music with her earliest releases in the mid-50s, and continuing well into the 1980s with countless children’s releases. I wonder if I heard any of those albums when I was a kid. Sometimes I wish I could take a peek back at my elementary school teacher’s music collection. She played all kinds of oddball shit. I wish I remembered more of it.

Anyways, like I said, Ruth’s career started out well before electronic music. Her earliest releases were traditional recordings of lullabies and folk music. But in 1969 she took a hard turn into the avant-garde with  7 Trumps From the Tarot Card and Pinions, a highly experimental record that made great use of the Moog. She followed that up with Flowers Of Evil in the same year, an album that is so bizarre and utterly alien that it might give you nightmares.

Two years later she released the record I’m sharing tonight, Short Circuits. Unlike her previous albums, which featured some out-there and highly experimental original music, there’s no original music to be found here. Instead it’s all covers of classical compositions. I would suspect she released this as a response to Wendy Carlos’ runaway success with Switched-On Bach, which came out a few years prior.

It lacks the insanity of her early releases, but the album is still haunting in its own way. Her arrangements are often minimal, and even occasionally employ some atonal effects to give them a somewhat off-kilter vibe. Even when it’s cheerful and fun, the album is much less “mellow” than Carlos’ Switched-On album, and features a much more diverse selection of tracks from a wide variety of composers.

 

It’s a real shame that this album, and her other work for that matter, has never been released digitally. In doing some quick research for this post, I discovered that Flowers of Evil has been re-issued several times, once relatively recently, but always only on LP. The growing prevalence of vinyl-only re-issues (especially of exceedingly rare releases) is really starting to irk me. I get the appeal of owning a vintage release on a vintage format, but why not give a digital download or CD option as well? These kinds of records deserve to be heard by more people, and keeping them on what remains a niche format certainly isn’t going to help make that happen. Maybe I should add “start a boutique record label dedicated to early electronic music and other stupid shit no one really cares about” to my to-do list.

Posted in Ruth White | 3 Comments »

Funky Jazz From Space

April 23rd, 2017

I hope you all had a good Record Store Day and were able to find what you wanted without getting gauged. I scored the two big Bowie releases and even managed to bang out a review of them over on my other site. Sorry to say, if you’re going on the second-hand market to grab them, you might want to pass.

Now who wants some Japanese space funk/jazz fusion!

Wait, don’t go, it’ll be cool I promise!

Jun Fukamachi
Quark
Perpetual (Movement)
Desillusion
Insight
I shared a Fukamachi track about a year ago, when I uploaded his jazz fusion take on the Star Wars theme, which was pretty dope. Tonight, I thought I would share the album of his that I think fans of my blog would dig the most, his 1980 release Quark.

As I mentioned in my previous post featuring him, Fukamachi is kind of a jack of all trades, dabbling in many different genres of music throughout his long career. Most of it is jazz, and not just fusion, but traditional piano jazz music. He also dives into funk on occasion. Those are some of my favorite records of his. Second Phase, his 1977 album, is a great record featuring his funky side, complete with a rad cover of “Ava Maria.” I’ll probably post some stuff from that at some point.

But Quark is a bit different, at least it’s different than the other Fukamachi album’s I’ve bought. This one is much spacier, with a heavy emphasis on ambient and electronic textures. Each track is ten minutes long, and they all take you on a journey, man, going between Tangerine Dream, quiet piano-driven segues that wouldn’t be out of place on a Pink Floyd record, and crazy purely electronic experimental pieces reminiscent of Wendy Carlos.

It’s a crazy record that I can’t really describe, so if you’re in the mood for something different, check it.

Posted in Jun fukamachi | 1 Comment »

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