I’m back and I brought the forgotten J-Pop

August 23rd, 2020

If you were reading my site last week…you weren’t because it fucking exploded into fire.

It’s a long story, but I tried to update something, it very much did not work, and the efforts to restore it did not work either. This necessitated a off-site restore from my hosting provider, and that took much longer than they originally estimated. It was not a fun time. I was not happy. But it’s taken care of now. I’m still not happy, but that has more to do with the state of the world and my own personal health than the health of my website.

However, I really do need to get around to updating this site at some point. It’s a damn mess. This site an imported version of a 14-year-old Blogspot site. It’s extremely cutting edge for the mid-2000s. Although I really don’t know what I would “updating” this site would entail. It’s an MP3 blog. It’s gonna stay an MP3 blog. I could probably figure out a way to make it look slightly less ugly but, meh, it’s hard! I guess the only thing I really want to do is clean up the back-end and streamline it a bit. But again, I have no idea how to do any of this. I paid a tech-savvy friend to do all this years ago, she has since moved to Oregon and I have since moved to another country. That complicates things.

I’ll probably figure something out. In the meantime, if my site mysteriously vanishes again, be sure to check me out on Twitter, I’ll probably be posting vulgarity-filled updates if that happens. I should also mention that while Twitter is a garbage fire of rancid shit, it’s still the best way to get a hold of me quickly if you have any questions or concerns about anything. I check it more than I should.

Some other news, I’m still working my way through MTV’s 1985 Top 100 countdown over on my other site, and I’m probably going to get to the Top 20 sometime in the next week or two. I also plan on writing up something about all the amazing commercials that aired during the countdown. If you want a sneak peak of that, I uploaded a ton of them to my YouTube channel. I especially love this video store one, because I literally grew up in a video store and that triggers all them nostalgia dopamine triggers. Blurry VHS box art is like heroin to me, is what I’m saying.

 

 

Between both the world and my blog being on fire last week, I was swinging back-and-forth wildly between happy upbeat music to cheer me up, and supreme angry music to help me fester in negativity. I’m going to share the former tonight and not the latter. I don’t want to spread even more unneeded negativity in the world, and most of the angry music I was listening to was Korn’s dubstep album. No one needs to hear that. ALTHOUGH I SINCERELY THINK IT’S UNDERRATED.

Anyways, no Korn dubstep. 80s J-pop!

 

 

Shohjo-Tai – From S (Complete album)
There’s so much 80 J-pop out there (because bubble economy) that digging through it is nearly impossible. I always know that there’s good stuff buried in there, but I never know what to look for. I have no cultural context, plus I can’t even read 90% of the names, so that’s a problem. Imagine looking through crates of Western 80s pop music with zero context or understanding of anything about who was popular and when. You probably wouldn’t get lucky enough to stumble onto a Madonna record, you’d wind up getting something like the third Stacey Q record, or a Spoons album. That’s how it feels when I dig through a store’s stock of 80s J-pop. I’m looking for another YMO, but I usually end up with Japan’s answer to Mr. Mister or some bullshit like that. Thankfully I get help from my students on occasion, who direct me to groups like Shohjo-Tai.

I first featured Shohjo-Tai a couple years back. Not soon after a client recommended them to me I was able to find one of their singles in a store. I dug it, and got interested enough in the group to try and find more releases by them. Unfortunately, every other album or single I found by them just didn’t hold my attention as much as that first one. Everything was fine, they weren’t aggressively bad or anything, but they all had that overly polished, generic sound that far too much J-pop has. No personality, all kawaii, too many ballads. Boring.

I think a big problem with Shohjo-Tai is that they just put too much stuff out. Between 1984 and 1989, they released ten albums! Some were only EP length, but still, that’s a lot of music. Many of the very best artists of all-time, with careers that span decades, can’t put together 10 albums of great material. For a pop act to shovel out that much in such a short period of time is crazy.

In 1986 alone, they released four albums. I have two. One is Untouchable. It’s fine. It’s certainly not untouchable, but it’s decent upbeat pop music. The other is this one, From S. There are definitely more highlights in its six songs and 28 minute runtime than in the entirety of Untouchable‘s 43 minutes of 10 songs.

It’s a very creative album, and evens skews on the experimental side at times. “Natsu no Passport” opens the album strong with a synthesized bang, and a catchy keyboard melody helps carry it through. But then near the end the song completely breaks down into a short breakdown that’s reminiscent of The Art Of Noise’s best stuff, before re-assembling itself for the fade out. It comes out of left field and it really gives the song some character.

It’s followed by “Sanzennen No Yume,” a slower ballad. J-pop ballads usually bore me to death, but again, this one is just a bit different. The synthesizers, drum machines, and whatever other electronic doo-hickeys they got playing in the background give it something different, and it also has a fantastic breakdown near the end, with one of the strangest, most out-of-place solos of random sound I’ve ever heard in a pop tune.

The highlight of the entire album comes next, “Siam Paradise,” a pulsing tune with a fantastic beat. Awesome use of samplers and a great melody. This sounds like YMO. It really, really sounds like YMO (more on that in a bit). It’s super catchy and in my dream compilation of Japanese 80s synth-pop, it would totally be track three.

Most of the rest is also good. “Oriental Nights” is a little more generic, it lacks the crazy breakdowns and other innovations of the previous numbers, but it’s still a solid number. “Kinou no New Moon” picks things up again, with oodles of fantastic synths and drum machines. The only weak track on the entire thing is the finale, “Ikoku no Shinwa” which is just a generic 80s J-pop ballad. And if I wanted to hear those I’d listen to Yuming.

If you’re wondering why this album stands out so much when compared to the rest of their discography, well it probably has something to do with who worked on it. From what I can tell, all the Shohjo-Tai albums had fantastic production and session musicians on them. When I browse their pages on Discogs, nearly everyone who worked on their records have long careers across dozens of albums. But this one goes even above those.

Remember, how I said that the synthesizers here really stand out? And that the album occasionally reminds me of good YMO? Well, that’s because Haruomi Hosono of YMO and singer/songwriter extraordinaire Koshi Miharu both played keyboard and synthesizers here. Hosono even co-wrote a couple tracks on the album, including the standout “Siam Paradise.” That’s a hell of a duo to get on your album, especially in 1986, when both were at their peak in terms of their electronic music output. No wonder Japanese record geeks go after this one.

I hope this heavily synthesized, overly cheery synth-pop will serve you well this week. Enjoy.

Posted in Complete Albums, Shojo Tai | 2 Comments »

Tiny Madonna CDs of Happiness

August 9th, 2020

Madonna
Who’s That Girl (Extended Version)
Causing A Commotion (Silver Screen Mix)
Express Yourself (Non-Stop Express Mix)
Express Yourself (Stop + Go Dubs Mix)
I think I’ve posted rips of all of these before, save for maybe the extended remix of “Who’s That Girl,” but I’m also fairly certain that those old rips were taken from old, used vinyl. These rips were taken from CDs (that were also old and used) and sound much better than my  vinyl rips. Don’t get me wrong, I think that my old vinyl rips sounded damn good, but they got nothing on some crystal clear, not-too-loud, of-the-era CD masters. I should rename this blog “The Lost CD Player” and dedicate myself to tracking down and posting tracks from rare and out-of-print CDs exclusively. Millennials will have to get some CD nostalgia soon, right? I need to capitalize off of that shit.

Not only are these remixes from CDs, but they’re from tiny CDs! Look how tiny they are!

I don’t own many 3-inch CD singles (most of the times the full-size CD singles have the same remixes on them) but I came across these at a massive Madonna sale and had to buy them. They’re so cute. The only downside to buying 3-inch CD singles (aside from them objectively being a waste of money) is that you have to be careful about what kind of CD player you put them in. My computer’s disc drive is one of those that you feed the discs into and they slide in automatically. If I tried to put a 3-inch CD into that, the CD would never be able to leave. I had to buy an external drive. Anything for my Madonna remixes though.

The best thing about posting stone cold classic Madonna is that I don’t have to try that hard when I write about them. Hey, everyone, “Causing A Commotion” and “Express Yourself” are fucking amazing tracks that are near-perfect examples of 80s pop music, did you know that? Good, I don’t have to say any more about them. These remixes are all also very good as well. Extended versions of perfect pop songs are usually also really good. Funny that. Even the dub mix of “Express Yourself” is good. It has a good breakdown halfway through, and that bassline just slaps so much, that’s all you need.

I feel that “Who’s That Girl” is probably the least beloved of all these tunes. And sure, it doesn’t have the instant hook appeal of “Causing A Commotion” or “Express Yourself” but it’s still a banger of a number, even if the movie it came from is dogshit. It also has a great bassline and the drum sound is fantastic. I’m fairly certain that the song was entirely created with synthesizers and other electronic instruments, but it has a slight, hard-to-explain, organic element or feeling to it, like all great synthpop. There’s a lot going on, lots of sounds, effects, and production, but none of it overpowers the rest. The song isn’t necessarily restrained, but all its elements are.

And it has fake steel drums. I love fake steel drums. Makes me think of Super Mario World.

 

Posted in Madonna, remixes | 6 Comments »

Bootlegs, 90s hip hop, 80s synth-pop, 2020s depression

August 2nd, 2020

Sigh. World sucks and I wanna cry all day but instead here’s a hodgepodge of music to listen to with no rhyme or reason as to why I selected any of it.

Rick Wakeman
Space Oddity/Life On Mars (Live in 1997)
As cases began to spike again in Tokyo, the news kept saying that young people were the primary spreaders of the virus this time around. They were also saying that it was best to avoid crowded spaces as much as possible. So, I went to the one place that I knew wouldn’t be crowded, and would have zero young people: the progressive rock record store.

There are actually a few of these in the greatest Tokyo area, but my favorite is World Disque. The Disk Union Progressive store is great, but World Disque has mountains and mountains of oddball shit. Yo, wanna get Renaissance’s Japan-only EP? How about two live EPs by Gong’s current vocalist? Care for multiple Klaus Schulze box sets? This is the store for you.

I was right, no crowds and I (being 40 years old) was, without question the youngest person there. I correctly (sigh) assumed that cases were going to spike further in the following weeks, and treated myself to several records since I knew I wouldn’t be going out again shopping anytime in the near future. I picked up some of Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come (great), Birth Control (also great), Robert Wyatt (uneven but good) and an album by Darryl Way’s Wolf (surprisingly good).

I also bought a Rick Wakeman 6 CD “official bootleg” boxset for a steal that ended up being exceptionally great. Not only were the performances (which ranged from the mid-70s to the early 90s) all utterly fantastic, but most of it sounded very good too. Sure, they’re bootlegs so they’re a little more bassy and muffled than official recordings, but as I got into the groove I didn’t notice it all that much, especially since Wakeman’s amazing keyboard always seems to shine through any mix and sound crystal clear.

So, there I was, at home getting drunk on absinthe, listening to Rick Wakeman bootlegs, and browsing Discogs when…okay look, long story short I just got another five CD box set of Rick Wakeman bootlegs in the mail and I’m expecting another 16 CD box set of more bootlegs any day now.

Shut up. We all cope with stress in different ways. I apparently cope with copious keyboard solos and absinthe. I can think of more dangerous combinations.

The above is from an exceptionally good sounding bootleg (I think it’s a soundboard or radio recording) from a show in 1997. This medley of Bowie tunes isn’t like the one that he released on piano after Bowie’s death, it’s a full band recording complete with vocals. It’s a good version, even without Bowie. I wish I could pick up who the singer is, but Rick rattles off his name so quickly at the end that I can never make it out. If anyone knows, fill me in!

 

P.M. Dawn
Reality Used To Be A Friend Of Mine (Club Mix)
Mostly sharing for the title. 100% relatable. Although, let’s be real, I don’t think that’s been true since 1999.

Is there a lot of low-key chill hip-hop these days? Excluding Juice WRLD, his lyrics were dogshit and his samples atrocious. I’ve heard a bit of Travis Scott and dig that sometimes. I especially love “Sick Mode” because I can get down on any track that gets you hype about napping. I’ve also listened a bit to Swae Lee. I really dig his delivery and can tell he has a ton of talent, but he’s almost too chill. Not enough melody sometimes. Also, that’s totally music for taking benzos to, let’s be real.

Anyways, this song is cool and probably also good for taking benzos to. Man, I wish I still had some benzos. Yeah, they’re horribly addictive and the comedown is rough, but sleeping for 10 hours straight is AWESOME.

 

Imitation
Thermo Limbo
Exotic Dance
I wrote about Imitation a while back after I happened upon their fantastic first album Original. Since then, I was able to track down their third album, which wasn’t as good as their stellar debut, but still pretty good. I’m still on the hunt for their second one, Muscle And Heat. I suspect that it might be the rarest of the bunch, since the only copy online I can find right now goes for $60. I’m not paying that much for a used LP from the 80s without getting a chance to hear it first, so I’m going to wait until I actually see it in person (if I can ever go to a record store again, sigh).

Anyways, while I haven’t been able to track down that album, I was able to score this 12″ single, which features two songs from the record. “Thermo Limbo” is the better one of the bunch, which a dope beat and good groove, but the out-there spacey “Exotic Dance” is also good. These tracks feature fellow 80s j-pop idol Sandii on back-up vocals, and I bet that they share a bit more with her as well. These sound a lot like Sandii songs, with a slight Hawaiian bent and a cool mixture of traditional and electronic elements. I love this stuff. It’s always my jam.

Posted in Imitation, live, P.M. Dawn, Rick Wakeman | 3 Comments »

Obscure synthesizers and amazing suits

July 21st, 2020

Graziano Mandozzi – Bach Handel 300 (complete album)
Sometimes I want to write about something even though I’m woefully lacking in the knowledge to do so. Here’s one of those times. Apologies for omissions or errors. Correct me (politely) in the comments!

Bach Handel 300 is a collection of synthesizer covers of compositions by (duh) Bach and Handel. It was originally released on by the influential and prestigious Deutsche Grammophone record label in 1985. Now, if you’re like me and you obsess over synthesizer covers of classical compositions, that date probably surprises you. Most classical synth albums came out in the first half of the 70s, all of them riding the coat tails of Wendy Carlos’ legendary Switched On Bach album. By the mid-80s, the novelty of the format had long worn off. Even in Japan, where synth covers albums seemed to be much more popular, I don’t see many from after 1978.

But this one probably had a very specific reason for existing; I think it was serving a commercial for the synthesizers used on the album. This album doesn’t feature Moogs, nor Korgs, nor any early digital synthesizers like the Fairlight or Synclavier. This album was made entirely on PPG Wave synthesizers. PPG was a German company. Deutsche Grammophone was a German label (duh) so, yeah, the synergy makes sense.

Never heard of the PPG synthesizer? Me neither! But apparently they were used a bit by synthpop acts of the era, if the Wikipedia page is to be believed. I’m not very good at picking up individual synths in songs aside from old-school moogs and the Synclavier, so I couldn’t tell you which songs have good examples of the PPG Wave, but I know they’re out there.

The PPG Wave was a different style of synthesizer. While the synths of the 80s were almost exclusively pure analog, and the synths of the 80s were digital affairs, the PGG Wave series were something in-between, analog/digital hybrids that provided a wide range of sounds with superior audio quality. They were apparently groundbreaking in a few different ways, but again, this is not my element so I’m not going to speak too much about it. But I will definitely say that the PPG has a unique sound that reminds me of analog synths of the 70s, with the variety and range of the 80s digital stuff. You get your warped, ghostly analog sounds alongside your crystal clear, bright, 80s notes. It also has a grit to it that was probably to its detriment at the time, but gives it a unique quality now that makes it stand apart from the cleaner all-digital synths of the era. I have another classical synthesizer album from the same year called Bachbusters. It’s on all digital synthesizers. It’s boring as hell. This one has way more personality.

But it never did reach the popularity of those other synths, sadly. This album came out in 1985, and PPG went belly-up just two years later. A lot of PPG systems still seem to be out there though, so if you dig the sound on this album head over to YouTube and you’ll find more examples of the sounds it can create.

I just realize that I’ve spent over 500 words going over the synthesizers used on this album but I haven’t even mentioned the man playing them! The man with a fantastic mustache and wonderful suit, exuding the confidence that only a man surrounded by thousands of dollars of digital equipment can.

That would be one Graziano Mandozzi, credited on the album as simply “Mandozzi” like he’s synth Prince or something. Ballsy move. I respect it. A Swiss composer, Mandozzi has a short, but insanely interesting discography that I hope to dig into more. He has an album called Masada that was recently released on vinyl and digitally via Bandcamp that is just insane. It’s some funk/jazz/experimental/psych rock monstrosity that was apparently the soundtrack to a ballet?! How anyone danced to it is beyond me. It’s rad as hell though. If you download this and like it, do the right thing and go buy that album to show support. Digital copies are cheap, and the vinyl comes with a download code.

I feel like I end all my posts recently in the same way, but I hope you all are doing well out there. Things are really scary right now, especially in the states. If you can, stay home, listen to stupid records like this and get drunk. That’s what I’ve been doing and it usually works for me.

Posted in Complete Albums, Mandozzi | 2 Comments »

Yumi Yato Yay!

July 12th, 2020

Yumi Yato
Makin’ It
Eat You Up
Follow Me
Cupid Girl
Cupid Girl (Rollercoaster Version)

Yumi Yato is one of those artists that I stumble upon, get really into, and then hit a brick wall when it comes to finding out damn near anything about them. I feel that it’s safe to assume that she wasn’t all that popular, but developed a cult following years later. I parsed this out by seeing that she has an extensive Japanese wikipedia page, and many audio rips on YouTube, but no normal person in Japan that I’ve talked to has any idea who the hell she is, and original copies of her sole album and few singles go for a fortune on Discogs.

That, and my boyfriend has never heard of her, and he knows his 80 idols.

I assume her albums go for a bit online because nothing of hers was in-print or available on CD until last year, when a 2CD set comprised of her album and all her single tracks was released here in Japan. That’s how I found her, picking up the CD on the strong recommendation of the guy at Mecano, the synthpop music store in Nakano Broadway.

He knew I loved synth and sampler-heavy 80s pop and figured I would dig this. He figured right. Because while her album is good, not great, but very good 80s Japanese pop music, the bonus single tracks are fucking fire. They have all the synths. Give me all the synths. I need more synths. It’s the only way I can feel anything anymore.

The album proper came out first, the bonus tracks are from singles that came out later. They have an energy and an inventiveness that the album itself lacks. And the songs are just better. They’re catchier with better hooks and stronger melodies. “Makin’ It” is a killer track. It sounds like a theme song to a lost 80s sitcom about “makin’ it” in the big city. Or maybe it could have been used as a track to a raunchy teen sex comedy about “makin’ it” in a much more carnal fashion. “Follow Me” follows (hah) in the footsteps of “Makin’ It,” and is just as frantic and frenetic as that tune. The tempo never stops and it never gives you a chance to rest. It’s hard to listen to either track while sitting down. I’m tapping my feet so hard that my downstairs neighbors are liable to kill me. Or maybe I’m just drunk and have too much energy from being pent up in the house all day/week/month/year WHO KNOWS?!?!

“Eat Me Up” is a bit slower, but also a bit more emotional and powerful. Of the tracks I’m sharing tonight, Yano’s vocals are the strongest here. If this isn’t a touch song it’s definitely a “I need that ass” song. Good synth/sequencer/samplers here. Sounds like Erasure.

It’s actually hard to compare these tracks to Western pop music of the era. These singles all came out in 1985 or 1986. I’ve recently been writing a lot about music from that same time. Very little of it sounds like this. In mid-80s America, we were down with Dire Straits, Duran Duran and Mr. Mister. The biggest synthpop song of the year was “Take On Me,” and let’s be real that was because of the video. We just weren’t the audience for stuff like this. We were still giving hit records to John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. We couldn’t take “Follow Me” and its layers upon layers upon layers of every computer, keyboard, and drum pad imaginable. England was giving The Art Of Noise hits in the 80s, maybe they would’ve been receptive to this stuff more.

Of these tracks, the only one that sounds like it could’ve been in a hit in America to me is “Cupid Girl.” It’s a little slower and a little more restrained. The synth keyboards are scaled back just a touch and it’s mostly just percussion and bass, a bit like a slower Madonna tune. And the melody has a melancholy feel that gives the song a slightly somber feel that’s definitely lacking on the other, hyper-energetic tracks. Of course, I have no idea how well if fared in Japan. Maybe it was her biggest hit! It’s a solid tune, but I prefer the “Rollercoaster Version” it takes the song and beats the fucking shit out of it. Sampled elements are chopped up and repeated, breakdowns are extended, some fucking record scratches thrown in for no damn reason. It’s crazy. It makes no sense. I love it.

Strangely enough, Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who brought us the game music remixes of my last post, worked on all of these tracks as well. I did not plan that. I swear. Cosmic synthpop powers are at work to make this coincidence happen. It makes sense though, his synth work on those tracks was top-notch, he would’ve had to have been an in-demand session guy at the time.

Also, he’s not the only game music connection on these tracks! All of Yumi’s songs were produced by Kyoji Kato, who went onto produce a lot of Yuzo Koshiro’s work, including the Streets Of Rage soundtracks!

Small world.

Or, more accurately, Japan is a small country with a small music industry.

Posted in Yumi Yato | 4 Comments »

Re-arranged Tecmo Tunes

July 1st, 2020

Yoshihiro Kunimoto
Star Soldier (Arrange Version)
Championship Road Runner (Arrange Version)
Super Star Force (Arrange Version)
Mighty Bomb Jack (Arrange Version)
I stumbled into a riches of vintage game music this week, thanks to a soundtrack sale at HMV, walking away with two rare game music vinyl records.

The first was the single for the theme to Star Soldier, a 1986 schmup by Hudson. This version of the Star Soldier theme is different than the arrange version (Japanese game music English for “remix”) that appeared on the Hudson Game Music LP. The version from that LP was great, this version is RAD AS HELL. It’s so good, seriously it’s so good! It’s great! It’s like the theme music to V meets the theme music to Dallas meets the theme music to Knight Rider meets Tron. It’s bombastic and big, with massive power chords rocking those keyboards 80s style. The drums got that gated reverb to the nines, and whoever was playing them was smacking the everloving shit out of them. And the bassline (SYNTH BASS YES MORE SYNTH BASS) grooves and just keeps the whole thing moving until it builds to a fantastic crescendo that then fades away for that dope as all hell keyboard melody’s encore performance. THOSE DRUMS ARE SO GOOD.

The b-side is another arrange version, this one for Championship Road Runner. It’s very weird. Again, it’s still all synthesizers but the mood is 100% different. It starts out as a music box lullaby. Eventually more sounds are added to it, giving a robust and big sound, but still more low-key and relaxed and the theme to Star Soldier. It reminds me of the underwater music in a Mario stage, kind of ethereal or dreamy. It’s not as much of a HARDCORE BANGER as the Star Soldier music, but it’s a solid take nonetheless.

The other release I picked up was the Tecmo Game Music album, which also came out in 1986. Like the single, it was a GMO release. As I’ve mentioned before, GMO (Game Music Organization) was a sub-label of Alfa Records, set up by members of Yellow Magic Orchestra for the sole purpose of releasing game music albums. Almost all of their early album releases are compilations dedicated to single game companies. There’s Nintendo Game Music, Taito Game Music, Data East Game Music, and so on. Games didn’t get album-length soundtrack releases back then, I assume because no game had enough music to fill an entire LP. It wasn’t until Dragon Quest that we had proper video game soundtracks.

Like most of the GMO releases of the time, most of Tecmo Game Music focuses on straight rips of game audio. Sometimes they even had sound effects put over them, so it was more like you hearing someone actually playing the game than a proper recording of the game’s music. It’s honestly a little annoying.

But two tracks of Tecmo Game Music were arrange versions. The last track on side A is the remix of the music to Super Star Force, a strange-looking shooter that seems to be half Xevious and half The Legend of Zelda. It’s a space-themed game, but instead of going the over-the-top route of the Star Soldier arranged version, this one starts by playing up the “spacey” aspects of the music with more of a Close Encounters vibe. Very mysterious sounding. Then it picks up and goes full-on Giorgio Moroder in Electric Dreams. I dig it. Great keyboard melody.

Of the bunch, the Mighty Bomb Jack arranged version is the most video gamey. It’s very focused on the melody and sound effects from the game, and at times goes too minimal in my opinion, barely sounding like an arranged version at all. But the second half of the track picks things up with some great, light, upbeat synthesizer melodies and its saved. This sounds like the soundtrack to a children’s cartoon or something. It’s so damn happy. I needed that.

All of these remixes were by Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who was GMO’s in-house arranger for most of the mid-80s. I think he did the arrange versions on all their early releases. I wish it was possible for GMO (or whoever owns them now) to do a compilation of all his work, he was really good at this stuff. I assume legal rights to all of the music by all of the companies would make that an impossibility though.

Stay home and stay safe with arranged video game music everyone. And if you have to venture into the horrible, terrible, no-good world, for the love of dog wear a motherfucking mask.

Posted in Game Music, remixes | No Comments »

Earth, Wind & Fire for an Earth on Fire

June 28th, 2020

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent this month. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’d had a bit of a rough one. It’s all Doug TenNapel’s fault (again).

You can read a summary of it on my other blog. And I have a few Twitter threads that continue to elaborate on it. Here, here, and also here. I’ve blocked approximately 100,000 people because of all of this, so if you see any death threats or homophobic content directed my way on Twitter, please report it. Thanks.

In the meantime, how about some fun happy songs for fun happy times, should they ever return again.

I hope all of you America are doing the best you can to stay safe, and ignoring the asshat ignoramuses who aren’t.

Earth, Wind and Fire
Let’s Groove (Restless Soul Inspiration Information Mix By Phil Asher)
Shining Star (DJ Jin Asakusa Samba Remix)
September (FPM Beautiful Latin Mix)
Boogie Wonderland (Inspiration ’83 Mix By Slowsupreme)

Not to bring things down again, but it was recently announced that the fantastic Shibuya Recofan store would be closing down soon.

This place has a great and diverse selection of LPs, but for me their selling point has always been their jaw-droppingly massive CD section. When we found out that they were closing, my friend and I spent over two hours just browsing their used CDs, and we still weren’t able to get through everything. I’m going to have to make a return trip soon.

They just have everything, both cheap and pricey, mainstream and obscure, import and domestic. You want an SHM-CD paper sleeve re-issue of Manfred Mann’s first album? They got it. Want the budget re-issue in a cracked jewel case for Â¥500? They got that too.

And every time I go there, I end up picking up something that I didn’t even know existed, like this strange Earth, Wind & Fire remix compilation. It’s called Soul Source, and from what I can gather it was only released on CD in Japan and Australia. It’s amazing, and I would have never even known that CD existed if it wasn’t for Recofan. Who knows what amazing, weird, and rare releases I’ll never discover after Recofan shutters for good. I shudder to think.

Oh yeah, this was supposed to be about happy times.

I’m sharing the biggest tracks on the album here. Let’s be real, you buy an Earth, Wind & Fire remix compilation to hear remixes of these four songs, anything else is a bonus. The rest of the album is pretty good, but these mixes blow the others out of the water, mostly because the original versions of these songs are all stone-cold all-time killer dance classics. We were lucky we got to live in a world that had 70s and early 80s Earth, Wind & Fire, I tell you what.

Of these four, my favorite is probably the remix of “Let’s Groove” by Phil Asher. Great acapella opening that transitions to a solid remix, even if it doesn’t change it from the original all that much. Let’s be real, it wasn’t broke, why try to fix it. The mix of “September” is interesting and brave, taking the original track and injecting it with a Latin style. I don’t know how well it fits together, and the original is of course the superior version, but it ain’t bad. “FPM” is Fantastic Plastic Machine, a dope as hell dance act from Japan that’s been making radical dance and club music since the late 90s. I recommend a lot of his work from the late 90s and early 2000s, but avoid all his YMO remixes, they’re atrocious.

I don’t know much about the other two remixers, but their mixes are great too. The “Shining Star” mix really changes the original instrumentation by adding what feels like mountains of percussion, but it doesn’t change the overall structure of the track, which is good. The “Boogie Wonderland” remix is way more electro than the original, with some good squelchy acid sounds put in. I could listen to squelchy acid sounds all day, so I approve.

Again, stay safe out there. If you’re looking for some content to absorb as you hopefully stay home more than usual, I have been updating my other blog, and not just with posts about has-been bigots. I’ve been doing a retrospective of MTV’s Top 100 of 1985. Check out part one here! I up to part four now and hope to get part five done this week!

 

Posted in Earth Wind and Fire, remixes | No Comments »

A song no one has ever heard sine 1981.

June 8th, 2020

Tonight, a stupid post about nothing with a song of no substance whatsoever. Writing is hard at the moment but I’m trying. Everyone take care out there. Donate to Black Lives Matter if you can. I’m sorry I’m not up for making a more detailed or impassioned statement in regards to the matter, but y’all know how I feel about this stuff already I would hope.

Take care of yourselves.

The Tong
Data
You ever hear middling 80s rock and think, “boy these guys sure sound like…” but you can’t finish the sentence because the act is so bland, so boring, and so forgettable that you can’t even place who they sound like?

Yeah, that’s The Tong. If you’re like me and dig through crates forgotten new wave groups, you’ve heard a billion acts like The Tong, but good luck trying to remember the names of any of them. They all sound the same, Mr. Mister divided by The Cutting Crew. New Wave minus the New. They sound like a bad version of The Tubes (someone from this group was also in The Tubes, so I guess that checks out).

To be honest, this group sounds like every third-rate Canadian new wave band my Canadian friend tries to get me into, but somehow worse and less reminiscent of Corey Hart.

So why the hell am I posting any music by them? Well, while The Tong were not a good band, and their sole album, Dangerous Games, is not a good album, but they managed to put out one very good track on it. It’s a very good track because it sounds nothing like anything else on the album. “Data” is a purely instrumental space disco number built entirely on keyboards and sequencers. It’s fantastic, the kind of instrumental electronic music I always want to hear but can never find enough of. I wonder how the hell that happened.

Mingo Lewis wrote/performed this. He was the member of the group who was in The Tubes. He was also in Santana. So, dude knew his stuff. Too bad he didn’t do more electronic music, if this track was any indication he certainly has a knack for it.

BONUS TRACK
Sheena And The Rokkets – Radio Junk
This song makes me happy. It was written by Yukihiro Takahashi of YMO and features additional members of YMO performing alongside Sheena and her wonderful Rokkets. It’s my goto good time jam for bad times and I hope you dig it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

ACAB

June 7th, 2020

Took a week off. Too angry.

Still too angry, but oh well.

Fuck all racists. Black Lives Matter.

Body Count – Cop Killer
I’ll post this whenever pigs kill someone and think they can get away with it. You know me. I always like the classics. Too bad Ice-T sold out and became a TV cop on copaganda bullshit TV.

By the way, if you want to contact me on Twitter for the next 12 hours don’t bother.

I was mean to a racist posting anti-black nonsense and got suspended.

The white nationalist who threatened to kill me still hasn’t been suspended by the way.

Fuck all racists. Black Lives Matter.

PS: racists who want to reply to this, don’t bother. This is my site motherfucker.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Tomita covering Elvis and such

May 27th, 2020

Japan has been lifting its state of emergency gradually over the past couple of weeks, as cases of the coronavirus here have declined. Last week, most record stores in Tokyo finally re-opened.

I’m still being cautious. I don’t want to take the train right now, so I’m not going to a lot of my absolute favorite stores, but I did make the quick walk to Shinjuku to check out the Disk Union stores around there.

The first thing that struck me was how deserted the area around the stores was. That part of Shinjuku is usually crowded. It’s right next to a major entrance, has dozens of restaurants, and several department stores. But walking traffic was down by about 75%, there just weren’t many people out. A lot of bigger stores are still closed, and people aren’t eating out as much, so that probably had a lot to do with it.

The Disk Union stores in Shinjuku are absolutely wonderful, but they’re all a little cramped. Social distancing in those stores is an impossibility. There were signs up that said they might limit the number of people allowed in at once if things got crowded. Additionally, masks were 100% mandatory, as was using the provided hand sanitizer whenever you entered a new floor. There were also plastic curtains up that separated the customers and the clerks. Any floor that had windows (not many) had them open. The first floor Union Record store I went to had their front doors open. They were also the most reorganized, doubling the amount of space in front of the registers to allow for greater distancing between people.

Are their solutions perfect? No way. As I said, the stores are small and cramped, there’s no way for them to become 100% safe. But they’re trying their best. In a perfect world they could stay closed even longer, but that’s just not realistic unfortunately. Given the circumstances, I think that their precautions will help. Masks aren’t perfect, but they can help. If everyone is wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer, and keeping as much distance as they can, I think that will greatly work to minimize and potential risk of infection. Also, most of the people who go to the record stores go alone and don’t talk much, that alone cuts down any infection risk.

I’m doing my part by not going to eight million stores a week. I would hate to be asymptomatic and carry the virus around to all my favorite record stores. Tower Records is open now (HURRAH!) but I’m going to wait until next week before I go (BOO!). Then I’ll wait another week before I go to Coconuts Disk. And then another before I check our Recofan again. As much as they would all appreciate my business right now, it’s better to be safe than sorry. And I’ll for sure make up for any lost purchases when I go to their stores, that’s for damn sure.

I bought some cool stuff this week at Disk Union, but I still have to physically clean and record those records. In the meantime, here’s another weird synthesizer record from the 1970s. Shocking, I know.

Isao Tomita – Switched On Rock (Complete Album Download)

Isao Tomita is one of the big three of early synthesizer music, right behind Wendy Carlos and Jean-Michel Jarre. His 1974 release, Snowflakes Are Dancing, which reworks compositions by Claude Debussy, was revolutionary when it came out. It charted on the American Billboard charts and even netted Tomita a few Grammy nominations.

But it wasn’t his first album. This was. Released in 1972, Switched On Rock is another in a seemingly endless line of synthesizer covers albums that flooded record stores after the runaway success of Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach.

Like most Switched-On Bach copies, Switched-On Rock lacks the complexity and craft of Carlos’ original work. Carlos went through the hassle of recording layers upon layers of synthesizer melodies to build incredibly complex and detailed recreations of Bach’s original compositions. Synthesizers of the time were not polyphonic, so if you wanted a rich, full sound that meant lots of overdubbing.

Tomita didn’t go that route. He instead kept things simple. There’s some polyphonic work going on here, but not nearly at the level that’s found on Carlos’ record. Also, it’s not an entirely electronic album, with acoustic drums showing up on most tracks. Tomita also played it safe with track selection. As the title suggests, Tomita covers rock tunes here, not classical works. Rock songs, especially the rock songs he chose, are a hell of a lot easier to re-arrange for synthesizer than Bach or DeBussey, that’s for sure. They’re all little more than a basic melody and a backbeat. Lots of Beatles covers, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis and other oldies.

That’s not to say that the album is boring or bland. Far from it. What Tomita lacks for in complexity here, he more than makes up for with weirdness. I’m not good with technical terms, so I don’t know what effects Tomita was applying here, I just know that it sounds weird. His synthesizers sound drunk, with the sounds often having a strange wobbling or bouncing effect added to them. And everything is put through an echo, giving it all a etheral dreamlike quality.

The album had a limited release. It came out in Japan first, and then was later released in the UK. There, Tomita was billed as “Electric Samurai” because Orientalism sells. It never got a release in the states and from what I can find online, there’s never been an official release on CD either, making it one of the rarest releases in the Tomita catalog.

Like all Moog albums, transferring the vinyl recording in a way that created a clean digital copy was not easy. Early synthesizers create harsh, abrasive sounds. Most audio cleaning programs pick those waveforms up as pops or cracks and they try to remove them. I could only do a very light pass on the lowest settings to remove the more drastic scratches. Then I went through again manually and removed more, before also scrubbing a bit of the background surface noise that’s found on all vinyl recordings. I think it sounds good, but if you hear a few mistakes or odd blips here and there, that’s why.

Listen to moog music and wear a mask. It’s the right thing to do.

Posted in Complete Albums, Tomita | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »