These Daft Punk Remixes are Neither Hot nor New

March 11th, 2013

I think I’m honestly starting to make some headway on my other, oft-delayed website. I should have some updates soon. Moving everything off of Nearly Free Speech (scam server site) took a lot of time and set everything back. Now that things are back on track I should be able to get that going sooner rather than later. My goal is to launch by April. Let’s see how that works out. Here’s hoping.

Primal Scream
When Thy Kingdom Comes
Okay, I own five Primal Scream singles and no Primal Scream albums. It’s time for me to jump in! Recommend an album I should start with: GO!

Oh, and this is a B-side from the “Accelerator” 12″ single, in case you were wondering.

Renegade Soundwave
Cocaine Sex (Sub-Aqua Overdrive Dub)
Cocaine Sex (Turbo Lust Mix)
People (mainly British) seem to dig it when I post Renegade Soundwave tracks. These are for them, not for me. While I’ve just recently discovered RS, and loved most of what I’ve heard, I fucking hate this song. It’s, quite frankly, kind of gross, and not good enough to earn it in my opinion. But hey, if you love it, go at it and enjoy!

Daft Punk
Prime Time Of Your Life (Para One Remix)
The Brainwasher (Erol Alkan’s Horrohouse Dub)
It seems that everyone is going crazy for new Daft Punk. The hype is reaching such ludicrous levels that the group even put out a 15 second ad that aired during SNL a couple weeks ago. That’s insane! How the hell did Daft Punk’s next album suddenly become the most anticipated record in all of music? Was it just because of a process of elimination? Did the music press have to find a new “OMG where is it?” release after My Bloody Valentine and Godspeed! You Black Emperor finally released new records (and after everything supposedly associated with Dr. Dre’s long-delayed Detox has sucked)?

I just don’t get it. These are the same people who were underwhelmed by the group’s soundtrack to Tron Legacy; the same circle of critics and hipster assholes who dismissed Human After All completely because it had the gall to be an electronic dance album and not another dance/pop hybrid like Homework. Where did this idolization come from?

Maybe its an ‘absence makes the critic get softer’ thing, it’s been years since Human After All, and even the most harsh critic of Tron Legacy could write off that supposed misstep as it being a soundtrack to a mainstream Disney film, and therefore somewhat forgivable for not meeting their lofty standards. Perhaps all these critics, in Daft Punk’s extended hiatus, have made the group out to be something they aren’t, a savior of the bigger-than-ever/shallower-than-ever electronic dance music scene, a group that might bring a resurgence in “Intelligent Dance Music” or “electronica” style dance music of the mid-90s. Now I almost want Daft Punk’s album to be a disappointment (for those looking for another crossover record anyways) just so I can see all those jerks get all bummed out.

But  whatever. I’m just stoked for more Daft Punk. Wet your appetite with these remixes from a 12″ single.

Posted in B-sides, Daft Punk, Primal Scream, remixes, Renegade Soundwave | 11 Comments »

Hot Ash

March 7th, 2013

I just bought tickets for seven different shows between March 20th and June 16th. I should really start buying earplugs by the gross.

Ash
Girl From Mars (Live in Tokyo)
Girl From Mars (Live from the Numbskull EP)
Girl From Mars (Live from the Twilight Of The Innocents Bonus Disc)
I really need to update my sources of music news. Not only was I not aware that Ash recently released an amazing 3LP edition of their excellent A-Z Singles series (it comes complete with a digital download that includes a shitton of extra tracks, you should buy it). But I also was not aware that they were touring the states! Even worse, I had no idea that they were coming to my own backyard of Pittsburgh, PA! Shit! Thankfully I found out in time and now I have tickets, but damn, how the hell did this one nearly sneak past me. I must be slipping in my old age.

I fucking love Ash. They’re my favorite band of the britpop era (yes, I know they’re from Northern Ireland, but you know what I mean). 1977 is a great record. Amazing. A must own in my opinion, and everything they’ve done since has been great too. I actually think that their best work has been their most recent, the aforementioned A-Z Series. You should seriously buy that. For real. Go buy it. It’s great.

In the meantime, here are three versions of “Girl From Mars,” taken from different hard-to-find singles, bonus discs and DVDs.

Quick sidenote about Ash. While I do love them, as a person with an s/sh speech impediment, I find their name endlessly frustrating.

Spiritualized
Come Together
Broken Heart
Broken Heart (Instrumental)
HEY EVERYONE LET’S GO DO ACID.

Ahem, these versions are from The Abbey Road EP, and are different than the versions that appeared on Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.

OH GOD IT’S KICKING IN I CAN SEE NEW COLORS.

Posted in Ash, B-sides, live, Spiritualized | 2 Comments »

On The Verve of Greatness

March 6th, 2013

Drowning my snow sorrows with britpop.

verve

The Verve
Lord I Guess I’ll Never Know
Country Song
Three Steps
The Drugs Don’t Work (Demo)
The Crab
Never Wanna See You Cry
MSG
The Longest Day
Stamped
The Verve were a great band who never got their due here in the states, relegated to a status that could best be described as greater than a one-hit wonder but below a critically-acclaimed cult act (kind of between Elastica and The Stone Roses, if we’re going to stick to 90s britpop bands as a means of comparison). I was never a giant fan of the group, but goddamn Urban Hymns is a great record, one that has fared better with age than many other britpop albums from the time. It’s not surprising then that the b-sides and rarities from that era hold up just as well.

I got all of these tracks from a 4×12″ single box set that I picked up in Japan. As you can see from the image above, the box for the set is sadly bland, just being a cardboard sleeve with black text, but the contents more than make up for the lack of visual flair. All of these b-sides are great amazing tracks that could have easily been album cuts. In fact, I bet that many of these tracks were only cut from the album proper because they were so long. “Country Song,” “MSG” and “The Longest Day are all over seven minutes each, and with Urban Hymns already a long ass record (over 75 minutes) they literally couldn’t have fit on the record without making it a 2CD beast, which I think would have been overkill.

So when I think of it like that, I guess it makes sense that these tracks didn’t make the cut. What doesn’t make sense to me, however, is that nearly all of them have yet to see a proper re-release. The Verve only have one official B-sides compilation, 1994’s No Come Down, which came out before Urban Hymns and only featured outtakes from their first two albums. So Urban Hymns-era rarities have never really seen the light of day. The closest they’ve come in the states is on an odd digital-only release that you can find on Amazon called Deep Cuts. Some of the tracks on Deep Cuts were also on this box set, and I’m not including those here tonight. I do recommend you check that mini-release out though, if for nothing else than the track “So Sister” which is easily one of the group’s best b-sides.

Hope you dig on these, if I have time I’m planning another britpop-centric post later this week.

 

Posted in B-sides | No Comments »

What Have You Done To Deserve These Remixes?

March 4th, 2013

I have written so much about these three artists that I literally have nothing else to day about them other than that I think they’re rad and that these remixes are equally rad so you should download them.

Pet Shop Boys
Rent (The Francois Kervorkian Remix)
What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Dub Mix)
First of all, the official title of the 12″ single that I got this from is “What Have I Done To Deserve This/Rent.” I totally read that as “What have I done to deserve this rent?” which is something I often thought before I bought a house. Now you can just replace the word “rent” with “mortgage” and really nothing has changed.

Okay, now for some comments on the actual music. The “Francois Kevorkian Remix” of “Rent” is in my opinion the definitive version of the song. Kevorkian transforms the once brief three-minute pop number into a seven-minute epic, but he adds relatively little to the song’s already sparse sound. He just stretches it out with some added breakdowns and instrumentals, and that somehow makes the already sad tale of a loveless relationship even more heart-wrenching. Amazing work.

Kevorkian is a legendary remixer by the way. That awesome mix I put up of “Lips Like Sugar?” That was him. I’ve also shared his mixes of Depeche Mode, Erasure and Gus Gus songs. Dude is prolific.

Madonna
Sorry (PSB Maxi-Mix)
Sorry (Paul Oakenfold Remix)
Sorry (Green Velvet Extended Remix)
What It Feels Like For A Girl (Above And Beyond 12″ Club)
What It Feels Like For A Girl (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix)
Some of these mixes are on Amazon/iTunes, but they’re “remix edits” and not the full uncut versions. Because someone is stupid and didn’t realize that if a fan is going to shell out $5 for a remix EP then they probably want the full uncut versions and not shortened edits. Isn’t that why people listen to remixes in the first place?

Anyways, in case you can’t figure it out, the PSB in “PSB Maxi-Mix” is Pet Shop Boys, so I got some nice accidental consistency with tonight’s post (aside from the typical “songs you’d hear in the best gay club ever” consistency that I have whenever I post dance music). Also, the best mix of this bunch is the “Green Velvet Extended Remix” because it basically takes “Sorry” and transforms it into a 90s acid house track. That’s the kind of shit I can get behind.

Erasure
Who Needs Love Like That (Mexican Mix)
Push Me Shove Me (Tacos Mix)
Love a 12″ single that has remixes with themed titles. Of course, there is nothing Mexican, mariachi, salsa, or otherwise Latino about these mixes. The “Mexican Mix” of “Who Needs Love Like That” is just an extended mix with some very slight alterations, and the “Tacos Mix” of “Push Me Shove Me” is…well…to be honest I don’t know how it’s different because I’m a bad Erasure fan and I don’t own Wonderland. I own 46 Erasure singles, but only half of their proper albums. Sometimes I’m weird.

Posted in Erasure, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, remixes | 4 Comments »

Punch The Monkey! Lupin The 3rd Remixes, Part 2!

February 28th, 2013

More Lupin remixes! I hope someone likes these. I feel like I’m going super specific here.

These are all taken from Punch That Monkey 2! The second of a three-part series that came out in 1999 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Lupin The 3rd, the popular anime/manga series. I wrote about the series already, so I’m just going to cut to the chase this time.

And in case anyone was wondering, the albums are called Punch The Monkey because the creator of Lupin goes by the pen name of Monkey Punch.

I have no idea why.

Yuji Ohno
Lupin The 3rd ’78 (Afro Rock Theme~Douchatta No Lupin Mix)
Yuji Ohno was the composer for the second Lupin series, which first aired on Japanese television in 1977. He also did the music for the Miyazaki-directed Lupin film The Castle of Cagliostro, an excellent animated flick if there ever was one. This remix is by Yoshihiro Sawasaki, who has been releasing music in Japan since 1994, either under his own name or under various others, my favorite being Doctor YS & The Cosmic Drunkards. His music seems to run the gamut from acid breaks to minimal to straight-up dance, and everything I’ve heard I’ve dug. I really have to start getting into more Japanese electronic music…

Kazuya Senka/Yuji Ohno
Theme From Lupin The 3rd~Theme From Lupin “E” (Vocal Version)
A full vocal mix of the original theme music, with some light jazzy instrumental instrumentation thrown in for good measure. Nearly all the guitars are removed, and replaced with some incredibly laid-back keyboard work. I have no idea who Kazuya Senka is, so if anyone wants to fill me in, please do.

This remix is by ECD, a hip-hop act who I believe is Yoshinori Ishida, or Ishida with another person. Judging from the quantity of stuff he has on YouTube, it would appear he’s still going strong, and has quite the following. also Japanese hip-hop is crazy.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Lupin The 3rd ’78
Great name for a band, and very accurate, as they are massive ska group with over 10 members. These guys have been around for over 20 years now, and continue to release new music. If their Wikipedia is any indication, they also tend to go through members like Def Leppard and Lynyrd skynyrd combined, unfortunately.

Takeo Yamashita
Theme From Lupin The 3rd II (Readymade All That Jazz Mix)
Theme From Lupin The 3rd 3
Theme From Lupin The 3rd (Akakage’s Happy Set)
Takeo Yamashita was a composer of various live-action and anime shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He composed the original Lupin The 3rd theme song for the original series, and he also wrote the music for Giant Robo, the live-action version of the series that Americans know as Gigangtor. (He didn’t, however, write the awesome Gigantor song.)

All three of these remixes are by different people. The first is by Yasuharu Konishi of Pizzacato Five fame (he contributed a mix to the other Lupin compilation I put up). It’s crazy, and I love every minute of it, even if it barely resembles the original song.

The second track has no remix name, but it is indeed a remix, and was done by someone from the Japanese group Polysics. They’ve been described by others a Japanese Devo, and that’s pretty accurate. So, imagine the Lupin theme remixed by Devo, that’s what this sounds like. In other words, it sounds pretty rad. It actually sounds strikingly similar to Devo’s cover of “Working In A Coal Mine” in some parts, I don’t know if that was intentional or not. I hope it was.

The last mix is by an act called Akakage. According to Discogs, it used to be a duo, but most of their later stuff was credited only to a single person; Yoichiro Ito. From what I’ve heard of him, he really really likes Fatboy Slim. But hey, I really really like Fatboy Slim, so I’m not going to knock him for it.

Yoshihiko Katori Jazz Orchestra
Lupin The 3rd ’78 Theme (Melting Version)
I have no idea who these people are. Sorry.

Kanaho Maki/Yuji Ohno
Love Squall (Pansasa Love Anthem Mix)
Love Squall -M&M Bossa Bass Space
I know nothing about Kanaho Maki, tried my best, couldn’t find anything. Ditto for Pandart Sasanooha,  who is credited  for the “Pansasa Love Anthem Mix.”

The second mix is by Monday Michiru, an artist I had actually heard of before buying this compilation. Her music goes all over the place, from jazz and electronic to R&B and pop. Apparently she’s a big deal in Japan. As you might have been able to guess from the remix title, this mix has a strong bassa nova vibe to it.

The Ventures
Lupin The 3rd ’78
Yes, The Ventures. Yes, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, best-selling instrumental rock group of all time Ventures. How did this happen?

Well, apparently The Ventures are HUGE in Japan. Seriously, at their peak popularity in Japan they allegedly outsold The Beatles. I honestly think the phrase “big in Japan” was created in part because of their massive success there. Shit, they should totally cover that Alphaville song. This is a straight-up cover of the original theme, no remixing, no electronic add-ons, and no vocals (it is The Ventures after all). It’s really, really good. They should have totally rocked this at the Rock And Roll Hallf Of Fame induction concert and blown everyone’s mind.

 

Posted in Anime, Complete Albums, remixes, soundtrack | 2 Comments »

Prince’s Madhouse is full of Bunnymen

February 26th, 2013

I finally got all the records from Japan and China cleaned and I’m intent on plowing through them as fast as possible. If I listen to as many as possible for seven days a week, I think I might be done by 2014.

Did I mention I bought a lot of records in Japan?

Ironically, none of tonight’s music is from those records.

Madhouse
6
6 (End Of The World Mix)
6 and 1/2
I’ve written about Prince “associate” acts before. A while ago I did a quick post about The Family, a band that was pretty much just Prince save for a different vocalist (and even that’s debatable). Then a few months ago I posted a tune by Mazarati, a band that was more independent than other Prince associates, but was still heavily guided and controlled by The Purple One.

Madhouse is another Prince associate act, albeit not as well known as those groups or others like The Time. That’s probably because while those acts were just extensions of Prince’s already successful funk/pop sound, Madhouse was an entirely instrumental jazz act with some funk influences. That’s not the kind of act that sells records.

Madhouse released just two albums, both of which came out in 1987. The first, called 8, was pretty much nothing but Prince, with longtime Prince collaborator Eric Leeds contributing some sax and flute parts. The second album, called 16, was more of a group effort, and featured Shelia E on drums and another longtime Prince associate, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass.

Apparently there were at least two other Madhouse albums recorded, both called 24, but neither have ever seen the light of day (a common story when discussing Prince). Bootlegs are out there though, for those who are interested.

(By the way, all of this is “alleged” I have found no proof documenting any of this, and all the articles I can find online about Madhouse are completely without credible citation.)

I’m going to be honest, I bought this 12″ single just because I knew it was Prince. I really have no interest in jazz fusion, and while I like these tracks, especially the remix, nothing on here really changed my mind. It’s a catchy tune, with an obvious Prince/funk edge, but I’d be lying if I found it especially memorable. Still, I think this kind of thing, a top-secret song by a super-famous artist, is fascinating, and it’s worth hearing once if for that reason alone.

Echo And The Bunnymen
Lips Like Sugar (12″ Mix)
Lips Like Sugar (Dub Version)
I think that “Lips Like Sugar” is Echo And The Bunnymen’s best song. A lot of people disagree with me, but a lot of people can go to hell. I could dance to this song till my feet fell off, and I’m a sucker for a good new wave love ballad. So you all can take your “The Cutter” and “The Killing Moon” suggestions and cram it. Yes, they’re great songs, but they’ll never hold a candle to this one for me.

The 12″ Mix is nearly seven-minutes long, and since we’ve already established that I could listen to this song all day and all night, I’m a fan of this extended mix. Shit, I wish it was even longer. The dub mix is a dub mix, and I’m including it for the sake of being a completionist.

The 12″ single from which I took these songs had two additional tracks. One was the single mix of the song, and the other was the b-side “Rollercoaster.” Both of these are available on the still in-print Echo box set Crystal Days, and I highly recommend you pick that up. Not only for those tracks (“Rollercoaster” is the secret best Echo And The Bunnymen track!) but for additional great rarities, including a haunting nine-minute version of “The Killing Moon” (woot!) and an awesome live cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Heroin.”

Posted in B-sides, Echo and the Bunnymen, Prince, remixes | 2 Comments »

Video game music plagiarism, Kraftwerk and Brian Eno

February 21st, 2013

Okay, am I insane, or does part of the  music in this game sound totally like Shelia E’s “Glamorous Life”?

The shit you find working at a used game store…

Kraftwerk
Radioactivity (Francois Kevorkian Remix)
Radioactivity (William Orbit Hardcore Mix)
Radioactivity (William Orbit Remix)
My Kraftwerk obsession is getting dangerous. Earlier this year I paid the most I ever paid for a record when I snagged a copy of their entirely out-of-print third album (which I’m going to write about on the new site…which is coming I promise). Then when I went to Japan I paid far too much for a Japanese pressing of The Man Machine, as well as some 12″ singles of “Expo 2000.” Then just last week I bought the German editions of The Man Machine and Computer World, which has led me on a journey to buy the German pressings of Radio-Activity and Trans Europe Express as well.

I already own The Catalog box set that came out a few years ago, but I’m always nervous that I’m going to cave and buy Der Katalog, the same box set but with the German editions of the albums. Even worse, someone has the black box copy of it on Discogs right now! It’s crazy expensive! There’s nothing different about it aside from the fact that the box is black! But I want it! Someone slap some sense into me!

So yeah…I like Kraftwerk. These are some pretty great remixes that I found from a 12″ single that I picked up a few weeks back. The hardcore mix is shockingly hardcore, and pretty rad.

Brian Eno
Fractal Zoom (Up River Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Naive Mix II)
Fractal Zoom (Separate Time Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Mary’s Birthday Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Small Country Mix)
Fractal Zoom (A Cappella)
This is a Brian Eno song, but I don’t really have much to say about Brian Eno. Instead, I want to talk about Robert Fripp. He plays guitar on this this track as well as several other songs on Nerve Net, the album from which the original version of this song is from.

I’m a latecomer to the wonderful world of Robert Fripp, having only recently got into King Crimson and the more ambient experimental work that he did with Eno back in the 70s. However, after looking into the diverse discography of Fripp, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I’m a latecomer to being consciously aware of Robert Fripp. I’ve been unknowingly listening to his guitar work for most of my life.

While what I’m going to say probably isn’t a shock to most fans of the guitarist, it was a shock to me: Robert Fripp, is like, everywhere. Own one of Peter Gabriel’s early solo records? Fripp is probably on that. How about Bowie’s Heroes or Scary Monsters? Fripp plays on those. Like The Talking Heads or Blondie? So did Fripp, he turns up on some of their records. He’s been married to Toyah Wilcox forever, so you can bet he shows up on her albums from time to time. He dropped in on The Future Sound Of London’s ISDN; he’s on a live Stranglers record; he’s done some stuff with David Sylvian of Japan; and he’s worked with electronic artists like The Orb. Shit, the dude even co-wrote and produced some tracks on a fucking Daryl Hall album. And guess what? It’s a really good record!

Robert Fripp is the Kevin Bacon of guitarists. He’s everywhere and has worked with such a bizarre variety of musicians, that I bet you could tie anyone to him in six steps or less. For example, through this song along you can tie him not only to Brian Eno (who himself has worked with a billion or so different artists), but Moby as well, since he’s credited for most of these remixes. Between those two alone you can probably connect Fripp to nearly every popular artist from the last 30 or so years. And that’s just from one song.

Now, it would be really impressive if someone could tie Robert Fripp to Kevin Bacon’s band The Bacon Brothers in six steps or less. Anyone up for that challenge?

Posted in Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, remixes | 13 Comments »

They Might Be Sakamoto

February 19th, 2013

I finally went through and cleaned the rest of the records I bought when I was in Tokyo, as well as everything that wasn’t cleaned before I went…as well as the stuff I’ve bought since I returned to the states.

It took me four hours.

Seriously. I was able to watch the first two Fast & Furious films in the time it took me to clean all the damn things.

So, yeah, I guess I really did buy a lot of records when I was in Asia. So many records! They’re surrounding me! I feel like a hoarder, except, y’know, not as insane or on TLC.

The prospect of listening to/recording all of them would overwhelm me if I wasn’t looking forward to it so much. Although to be honest, now that I see my pile of Japanese anime soundtracks next to my turntable, I’m starting to question the level of restraint (or lack there of) that I had while in Japan. Oh well! I bought those Gundam soundtracks and dammit I’m going to listen to them! I might even share them with you all.

Also, look forward to Kraftwerk. Holy shit. So much Kraftwerk. And Leftfield, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Primal Scream, Erasure…you know what? I’m just going to stop now. I want to leave some surprises. I’ll just say that I think I got the next few months, if not year, of The Lost Turntable covered now, and it’s going to be full of some really amazing shit.

Speaking of amazing shit. Yo, check this shit out.

001

Ryuichi Sakamoto (with Thomas Dolby)
Field Work (London Mix)
Field Work (Tokyo Mix)
Exhibition
I’ve begun to slowly dig into the Sakamoto back catalog. Right now I want all of it, but I suppose that’ll stop once after I accidentally buy one of his classical or more jazz-influenced records. I’m sure all that stuff is excellent for what it is, but I’ll pass.

As for these tracks, they are from a 12″ single. The original version of “Field Work” first appeared on the Western version of Sakamoto’s 1986 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia (an abridged and re-edited version of a Japanese only release that first came out in 1984). Dolby fans, however, probably didn’t discover the track until the 2009 re-release of his 1984 album The Flat Earth, which also included soundtrack rarities “Don’t Turn Away” and “The Devil Is An Englishman.”

The version of “Field Work” on The Flat Earth re-issue is labeled as the “London Mix” but it is actually an abridged version of that mix. The proper version runs at about six minutes in length, while the version on the album is only four minutes long. The Tokyo Mix, as far as I can tell, has never been released on CD in any form, and that’s a real shame because I think its the better of the two mixes.

Also rare to my knowledge is “Exhibition.” Dolby is nowhere to be found on this track, and its certainly not a radio-friendly pop number. Instead it’s a 15 minute ambient soundscape with no beats, no melody and no motifs outside of a constant, looping set of beeps and bloops. It’s kind of like something you might find on The KLF’s White Room album, or maybe on an Orb b-side. Not for everyone, but I find it relaxing and oddly enough, a great track to write to. I’ve certainly heard worse Sakamoto, I bought his disco album. It’s…something.

They Might Be Giants
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Brownsville Mix)
Stormy Pinkness
Chalk up TMBG as another band who seemed to be doing their damnedest to make sure their fans have easy access to all of their b-sides and other rarities. Like I said before, I wish all bands would do that, even if it makes my job of finding out-of-print and hard-to-find stuff all the more difficult.

Still, it looks like at least a couple of b-sides slipped through the band’s re-releasing machine. I found these two oddities on the 12″ single for “Istanbul (Not Constantiople),” which also had “James K. Polk” and “Ant,” two songs that have made their ways onto proper TMBG releases.

The remix of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” is one of the strangest TMBG compositions I’ve ever heard, and if you know anything about the group, that’s really saying something.. The TMBG wiki states that it contains a sample of Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” as well as an unidentified Janet Jackson sample. I couldn’t make that out, but I wouldn’t doubt it. The vocal samples at the beginning of the track are even weirder. What the hell is a white tornado?

“Stormy Pinkness” is weird, but it’s also pretty short (about a minute) and there’s not much to it. So I really don’t have anything to say about that one. I’m glad I found it though.

Posted in B-sides, remixes, Ryuichi Sakamoto, They Might Be Giants, Thomas Dolby | 14 Comments »

Punch The Monkey! Lupin The 3rd Remixes, Part 1

February 14th, 2013

Now for some real Japanese stuff.

022

It seems to me that most anime/manga is fleeting. Many shows and books have intentionally short runs and are more like mini-series than full-fledged shows. But when a show or book takes off in Japan, it really takes off. Titles like Gundam, Macross, Dragonball, those aren’t just TV shows or comic books in Japan, they’re freaking institutions, multi-generational cultural milestones that seem to go on forever and ever.

While I find the enduring popularity of those series to be utterly fascinating, I can never seem to get into them myself.  Gundam and Macross are too complicated and self-serious for me to enjoy, while series like Naruto, Dragonball and One-Piece are about as aesthetically and thematically pleasing to me as an 18th century Russian novel or an British soap opera. There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just not my thing.

The only long-running Japanese series that I have ever been able to get into at all is Lupin The 3rd, which started as a comic in 1967 before branching out into a TV series in 1971 and even a film series starting in 1978. That’s a lot of Lupin, and while my overall exposure to the the various forms of Lupin-related media have been relatively slim in comparison, I’ve loved just about everything I’ve been able to get my hands on.

I think the main reason that I like Lupin more than those other series is that it’s relatively self-contained. You can pop in any Lupin movie or TV series and figure out the basic gist within minutes, and as a whole it’s pretty light entertainment. While I’m sure Lupin has had his serious moments of the years, most of what I’ve seen has been incredibly easy-going and wacky, just the kind of thing I want to watch when I feel the need to escape for a bit. I also love the style of the series, and how its managed to maintain its 1960s aesthetic in one way or another to this day. (Of course, given my limited exposure to Lupin as a whole, I could just be talking out of my ass, but this is what I’ve noticed from the stuff I’ve seen.)

And it’s music is really dope. In the pantheon of anime soundtracks, the Lupin The 3rd main theme takes my second place spot as greatest of all time, right behind the jazzy perfection of Cowboy Bebop. Just like the series itself, I love its retro style, and how it’s managed to evolve over time to incorporate more modern musical movements. It’s a blast to listen to, and apparently I’m not the only person who thinks so, because holy shit there are a ton of remix compilations of the Lupin The 3rd theme music in Japan. I bought a couple of them (as well as some other Lupin-related vinyl) and I’ll be sharing them over the course of the next few days.

Up tonight are the tracks from the 1998 2LP set Punch The Monkey! Lupin The 3rd; The 30th Anniversary Remixes. I was going to do an artist by artist breakdown of the compilation, but I can hardly find anything about any of the people who worked on this record. When I do, it’s typically in Japanese, so that’s not much of a help. The record does have one name I recognize though, and that’s Yasuharu Konishi; the founder of Readymade Records and original member of Pizzicato Five, one of the only Japanese acts ever to make any kind of headway in the American music scene. His remix is pretty great, but then again, nearly all of these remixes are great. But if I had to pick a favorite, I would probably choose Escalator Team’s “Club Escape Mix” of the ’78 Theme, if for only its completely random sample from Mortal Kombat. How the hell did that happen?

Toshio Matsuura
Lupin The 3rd ’78 Theme From Lupin III (Walther P99 Mix)

Masanori Ikeda
Lupin The 3rd ’80 Theme From Lupin III (Latin Calcutta Mix)

Comoesta Yaegashi
Afro Rock Theme (Afro Rock Mix)

Escalator Team
Lupin The 3rd ’78 Theme From Lupin III (Club Escape Mix)

Fuzita Blender
Funny Walk In Old Fashion (Mori No Blend Mix)

Fantastic Plastic Machine
Theme From Lupin The 3rd (F.P.M.’s Reconstruction Mix)

Yasuharu Konishi
Theme From Lupin The 3rd 3 (The Readymade Yangu Oh! Oh! Mix)

Fantastic Explosion
Toward The Patrol Line (You & Fantastic Explosion Mix)

Sunaga T Experience
Lupin The 3rd ’80 (Sunaga T Experience 9849 Mix)

Jun Sasaki
Love Squall (Fujiko’s Love Mix)

Izuru Utsumi
Theme From Lupin The 3rd II (Bossa ’98 Mix)

 

Posted in Anime, Complete Albums, remixes, soundtrack | 1 Comment »

Play Video Games Be Happy. Also, listen to rad remixes of awesome tunes.

February 11th, 2013

Do you live in the greater Pittsburgh area?

Do you like video games?

Do you ever wish there was a place where you could buy vintage and import games at affordable prices and play classic arcade games on giant 99″ projection screens?

Then I got the place for you, the Penn Hills Game Exchange, an awesome video game store/arcade in, duh, Penn Hills, PA.

It’s a new store that a couple of my friends just opened, and it’s totally rad. You should check it out. Tell them I sent you. That way when I come in they can reward me with free candy.

Now that I got the plugging out of the way, here’s an incredibly eclectic assortment of electronic music.

Boom Boom Satellites
Push Eject (Howie B Remix)
4 A Moment of Silence
4 A Moment of Silence (Trapezoid Mix by Jack Dangers for Meat Beat Manifesto)
I plan on writing something a bit more in-depth on Boom Boom Satellites sometime in the future. For now I’ll just say that they’re one of my favorite Japanese bands, and I’ve been somewhat of a fan of theirs ever since I saw them open for Moby in 1999. However, it’s not easy to be a fan of the Boom Boom Satellites if you live in America, as almost none of their albums have been given a physical release in the states, and a few aren’t even available on Amazon MP3 or iTunes. That’s why I went all out when I was in Japan and I bought every single Boom Boom Satellites album I could find, giving myself a complete discography of their studio albums; one of their live releases, and a CD single for “Broken Mirror” which was apparently in a Gundam soundtrack (yo, the Japanese love Gundam, for real).

But these remixes are from none of the albums or singles I bought in Japan. Nope, I got these off of a 12″ single that I bought right here in Pittsburgh. Funny how that works.

The Future Sound of London
Snake Hips
The Future Sound of London have done a hell of a job of making sure all their 12″ singles, remixes and other assorted oddities are in-print and easy to snag on various digital services. And good on them, it’s nice to see a band actually understand that if you make  music available, people might buy it. Makes finding a track for me to share a real pain in the ass though. I bought a few FSOL singles in Japan, and this extended mix of “Snake Hips” is the only one that I am sure isn’t on a CD or digital release that you can find in America. The album version from ISDN is about five minutes long, but this version taken from a 12″ single is about eight and a half minutes long. Not surprisingly, it’s still weird.

The Folk Implosion
Natural One (Unkle Mix)
Natural One (Unkle Instrumental)
As the 2000s progress, I find myself more and more often identifying certain pop culture artifacts from the 1990s as “90s as shit.” My Saturday Morning Cartoons covers compilation: that’s 90s as shit. Space Jam: incredibly 90s as shit. Anything with Seth Green where you watch it now and go “holy shit, Seth Green is in this?”: also 90s as shit.

This right here, a song by Lou Barlow from a controversial Miramax film (Kids, a vomit of a film if there ever was one) that was in turn remixed by Unkle, one of the greatest flash-in-the-pan acts of the decade, and a poster child for mid-90s “electronica,” is some real  “90s and shit” shit. It’s also some really good shit, so check them out.

Posted in B-sides, Boom Boom Satellites, Future Sound Of London, remixes, The Folk Implosion | 4 Comments »

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