Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

Only heard three or so Yapoos songs so far, all from youtube. Really wanted to get the first solo LP but that sold while I was dithering about finances, the third one has some of the most poppy stuff I've heard, but it's still kind of deranged. Been listening to Halmens quite a bit, which I love, but not sure how much she's actually in there.

Bear in mind that the first thing I heard from her was her absolutely mental cover of 'Casablanca Moon', too. Crazy woman, crazy talented.

yay togawa

missingno, thanks for akiko yano links. offhand do you know the name / album of the schubert song carl sampled for 'shing kee'? I've heard carl's piece countless times but never heard the original.

Here is the Togawa 3cd comp MNO mentioned above.

http://kiwi-dodo.blogspot.com/2011/01/jun-togawa.html

Yeah I'm not sure what to make of that Togawa disc so far; at first it kind of reminds me of the sort of sparse and personality-rich synthpop that say, Miharu Koshi does, but it changes so much from track to track that I'm not really sure what it's all about yet

I do have all the Yapoos albums though, she's definitely a weird one

Just to link everything together, she does appear on some of Hirasawa's early albums and AFAIK he wrote a few of the Yapoos tunes on Dadadaism that are done in a P-Model style

hey Milton, it's Schubert's "Der Lindenbaum" from Akiko Yano's 1986 album Brooch

http://www.sendspace.com/file/e30stc

btw here's the Carl Stone piece that samples Akiko Yano, for those who've never heard it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsQ4UdJ-Vww

might want to light one up first

thanks for the yano post, sir

the midpoint of carl's piece when it pivots into the second half of the sample, never get tired of that. and didn't know the yano sample came out the same year he wrote the piece -- man, he just got right to work on it

man, I am in love with that togawa "yumemiru yakusoku" track. incredibly catchy. looks like hosono produced too.

the whole album is all over the place but consistently high quality. one track sounds a bit like jon hassel! I think it's the one singled out in your write-up ("yokutou hanayome").

some cursory listens of yapoos material as well. VERY promising so far... :-o

phew is, weirdly, not really doing it for me. I've actually heard this one before due to the krautrock pedigree. basically like just about any krautrock record no matter how bad, so I'm not sure what my problem is. I'm going to hold off for now and re-visit.

also checked out the latest p-model album referenced above - Music Industrial Waste - P-MODEL or DIE. it's excellent.

definitely going on a hirasawa binge in the near future.

loved this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOPXyL5hqFE

and is that a sample 55 seconds in? sounds familiar.

carl stone track is brilliant too. thanks for that.

LOVE this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=933H611lAq8

that simple but super-dramatic synth melody reminds me hirasawa's stuff

that's no coincidence, Hirasawa appears on the last few Yapoos record AFAIK and even wrote a few of the songs

Don't know if there's any interest in this, but I thought I'd post this up since it's a very tough album to find and very well worth tracking down:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/2882f999b770065244191313a8bf2581/1186588.jpg

This is Harry Hosono's first soundtrack (if I recall correctly), for an animated movie called "Nokto de la Galaskia Fervojo", based on an old Japanese fable. I don't think the music here really got showcased, I've heard that this one got rejected in favor of a more "mainstream" soundtrack, or something like that. Anyway, if you've heard any of the four Monad albums that Hosono did around this time (1985), you'll know what to expect here. This is fairly minimal and chilling, not necessarily a downbeat soundtrack but it portrays feelings of loneliness and isolation very well. All the track names are in Esperanto. The whole thing is great but Track 14 ("La Travida Malgojo De Giovanni") is a stunning piano piece that's one of my favorite pieces by him. Miharu Koshi also appears ("La Gojo"). If you're a fan of his Monad period, this is a must have, as it beats all four of those albums in my opinion. If you have "The Endless Talking" you may find portions of this familiar.

click here

yeah, this is nice.

glad to have this thread back.

is there any interest in this thread yet? it's kinda been stagnant for a while and I'm debating just letting it die

no offense Alan but you can just message me on soulseek if you're looking for anything

I pop onto this thread every so often to have a listen to stuff, but don't have much more to contribute at the moment other than 'this is nice' about most things.

Not sure how much longer you'll have a choice about whether to let the thread die, so if you've got more goodies then bung 'em up here!

I could prob do a week if y'all think this is worth keeping up but I am still a dabbler and my picks will not be particularly "new wave."

if anyone's interested I did chuck up another SH album to megaupload to share with someone because I think it's really really good. it's called "Technique of Relief" and it's similar to "Sim City" but it has more of an "orchestral techno" feel. i don't have many words to describe it, just d/l it because it's such a neat album. i will point out that "Niwashi King" is really one of the best songs ever. could listen to that one for an hour on repeat.

http://www.mclub.com.ua/images/alb/cover17231_68788.jpg

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NPYP9WUO

played "the man from narcissus space" 3x in a row on my first listen. thanks for this.

WB frogbs

xp thats a great one but I like the next track "Stange Night of the Omnifiscience" even better. maybe the "biggest" song he's ever done

btw MaresNest - whatever happened to acoulethic?? I used to get you guys confused a lot but he seems to have fallen off the board lately

AN INTRODUCTION RO EARTHLING
----------------------------
Earthling's choice of name is as self-confident as their 
performance. The Japanese trio defines itself as a worldly 
representative, capable of creative exploration without
limits. The group calls their first album DANCE to express
the fullest flowers of rhytmic movement, attending to both
physical and spiritual needs.
Earthling consists of lead vocalist/guitarist John, his wife,
bass guitarist Yoko Fujiwara, and keyboard/sythesizer player
Jin Haijama. The group was formed in Tokyo one years ago
when John and Yoko, who had been fashion and textile designers,
felt the desire to give the music they'd written a more
permanent environment. They recruited Jim, who was working in
an amusement park, and evolved a musical form which pulsed with
a steady beat, yet was tempered by hypnotic vocal chanting. 
The electronic power that sustains DANCE is complemented by
Johns's introspective delivery, the natural result of his 
training as a Buddhist priest.
The sound of Earthling is dedicated to reinforceing the
subtle and sensitive connections which link modern music to
dance. While the group utilizes a rhythm-machine to epitomize
the sustained beat of their society's ordered technology,
the emotional vocal impact of songs like "Heavy Feeling in
My mind" and "The Guard of Sensitivity" add an urgent, street-
wise dimension to their precise instrumental presentation. 
Although Earthling are not fluent in English, the write in 
our language for its universality and appropiateness.
Earthling are sound pioneers, painting future dreams that
transcend the present day. They understand that the future 
cannot be easiliy classified, and that tomorrow is not simply
another today.
####
LP: Dance, King K28A-154 (japan)
45: "Slow Down the World" b/w "Urbanitrops" King EA-01 (Japan)

Toby Goldstein, 1981

stolen from
http://elcaunegre.blogspot.com/2011/04/earthling-dance-1981-king-records.html

XP - frogbs, he says hi from afar, I think he is maybe self banned at the moment.

that sucks, why'd he do that?

anyway, make him d/l that megaupload link above anyway

listening to the keiichi ohta (of guernica) solo album. I have actually never listened to guernica (tho they are on my list) but I'm enjoying this quite a bit. the synthesized classical arrangements with live piano mixed in are wonderful.

also feel like zeuhl prog fans could get into this. and I'm a huge magma and koenjihyakkei fan, so...

post it up!!

dig the cover too:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eUmHkK0XMpg/TTcFaF22PoI/AAAAAAAAC80/ROyHPBUN0U0/s1600/KEIICHIOHTAohtakeiichinojingaidaimaikyou.jpg

sure. I'll do it in a few hours when I'm by my computer.

yeah, i'd seen that cover before but never was able to track down the album

i can't speak for guernica's 2nd (and more popular album), but the 1st one is a real headtrip. kinda has a troutmask wtf vibe going throughout the whole thing. wild synths + togawa and a lot of intentional camp. you might like it.

sounds like I might.

this one is v. weird as well. all over the place and things can get a bit chaotic. but always in a playful way, there's no malice here. strangely, it's also a pretty mellow listen due to the sparse palette. mostly voice, synths, and piano.

hosono's on a track too.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5rtrq1g0huxvcmy

first song on this sounds a lot like the first Guernica album. this is all pretty strange. it almost reminds me of Zappa how the music follows the strange vocal arrangments (or is it the other way around?)

oh yeah , found the Hosono track quite easily

it almost reminds me of Zappa how the music follows the strange vocal arrangments (or is it the other way around?)

yeah, where I was coming from with the zeuhl comparison. loads of magma, ruins, etc. tunes do this. guess it all goes back to opera?

is there a thread out there for japanese jazz/funk/soul? late70s early80s stuff like tatsuro yamashita and such? kinda smooth steely dan-ish kinda stuff? i'm totally into this genre, but want to know more.

I've never heard of any of that stuff - I do have the Happy End album "Kaze Machi Roman" which has a neat folky vibe, I like that one a lot.

Alan - definitely check out some Guernica if you're into Zuehl stuff, they're not very noisy but melodically they're all over the place and pretty much anything Togawa sings on is going to be wild

here are a few. i'm too lazy to start a thread

tatsuro yamashita - solid slider

Tatsuro Yamashita - Dancer

yasuko agawa - la nights

yutaka yokokura - the rest of my life (favorite song of past few months)

kimiko kasai - butterfly (produced by herbie hancock i think)

dude. should this be revived

i scored a copy of Yukihiro Takahashi's Neuromantic last week for like $5 and have been playing it NONSTOP

Hai

Z S - you got Takahashi's other YMO-period solo albums? (Murdered by the Music and What, Me Worry are both maybe even better)

nope! yeah, i've always heard that Murdered by the Music is even better, so i'm really pumped to hear it. but i think i'm going to take my time with Neuromantic for a while before moving on. to me, it's just as enjoyable a listen as anything YMO put out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPeuROnWws

my sole contribution. singer has a david sylvian thing going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwZYjqch5gw

oh yeah, this too.

ohhh, z s just cited this above. good stuff.

whoa, the cover to that in the youtube video on the bottom looks way different than the copy i have, which looks like this:

http://991.com/NewGallery/Yukihiro-Takahashi-Neuromantic-523610.jpg