Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

my favorite japanese new wave song, talk back by logic system. first heard it in the late '90s and i still find it fresh today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXO5IIIhVy8

was thinking about uploading that album some day; that one's pretty good but I haven't really found any of the other Logic System albums worthwhile. he doesn't strike me as much of a composer...

so are you guys going to take over next week or should I keep going?

I'll do Monday.

i'll take the week after then, if that's cool

Does anyone have any early Maki Nomiya or Portable Rock? That YT upthread is great, would love to hear more, SLSK not yielding any results.

I actually don't have time to do this atm, but if someone else wants to go they're more than welcome. Sorry :\

that's ok; if anyone else wants to post something up go ahead
otherwise i'll maybe put something up

anyone doing next week?? or should I put a few more up?

until then, here's a song that's kind of taken over my life lately...I even had a dream about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oE903xV53E

uh yeah i was gonna do tomorrow but i have to pull out now, as soon as i get a home internet connection i'm back in

ok, here are a couple more:

Haruomi Hosono - Paraiso (1978)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WdV28slTW00/SsYG7zwzh4I/AAAAAAAAAFM/xLAJZTRHlpQ/s400/front.jpg

Not really "new wave" per se but still one of my very favorite albums. Hosono was the founding member of YMO and wound up quite famous as a composer of ambient and electronic music. However, before that, he was the bassist in a couple of rock bands (including Happy End) before taking an interest in tropical and exotica music. By 1978, he was starting to incorporate electronics into his work, most famously on Cochin Moon, released the same year. This is more song-based, and holy cow is it magical. It's catchy, relaxing, and otherworldly. Has the feel of a good exotica/folk album but the electronic textures make everything off-balance. And then you have Hosono's goofy vocals, which are charming (if not very good on a technical scale). Hey, I like his voice. Check out the cover of the Okinawan folk song "Asatoya Yunta", which almost sounds as though the vocals are sung backwards. Creepy, but in a good way. Lots of great music here.

click here to get it

Akiko Yano - Japanese Girl (1976)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WdV28slTW00/StJvfF833tI/AAAAAAAAAF8/jQGDQZk0dPk/s400/624daceb.jpg

You might recognize Yano's name from her husband of nearly two decades, Ryuichi Sakamoto (they have since split). She often played live with the group, especially in their 79-80 era, and they would sometimes perform a few of her songs ("Kang Tong Boy" is probably the one you've heard if you follow YMO). She's also a pretty prolific solo artist, regularly releasing solo albums since 1976. On this, her debut, she must have been a teenager when she wrote most of the songs. But it's a very enjoyable listen with some very memorable tunes and a lot of neat Japanese instrumentation. It was recorded in L.A. with members of Little Feat. The tune "Helicopter" in particular is stunning. Rolling Stone rated it the 26th best Japanese album of all time, whatever that means.

click here to get it

japanese girl is a stone classic, easily as good as anything YMO ever did. good picks

Love that Akiko record, iirc it has *all* of Little Feat as a backing band.

yeah I wasn't sure whether to put that or Gohan Ga Dekitayo up, as it has a lot more electronics and definitely is more of a New Wave album, but ultimately it lost out because it's so damn long...right now I only really have her early stuff, are the later albums worth getting?

Trying to catch up on this thread. Love this stuff so much.

XP - I have 'Honto No Kimoch' from 2004 which is pretty great, has elements of the first album sound I guess, haven't listened to it in a while, will revisit.

Later Akiko Yano albums are great! Highly recommended.

any in particular?? i'm trying to go chronologically but theres just sooo much of it

Try 'Honto No Kimochi', I'd be interested to see what you think.

i'm way behind on this thread but i just wanna say that i'm am completely and utterly in love with Sim City

yeah, sim city is so, so good. been spinning it a bunch.

you guys should check out the P-Model albums I posted a few weeks back then
definitely much more technopop oriented, but they're also really good.
later P-Model albums sound a lot like the solo ones, very epic and dense, maybe I'll put some of those up

I did, actually. sorry that I didn't comment. was a bit of a crazy work week and mostly listened while doing crazy work stuff. liked em tho!

that p-model youtube sounds pretty great. that's from the later era I'm assuming?

Yeah, it's from their last album. That tune hits me in a weird way - it's currently my ringtone and is always running through my head. It's the only real straightforward song on the entire album IIRC.

yeah, I dig the way this goofy keyboard riff anchors the whole thing but much of the rest of the track is almost arranged like a ballad.

japanese girl is quite nice btw.

The BGM thread kind of goes into the great later Akiko Yano's but "Gohan Ga Gekitayo" and "Ai Ga Nakucha Ne" are awesome and have more YMO interaction plus Sakamoto produced them ( I think).

Sorry - "Gohan Ga Dekitayo". And "Tadaima" is excellent, too. All very synthy and Akiko Yano at this time was the closest I've heard to someone reaching those sort of eccentric young woman with keyboards vibe that early Kate Bush mined.

my fav Akiko Yano album is Brooch, just minimal note perfect piano/voice arrangements of Schubert and Debussy and Stravinsky and stuff -- later sampled by Carl Stone on Mom's

check this shit out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0XJ-09ZYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixKpH17Zz9g

*heart emoticon*

couldn't watch the second video (embedding disabled?) but that first one is very nice! she definitely has quite an amazing voice. one of the first times I heard her was on the song "Radio Silence" by Thomas Dolby...even now I question why anyone would want to use her as a background singer. I do have a really good live album of hers from 78 or so; all the YMO members are on it, it has some really cool versions of some of her album tracks and some tunes I haven't heard yet. the best part is that she really sounds like she's having a lot of fun on it.

yeah... "good heavens, miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!". just another example of how fucking cool this YMO satellite scene was in the early 80s -- Thomas Dolby, Andy Partridge, Japan, Bill Nelson, Arto Lindsay, Ippu Do, Hajime Tachibane, Kiyohike Semba etcetcetc, all hanging out w/ each other and playing on each other's records. so cool yet so rarely celebrated

here's her English version of Ravel's "Chanson Française". such a beautiful beautiful voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=463r4pdC7Co&feature=youtu.be

afaik Partridge is credited on B-2 Unit, which didn't make sense to me until I realized that he did that dub album around that time.

also, P-Model used to open for XTC in their White Music phase - not at all surprising, the two bands used to be quite similar!!

After reading missingNO's post above I was wondering, could we compile a straight-up list of people to check out?

I know a fair few names (although finding the music is hard) but I know there's a load more out there and I'm really interested in delving further.

Also, frogbs, might I hit you up on slsk? I know you offered a while ago when we were talking about that big P-Model t0rr3nt that's around, but I can't seem to find the post to get yr username.

Also any J-wave blog sites/t0rr3nt sites that are worth knowing about?

I'm on as JAMOOL, send me a message and I'll add.

This site hasn't been updated in a while, but it has a lot of good stuff and the links mostly still work
http://saltyka.blogspot.com/ (its more of a general New Wave blog but it sorta revolves around the YMO axis)

Jpopsuki has a ton of stuff on it, although it's hard to find anything you wouldn't on slsk, it does surprise me sometimes ; I think you need an invite though, luckily I should have a ton (because who do you give them to?)

Hey frogbs, thanks man, I'd really appreciate an invite to Jpopsuki.

i can put a couple of albums up today

unless somebody else plans to?

go ahead doog

ok

phew - phew (1981)

http://www.geocities.jp/pinkytanaka/img034.jpg

http://www.discogs.com/Phew-Phew/release/807330

this fucking album. fresh from her collab w/ Ryuichi Sakamoto, ex-Aunt Sally singer Phew went into Conny Plank's studio with Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay. brutal synths, sick drumming, insane vocals

grooveshark link: http://grooveshark.com/#/album/Phew/5538132?src=5

jun togawa unit - kyokutou ian shouka (1986)

http://ex-img.com/AC-109/May09409.JPG

http://www.discogs.com/戸川純-極東慰安唱歌/release/2040839

another in the long tradition of unique Japanese female vocalists, this might be Jun Togawa's best album. straight up j-pop ballads, Okinawan folk, ukuleles, cartoon military marches, Casio keyboard demos, an EBM song about losing one's virginity, an Egyptian pop song about picnics. highlight is "kyokutou hanayome" -- monster movie sampled strings, goth-y atmospheric pads, clanking 808, ridiculously funky fretless courtesy of Hosono, and Jun Togawa singing about feeling like a cattle girl or something. crazy and great

dunno how cool ilm is w/ posting links to full albums so i'll leo it if anybody is interested

yeah i'm not really too sure about it either but no ones said anything to me; i guess it doesn't hurt that these albums are usually impossible to find in the US without paying ridiculous ebay prices

pretty interested in the Jaki/Holger collab

just posted Jun Togawa album on leo thread

the Phew record is beyond classic, especially if you're a fan of some of the other Conny Plank stuff from that period -- it's a great companion to Zero Set, for inst.

Whats a leo thread?

noize borad

but it seems like posting full albums is fair game so i guess i'll put it here. it's very out of print anyways

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

bonus listening: "urahara" from the Phew 7" w/ Sakamoto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9JQCXUPIw

you can also find some of what i guess are out-takes from the same session in the yt suggestions column, sounds like early TG

Thanks! Actually I've just found a few Phew records on the mut@nt s0unds blog, so yay.

Have to give props to this blog, some great stuff here.

http://kiwi-dodo.blogspot.com/

not very new wave though, that blog

bonus beats pt ii: Jun Togawa singing "Yumemiru Yakusoku" on some tv program. Prophet 5!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGuc6E2UaI

Oh I don't know, there's lots of Phew, Jun and I'm just grabbing this at the moment.

http://kiwi-dodo.blogspot.com/2011/01/va-burst-new-wave-1980-1980.html