I discovered Hirasawa, like a lot of people through Paprika, which is one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. I was delighted to discover P-Model but I dont actually own anything by them yet, not much is on amazon or ebay and what is there is too expensive so I think I'll have to do with CDJapan. Hirasawa and P-Model are poorly represented on Itunes too, I dont know why more japanese acts dont put themselves on our mp3 services.
Both these songs are from One Pattern, which is their own least favorite album but these are my favorite P-model songs. I'd love to see this concert on DVD someday.
The most widely available thing I have seen is the P-Model/Big Body comp, which takes off one track from the original P-Model album. I cant see any places to buy the individual albums.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 31 July 2011 17:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
The only real option for those of us in the US is the $300 box set with 16 discs that covers basically everything they ever recorded, obviously that's super expensive, but it works out to about $20 a disc which isnt bad (as every disc is about 70-80 minutes long). I picked it up because I'm crazy and had a lot of money to spend at the time, but it's out of print now, so really there aren't any real options that don't cost like $50-60 per album (besides the Paprika OST)
Check out this thread: Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday
I've uploaded a few of his solo albums (plus the two disc P-Model/Big Body comp) in there. His soundtrack stuff is very good but they are usually based on his solo albums, which are incredible. I dig One Pattern; probably one of their worst albums but even still it's got a few awesome tracks on it (the other one is "Drums", which foreshadows the direction he'd go in over the next two decades). Luckily most of his work is available on youtube if you're into that, including this performance (which is a song from the final P-Model album), which is incredible:
― frogbs, Monday, 1 August 2011 02:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
I couldnt find that box set anywhere, it is always sold out, I'm not sure I'd buy it at that price. CD Japan's prices seemed reasonable for me, I'll probably buy everything from there.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 August 2011 21:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
Have you heard any of his prog music he did in Mandrake? I'd really like to hear that stuff, I cant even find samples of it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 August 2011 21:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
The price is indeed steep, but it works out to about $20 a disc, which is actually kind of cheap for an import. I don't blame you though. His label website: http://teslakite.com/e/index_cd.htm has a lot of this for cheaper, under $30 a pop, though it only covers the last 10 years or so. I'd love to pick up some of the DVDs (though they are pricey and probably won't play on my DVD player)
I have the Mandrake stuff; haven't really heard it enough to get a good feel for it, it is kinda lo-fi and distorted, but it's good. I do think this one is actually for sale on his own site. IIRC one of the tunes is based on the riff that became "The Great Brain" on In a Model Room which is pretty neat.
― frogbs, Friday, 5 August 2011 14:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
― meisenfek, Sunday, 4 March 2012 19:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
I really want that so badly (not as bad as the Ashu-On set, but still). I have a lot of the scans that came with the CD-ROM Music Industrial Wastes disc and it's fascinating, there's like a 100-page history of Hirasawa in there, with notes on every song and live performance, but it's all in Japanese so I can only admire at the ridiculous amount of band photos that it comes with. If this Dome was translated into English I'd drop the cash without a second thought!
― frogbs, Thursday, 15 March 2012 20:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
ditto!
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Friday, 16 March 2012 00:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thirded!
― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Friday, 16 March 2012 08:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
I recently discovered his "Switched-on Lotus" album which is mostly a bunch of re-done Sim City/Siren era tracks with boosted up production and more vocals; you gotta give the man credit, he really seems to get what the best parts of his own songs are. The title track (which is new) is seriously one of the most gorgeous things he ever wrote, check it out:
― frogbs, Friday, 13 July 2012 14:06 (11 months ago) Permalink
I wrote a long, sprawling article on this dude for PSF. Check it out!
http://www.furious.com/perfect/susumuhirasawa.html
― frogbs, Friday, 31 May 2013 14:11 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
nice one! didn't realize hirasawa does custom software/hardware. makes sense. he really has a pretty singular sound.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 03:46 (2 weeks ago) Permalink