the Shiina Ringo thread

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And I think maybe the oddness of Adult is not entirely being appreciated. The piano floating over "Yukiguni"? Standard smooth cabaret jazz eh? "Kabuki": channeling Dreaming era Kate Bush cut with generic new wave/punk, funny plunky keyboards. Adult is pretty fantastic.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 7 May 2006 17:14 (twenty years ago)

I do get stuck on one thing sometimes don't I?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 7 May 2006 17:15 (twenty years ago)

KZK doesnt really get going until the 3rd song or so for me. I usually compare it to abbey road to introduce it to other people. but you're right it's the experience of the album as a "whole" that really puts it over the top for me. it's a cliche, but it works as a sort of journey from one idea to the next rather than self contained songs.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 7 May 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Some good comments on Adult that I only just came across today (sorry if this site has already been linked to):

http://www.thetokyoincidents.com/archives/2006/01/adult_impressio.html

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:57 (twenty years ago)

"Souretsu" is quite a send-off. Parts of this track have been killing me, the floating choral (-like) passages, especially.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 11:19 (twenty years ago)

One thing the same on both KZK and Adult: attention to detail.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 22 May 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

it's true, I'm still finding little things on those records I've never heard before

almost woke this thread up last night -- I bought that bootlegged Hibari Misora DVD of her NHK special from Barbara's Enka site. Misora's really something, and the original version of "Kurumaya-san" is mindblowing. Planning to transfer the audio from the disc, I'll post an mp3 when I get back.

Enka's very interesting stuff; coming right out of WWII, the instrumentation is straight up big band & western derived, but all the vocal styles sung on top are still pure pentatonic classic japanese vocal lines, dramatic recitationals w/ beautifully ornamented melodies, much more of a striking hybrid than what j-pop has become for the last 15 years or so.

Enka is song of resignation. Resignation must be sweet so that it is endurable.

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 22 May 2006 17:27 (twenty years ago)

on a geek note, here's a screen capture of the waveform from the last split second of KZK

note symmetrical min:sec values of album length

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/KZK.png

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 22 May 2006 17:55 (twenty years ago)

KZK actually becomes less enjoyable after 'Kuki'. Which is a shame, but it lowers the score to 3.5 - 4/5 when it could've been near-perfect.

― Hal! Jordan! HAL! JORDAN! (Barima), Monday, 22 May 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)

"Yattsuke Shigoto" makes me want to walk back and forth like a very flamboyantly effeminate gay fashion model. (Is that offensive? I don't mean it to be.)

I would have to agree that "Torikoshi Gurou" is a weak point, although I like "Okonomi de" (which frankly reminds me of one of those 70s Todd Rundgren hits--not exactly, of course).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 22 May 2006 21:55 (twenty years ago)

And I'm alright with the rest of the album after that, so "Torikoshi Gurou" is acceptable (I'm listening to the album again to remind myself about all of this). It's not as if I hate it.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:00 (twenty years ago)

Also, "Souretsu" is fantastic, but I think I said that already.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:06 (twenty years ago)

"Yattsuke Shigoto" is my favorite off that album.

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

I love the bouncy bass, but all the little flourishes make the song

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 00:44 (twenty years ago)

The video version takes away 50% of the fun.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:43 (twenty years ago)

Glad I haven't seen it.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:11 (twenty years ago)

the video uses the original rock version of the song, which was the single. one of her frequent tricks is to include a previously released single on the album, but in a confoundingly different version, sort of like Throbbing Gristle including a version of 'United' on D.O.A..

anyway here's the hisari mibora version of 'kurumaya-san', transferred from that TV special -- I doubt the studio version is this dramatic: http://www.sendspace.com/file/d66t45

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 03:52 (twenty years ago)

BARMS OTM.

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 04:49 (twenty years ago)

the video's not about 'fun' exactly

http://seitekihealing3.tripod.com/1/PDVD_042.JPG

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 04:56 (twenty years ago)

oops

might as well just link the whole site, it's a bizarre html simulation of the 'seiteki healing 3' DVD menu w/ screen captures

http://seitekihealing3.tripod.com/

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 05:27 (twenty years ago)

Hello, the album version is the fun (lyrics aside).

― BARMS, Wednesday, 24 May 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Shiina Ringo, you are going to be an expensive hobby.

Hisari Mibora's "Kurumaya-san" is great. Any idea when the TV special was recorded? How long did it take for them to get such a workable fusion of western big band music and traditional Japanese music, after WWII? (Was it maybe already in the works, despite the war?)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:02 (twenty years ago)

Shiina Ringo ga suki, demo . . . .

There's a lot of orientalist clap trap in this thread . . .

― Gandalf Mantooth (Gandalf Mantooth), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:05 (twenty years ago)

There's a lot of orientalist clap trap in this thread . . .

Like?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure I've spouted a lot of overgeneralized claptrap, and am still hoping for more knowledgable people to find the thread and balance out my hopelessly american perspective

the earliest Misora on the NHK special seems to date from late 40's/early 50's (all the captions / voiceovers are in japanese). the 'kurumaya-san' segment seems to date from late 60's/early 70's? to set the scene, the song's first verse is staged with her being dropped off by a rickshaw driver outside her house, she pays him; he leaves and she begins the first vocal solo; then instead of going inside she wanders off into her garden and sings the 2nd verse, then she approaches the camera and sings the 2nd solo.

the whole special is good, I can recommend Barbara's Enka site.

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 16:57 (twenty years ago)

am still hoping for more knowledgable people to find the thread and balance out my hopelessly american perspective

I think you will get your wish eventually. I believe this thread's Google rank is rising.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 17:11 (twenty years ago)

the ringo jihen english-speaking fan board has 200 members & close to 5000 posts

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 17:13 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone know about this Region 2 DVD stuff? My player says it's for Region 1 DVDs. Is there a way to get something like Dynamite Out in that format?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

This is not academic, since I just started to order it, but decided I'd better find out about the DVD compatability issue first.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:30 (twenty years ago)

all the shiina DVDs I own are all-region & play on everything but it does look like Dynamite Out is region-2 only.

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 25 May 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

Okay, fuck it, I will have to buy a more accomodating DVD player. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0rjMO7JE4&search=tokyo%20jihen

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 01:25 (twenty years ago)

A lot more Dynamite Out segments seem to have appeared on youtube.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 01:34 (twenty years ago)

shiina ringo i love you. please write back!

― shiinafan#1, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 01:37 (twenty years ago)

So I don't lose track of it:

http://www.jpopmusic.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54414&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 13:01 (twenty years ago)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y251/lemoncoffee/Pop_Jam.gif

― loggedinloggedoutloggedinloggedout, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 13:13 (twenty years ago)

shiina ringo i think your the greatest and i hope u never give up on your music i hope we can be friends and i hope to talk to u one day my real name is elizabeth lee windmon i'm not japanise but i am an american that loves your music

― willow, Thursday, 1 June 2006 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Record labels file suit to demand ID of people posting songs on Net
(Kyodo)
Fourteen record labels have filed a suit demanding three Internet service providers disclose the names and addresses of 19 individuals who the plaintiffs claim infringed copyright by using the file-exchanging software WinMX to post music on the Net, a music industry association said Tuesday.
About 1.3 million people use file-exchanging software to exchange hit songs via the Internet for free, according to the Tokyo-based Recording Industry Association of Japan, to which all the 14 record labels belong.
The record labels, which filed the suit with the Tokyo District Court, have found IP addresses of the 19 people by checking access logs to websites where songs have been posted.
Invoking the law on the liability of Internet service providers, they then asked 11 providers over a three-month period from December to February to disclose personal information on 38 individuals.
However, only eight people's personal information was disclosed.

The service providers that have refused to disclose personal information on their clients say disclosure would require a court order as it involves matters of individual privacy.

In a similar suit, the court ruled in June last year that Internet service providers must disclose the names and addresses of individuals who posted singer Ringo Shiina's songs on the Internet.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:52 (twenty years ago)

perhaps actually releasing her albums outside of japan and offering domestic copies for sale for something less than $30 an album might be a better thing to do than filing a very expensive lawsuit

that french site that's had KZK up for about three years has prompted more album sales than anything the record label's bothered to pursue. I've bought six albums, five DVDs and six singles, all at import prices -- add up that revenue, you executive idiots -- all because of one mp3 of 'stem' posted to said the gramophone & that KZK site. those people are doing your work for you, you stupid suits.

those idiots don't even have her stuff up on itunes yet.

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:42 (twenty years ago)

KZK is a copy-protected disk, I'm sure that site has been used by most of the people who actually bought a copy just so they could actually listen to it on their ipod

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:45 (twenty years ago)

To play devil's advocate, yes I agree with you where it comes to sales of her CDs outside Japan, but I wonder if having an entire album available online wouldn't hurt sales in Japan. (Not that I'm particularly anti-file-sharing.) I definitely think she could develop a large-ish cult following outside Japan if her albums were avaialable at more reasonably prices.

x-post

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:53 (twenty years ago)

DOODS MY COWORKER JUST BURNED ME THE NEW TOKYO JIHEN ALBUM ITS PRETTY ROCKIN SWEEET

― chaki (chaki), Friday, 9 June 2006 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 9 June 2006 22:29 (nineteen years ago)

los angeles and san francisco gigs would sell out in seconds, US west coast tour, that's all I ask

― milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 9 June 2006 22:49 (nineteen years ago)

I would consider going to New York for TJ. (Somehow I think asking for them to hit Philadelphia would be too much.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 9 June 2006 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Too cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlTpRCeI3Lw&search=shiina%20ringo

An advertisement for KZK.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 25 June 2006 02:47 (nineteen years ago)

and someone's uploaded the heavy metal version of 'stem' from electric mole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOqGPdaJlwg&search=shiina%20ringo

she's unusually saccharine on the chorus, but it's worth it for the Sachiko M jam at the end

― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 25 June 2006 05:47 (nineteen years ago)

I just saw this thread for the first time, very enticing. xpost what Milton said about classical Japanese vocals over big band, I was struck by a Chinese version of that approach, though more orchestral than big band in the right before and after WWII sense, as I recall (the WWII era had more emphasis on brass), in the movie Shanghai Triad? Don't know how the soundtrack album might be, if there was one, but the music in the movie was awesome (so was the movie). I haven't gotten into Chinese opera, but the classical-to-me (and female) vocals fit the Western ballads,descended from the sort of post-operetta/parlor ballad style, like whichever of Ellington's femmes sang "Come Sunday" (but this was a lot more evocative than that)(sort of early Billie Holiday, but not too literally, just in effect)

― don (dow), Sunday, 25 June 2006 07:58 (nineteen years ago)

Milton, thanks, I missed that. Fucking hell, that ending is great.

don, I have to hook you up with a copy of that song Milton posted a while back. I think you'd like it. It's a shame you don't have a high-speed connection (most of the time anyway?) because you could check out a lot of this stuff on youtube.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:04 (nineteen years ago)

The expression on her face towards the end of that is maybe the most intense I've seen her make. She appears very caught up in everything, listening very carefully.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

xpost Thanks(further incentive to get a better job/computer)

― don (dow), Monday, 26 June 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

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