Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

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

takahashi looks similarly mopey in his photo on the back of the record, too! awwww, poor yukihiro

I really have no idea how Sakamoto became the sex symbol of YMO

i want to know more about this

I don't really have a lot of facts but based on a bunch of stuff I've read about YMO I guess Sakamoto was the most popular one with the ladies, I don't get it

Really, someone needs to write a book in English on YMO. They don't get even a quarter of the recognition that Kraftwerk does around here and yet in my mind they're the greater band (as much as it pains me to say)

I got really obsessed with some of Yukihiro Takahashi's albums last year. Tomorrow's Just Another Day is by far my favourite album. It's probably his most straight forward pop album but the songs are just so moving and the production is perfect, not sure why it's never really mentioned.

This is a great performance of one of the best tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNrcFtGRcc

I really like "Coincidence" off that album. His later albums are mostly in that style too; I've heard them all up to 1992 or so and outside of his soundtrack stuff it's all mostly the same, agreeable pop with one or two great tracks per release. I was pretty shocked by one track called "MIS" which was done in his "Pure Jam" technopop style, because otherwise he's pretty far away from that. Though I heard his recent stuff was more electronic/glitchy. Anyone heard any his latest albums?

"Disposable Love" (off of What Me Worry) is a real Takahashi gem.

I've been really into Sakamoto's Works 1 disc, a bunch of really tuneful commercial jingles. Also been digging Akiko Yano's Tougue No Wagaya album from '86, which is just terrific slick pop with some neat detours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ylKBzvzVeM

you guys want to hear a really great Takahashi song, this is one of my favorites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GYMjGX28ew

Really, someone needs to write a book in English on YMO. They don't get even a quarter of the recognition that Kraftwerk does around here and yet in my mind they're the greater band (as much as it pains me to say)

This needs to happen. Have there been any good Japanese YMO books?

I recall there being talk of someone who lived in Japan for a great while writing a giant book about the whole Japanese technopop scene circa, say, 1976-1986. Obviously such a book would have to have a big YMO focus, as Japan is a small country and it seems like nearly every New Wave album they produced in that era had Hosono (or Takahashi) on it as a guest artist, producer, or writer. Maybe just a history of YEN records. Hell, I've kept up my fanaticism for so long that I could probably write one myself!!

can anyone explain to me what's happening in this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840MRwgM040

Alright. Time for a new one. This one's from Keiichi Suzuki, who you may have heard of. For one, he's the leader of Moonriders, who have released some 20 albums since 1976. Secondly, he made a few albums with Yukihiro Takahashi as the Beatniks (which YMO fans may have heard). Thirdly, he worked on a lot of the music for Earthbound/Mother. Some of which was also in the Smash Bros games. Fourthly, he did "Satellite Serenade", which got a high-profile remix by the Orb, and became the first track on Northern Exposure. So chances are you've probably heard something by him. Anyway, this is his first true solo album, released in 1991 (his next one wouldn't be until 2008!) You need this because it contains the original version of "Satellite Serenade" (as well as the remix), which is incredible. I like a lot of Suzuki's work but this is one of my favorite songs, period. The rest of the album is pretty good too - there are some early 90's dance beats, but most of the album sounds relatively current. If you've heard the original Mother soundtrack, a lot of the music here resembles the arranged versions on that album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XIuogHN46U

Tracklist:

1. God Save the Men
2. The Japanese "It's Alright" song
3. Me and My Girl in a Saladbowl
4. White and Black
5. Left Bank
6. Words, Colours, Noises, and Booms
7. Satellite Serenade
8. Satellite Serenade (Trans Asian Express)
9. Still Find Another Day to Smile

http://www.mediafire.com/?9fr7v8i19de9oeh

Name of the album is SUZUKI White Report

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UpRfwthdpHI/TOW9KhTs7LI/AAAAAAAACCw/oqNCwBsMgoI/s1600/cover.jpg