Chee Shimizu - Obscure Sound (a music book)

all I see is instructions for overseas ordering?

xpost I was asking whether the book itself will be in English

ah sorry I misunderstood. As far as I know the texts are Japanese, with English translations for titles, dates and label information.

That's what I understood as well. I got a nice reply back and have a copy reserved for February 2020.

Same here. Thanks for the heads up.

I am going to check out his record store in Tokyo in March. Excited! Anyone been?

wow, plz report back!

Have not visited the store but he posts new arrivals regularly on his IG. Looks like a stellar shop.

Shipping now!

"+ tape" it said in the mail! That'll be the "special gift" then? Stoked.

sure looks like it

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8YS08oA_zC/

awesome

YSI?

Can't wait for this.

My copy has arrived! With cassette. Such a beautiful book, and the new chapters (on Yasuaki Shimizu, ECM, Japanese ambient etc) seem pretty bang on with what I want to listen to right now...

Anyone want to do a cover-to-cover listening thread?

BTW, I think some selections from the previous edition have been removed - the Mellow, Groovy, Tropical chapters are gone, and at a quick glance, Frida's Something's Going On has been removed...

ah i keep forgetting to order this! thanks for the reminder, when i get my copy i would be happy to embark upon a listening odyssey

still waiting......

^^ same.

i was late with my order and then i never heard back from chee, so i've ended up ordering from amazon.co.jp.

also ordered this at the same time cos it looks like fun:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41eroewqITL._SX350_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This guide book features various albums recorded & produced in Japan, ranged from Easy Listening, Mood Music, New Age, Ambient, Pops, Rock, Disco, New Wave, Movie OST till Cartoon OST. Under the supervision of Shotaro Matsumoto who is a famous store manager of Coconut Disc record shop, 10 writers introduce about 600 discs."Walearic" is a word coined by Matsumoto, connecting "Wa"(means "Japanese" in Japanese) and "Balearic" club music established in Ibiza, Spain through '00s. As a matter of fact, Walearic is not exactly the same as Balearic. Matsumto was inspired by the vague concept of Balearic which crossovers any genres, and coined the new genre Walearic under his own aesthetics. As you may know, the demand for Japanese vinyls recorded in 70s & 80s has been rising among the collectors worldwide. This guide book will be the ultimate tool for them to dig the discs.

oh sweet just threw that in my cdjapan order. lotta porn on that website.

it came !!!

I've got a copy too - so good! It's kind of nice that it'll take a million years to read it with Google Lens. Also cool that the tape comes with a download.

Is that Walearic book all in Japanese? Guessing it is but wanted to confirm as this seems right up my street.

Hopefully my Obscure Sounds arrives soon as well.

the walearic book is also in japanese and roughly the same format as obscure sound

ysi that tape? mine didn't come with one

Mine came too. I am currently bereft of opportunity to listen to the tape so second the ysi request. Will happily send some Obscure Sound music i have in return. T

Totally delving into it tonight.

Send me an email via my profile if you want to have a listen to the mix.

I hope mine comes with a cassette. Don’t recall even seeing an option when I was emailed though an option of with or without a cassette. Is it just being sent randomly?

My cassette is numbered 189/200, so looks like I got lucky. Reminds me I really must give it another listen.

i now have my Obscure Sounds! and my Walearic Disc Guide! really looking forward to digging through those with youtube accompaniment once my job stops being a whirlwind of panic

thank you so much bamboohouses! now all I need is a trackless, I expect it will pop up on Discogs soon enough

when I was looking for it I realized that Chee Shimizu has some other, older mixes as well

ffs trackLIST

Got my book delivered on Friday with the cassette (181/200). Haven’t had a chance to dig into either with my 4yo son bouncing off the walls due to COVID induced cabin fever. Hopefully soon.

few days ago a friend dropped off a tape deck, so i was finally able to hear the mix — it’s good !

it'll take a million years to read it with Google Lens.

not sure exactly what this is but will look into if that means having a rough translation of the blurbs. as is i’ve been enjoying paging through at random and then digging around on youtube or wherever to find a sound clip

How are you all reading this? Am I the only person who doesn't read Japanese? Want this book very badly but not to look at pictures.

Using the Google Lens app, you can get surprisingly decent translations by hovering your phone camera over the text. Might be a bit hard to read it cover to cover this way, but good for individual listings. Check it out!

Thanks for the tip cooldix. Never even realized this was a thing. Also I have the Wa-learic book onroute so this will be extremely handy for both books. Cheers!

OK, I just made my first random purchase based on this, and it's amazing (thanks Facebook vinyl trading group). Morgan Fisher - 'Flow Overflow'. Former Mott the Hoople (!) keyboardist moves to Tokyo and makes ambient/environmental/TV commercial music not unlike Yoshimura and co. I'll have to make a vinyl rip cos the only online I could find is from an uptight Soulseeker doing FLAC trade-only. His 'Water Music' is on social media and also quite lovely.

Anyone else made any discoveries?

Social media... I mean, streaming services.

I still dig the Glen Velez and Per Tjernberg records I discovered through that Spotify playlist

the mixtape is up on Discogs now, but with no tracklist - get to work, trainspotters!

https://www.discogs.com/Chee-Shimizu-Obscure-Sound-Revised-Edition/release/14978065

I'd love to hear the morgan fisher record if you ever get around to ripping it. Water music is nice.

Hey Deflatormouse (and anyone interested), I've made a vinyl rip of the Morgan Fisher record. Not sure the best way to share?

Some five months later but it arrived today and I love it! Seriously impressed with all obscure Dutch releases I've never even heard of.

Google translate lens app actually works, though it's tiresome to read the whole book in one go like that. The blurbs have a nice bitsize though. Looking forward to starting with the ambient section first. Will have to make sure slsk has enough feul in the tank to help me track some of this stuff down!

this Priscilla Ermel retrospective is really hitting the "obscure sound" sweet spot for me atm

https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/origens-da-luz

i finally got round to listening to Chee's tape that comes with the book.

!@%$?

i got about two thirds through side 1. he's trolling with this, isn't he?

how so?? The tape is on my Discogs wantlist but of course it never turns up

lotta smooth acoustic guitars? that’s the impression I got surfing through the albums in the book

xp that was a legit q, haven’t heard it myself

it is the opposite of smooth acoustic guitars. more musique concrete head frying collage with the odd lapse into pleasant percussion before some more ganrly spoken word bit kicks in again. It slightly reminded me of early Current 93 type sound collages which I like just fine but wasn't really expecting here.