the Shiina Ringo thread

if you had to pick ONE shiina/jihen song to sell someone on her magic, what would it be?

Playing a video might speed up the process of winning over a new listener. It worked that way for me in this case, and I'm not usually that big on music videos (but I think she generally has good videos). If you go the video route, "Ringo No Uta" strikes me as a very good starting point. (Isn't this all going to depend on someone's tolerance for a little tweeness or occasional Beatlesesque orchestral segments, or just pleasant melodies.) "Instinct" also seems very immediately catchy to me, but the video will be a plus for some, a minus for others. "Yamini Furu Ame" is catchy, though a friend complained that the video was going to give her nightmares. It seems like fairly mild stuff to me, however. Tokyo Jihen's "Himitsu FOR DJ" was the first one I watched, I think, and I immediately became interested (but what would someone with a high resistance to slicked out cabaret pop jazz funk disco think?).

My pick for most perfect song at the moment is the Dynamite Out! version of Tokyo Jihen doing "Sounan." But it's a little more conventional than some of her other material (basically very melodic classic rock imo).

If none of this works, by them a spicy tuna roll and some iced green tea and then try again.

but any of those three would probably be enough to get you interested in the others

Rockist_Scientist OTM about the Beatlesque orchestrations - Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite was the first thing that came to mind when I first heard Poltergeist.

Karuki zamen kuru no hana was the most immediate album for me, although I think Shosu Strip is more obviously mainstream.

Despite all of this, I still like it a lot, but I can't help wondering if I am not going to like Shoso Strip better overall. I will say that KZK works well as an album, as a whole, so that is probably part of its reputation as well.

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

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.

note symmetrical min:sec values of album length

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

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).

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

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

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/

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?)

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

Like?

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.

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

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

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