the Shiina Ringo thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trw9ZGhDKDQ

Okay, kind of missing Tokyo Jihen at this point.

the new collaborations comp "Ukina" is a tough listen. the older songs that I'm only hearing now are on the generic side, no flow from track to track. the three with Soil & "Pimp" Sessions are the best, two of them from their album "6", where they made sense (they're such a good band)

that first video, "J'ai trouve l'amour", is Nakata's song for her; I'm a pretty big Perfume & a selective Capsule/Kyary fan, so it's a double let-down for me. been thinking a bit about how sometimes, when strong personalities collaborate, they politely meet in the middle. "It Was You" was written specifically for Shiina by Burt Bacharach and once you know that, it's a grower.

haven't listened to the live comp 'Mitsugetsu Shou' yet, track selection is promising, if it works as an album I'll probably spring for a copy

To Taikai Heisei Nijyugo Nendo Kamiyama-Cho Taikai [w/ Bonus CD, Limited Edition]

Live Blu-ray from Ringo Shiina includes her 15th anniversary concert at Shibuya Orchard Hall on November 26, 2013. She performed 23 songs including an unreleased song "Ima" and self covers. Comes with a bonus CD including five live tracks (subject to change) from the concert on November 25, 2013.

new album news (sort of):

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TYCT-60035

http://i.imgur.com/TGzZVyG.jpg

Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku: Self-cover album from Ringo Shiina includes songs she previously provided to popular artists in Japan such as PUFFY, Chiaki Kuriyama, and SMAP from 1998 to the present. Contains a total of 11 songs with new arrangements.

More news, album in Nov.

http://sadisticgossip.blogspot.co.uk/

more than half of this is drawn from the last five years worth of non-album singles. some of which I did like, and hats off to her astounding work ethic slamming out at least one new CD and one new DVD a year, but the 'albums' really are seeming more and more cobbled together.

I tried twice with 'Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku'. Otomo Yoshihide's jazz orchestra arrangement of her song for Puffy is pretty great, and Otomo's noise guitar solo even gets soloed in the mix for about 1.5 seconds. That collaboration would have blown my mind 10 years ago, but given how high Otomo's star has risen in mainstream Japan since writing that jazzy theme for a hit daily radio show, this ends up being the least surprising track on the record. much of the production on the other tracks is trying way too hard.

all that said, still a diehard, ready to listen to anything she puts out

http://loud.cl/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/aramajapan_news_xlarge_sheenaringo_art20140919-564x570.jpg

best artist and most beautiful person on earth

well, at least when her hair is off, you know it'll be different by next year

still need to give Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku a few more listens

http://www.sharkenterprises.biz/accordion/dixiechicken.jpg

Pretty good salsa cover of Marunouchi Sadistic by a band out of Bogota, Colombia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeQDbPpfcIQ

Will be back to say more about the new album at some point. Basically it's a mess with more tracks I like than don't like, but not something I have a desire to listen to straight through. I very much like the new jazzy tracks: Shizuka Naru Gyakushuu, Hashire wa Number, Sekidou wo Koetara, and Ima.

cool video! laudable effort, though the singer has a tough comparison
it's no Boys II Men style cover, but what can you do

For those who are interested but haven't yet heard the new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfq8LRqmB-w

(I imagine this will get yanked pretty quickly though.)

Actually, looks like the whole album is up there now.

More not-her-best, but not bad:

https://vk.com/video-9089995_171354843

she's middling now, but has there been any act out of asia since YMO as great and essential as shiina ringo? she's got one of the all-time classic rock/pop albums to her name, and imo rounding up the best of her other stuff puts her on a level far above bjork, beck, or any other such artist who might be considered a peer/analog

No argument here (although I wouldn't feel comfortable make sweeping claims about all of Asia). She is still capable of something like this from just a few years back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ML7SdxI_c

For that matter, I thought some of the new songs on her album last year were quite good.

Part of the problem is that she has embraced her own institutionalization so enthusiastically, with all of these often self-parodic performances celebrating her own career. I'm not sure what to make of all of that, although perhaps she's always been laughing up her sleeve at her various stage personae.

i am most certainly comfortable with sweeping claims about asia!

no one artist comes close out of korea, china, HK, taiwan...and none of the other asian countries really have the industry or audience means to support a genius like shiina ringo's even were its kernel to appear. japan had some killer pop artists in the '80s and early '90s who need to be considered, but from the immense amount of listening i've done so far i can't say anyone truly stands in the class. only YMO and their members' solo careers eclipse her, but then again, i don't think any of them have a single album as relentlessly brilliant as kuri no hana...

and yeah i love a lot of her new stuff (second half of "nippon" melts my nerve endings), but it's more a pick and choose game now for sure, and generally with lesser/less artful peaks. though some of her post-hana stuff, at an individual song level, match or best that album's highlights imo

reading through this old thread a bit it occurs to me that she's done some pretty unique rearrangements live. anyone have any mp3 bootlegs handy? demos/rarities/etc, anything would be welcome...i already have both Demo 1 and Demo 2, and the 1999.11.30 gig at kyoei branko

How I wish, bet there's a ton of stuff in the vaults that will just appear one day in a massively expensive and exquisite box set.

i really hope so.

but i'm sure there are some live bootlegs out there in the ether, doubt i have anything any such collector would want/need but i'd be happy to trade sometime if anyone has any good gigs. falling back under ringo's spell and want whatever i can get

I think I have some MP3 boots stored away, but they might not be that great iirc, I'll have a look

ah no pressure, thank you though. i need to find some reliable discography of all her singles and guest appearances and stuff, i'm sure there're a lot of floaters i'm still missing

It's no trouble, this what I got...

http://i62.tinypic.com/1585yd0.jpg

how about that. I don't have too much of the early ephemera but many of my favorite post-KZK tracks are the b-sides

favorite live show that never saw official release is Jihen's 'Domestic Virgin Line' show, posted to this thread more than once and here again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDotMg5_cA4

well, looks pretty good to me! i'd gratefully receive any of the live stuff you have (except the branko one, since i'm guessing that's the 99 boot i have), don't have much shiina per se to give in return, but it does look like i have a little more of her demos than you do there, i've got 31 tracks total arranged into a DEMO1 and a DEMO2. if you're interested i *think* i just successfully webmailed you

The address attached to my webmail is long dead I'm afraid, email me again at nakagincapsuleto✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ instead.

dammit that was (without gaps) - nakagin capsule tower at gmail

For those who have never seen these wonderful TV commercials for KZK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sKvEm2ib5Y

lol. not an easy album to advertise!

also like how the editor seems to have romanized it "RINNGO" just for symmetry's sake.

Soil & "PIMP" Sessions are touring Europe again, kinda tempted.

June
25th - Fusion Festival - Larz, Germany (Festival)
28th -Glastonbury - Glastonbury, UK (Festival)
30th - North Sea Jazz Club - Amsterdam, Holland (Venue)
July
1st - Bird - Rotterdamn, Holland (Venue)
3rd - Kelburn Garden Party - Largs, Scotland (Festival)
4th - Colston Hall - Bristol, UK (Venue)
7th - Jazz Café - London, UK (Venue)
9th - Band on the Wall - Manchester, UK (Venue)
10th - Mosely Jazz Festival - Birmingham, UK (Festival)
11th - La Marquies - Lyon, France (Venue)
12th - Worldwide Festival - Sete, France (Festival)

Here's the Glastonbury set -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02txwt0/glastonbury-2015-soilpimpsessions

had the lowest expectations for this new single, one song being an autotuned jingle written for this summer's coca-cola campaign, the other being a jingle for a cell phone. the ads have been online for a month and they have all the entertainment value of staring at a huge stack of money, but the videos for the new songs are a different story

http://aramajapan.com/news/music/musicvideo/shiina-ringo-releases-full-pvs-for-nagaku-mijikai-matsuri-and-kamisama-hotokesama/20888/

here are the ad versions. autopilot tightrope.

http://jrock247.com/2015/07/shiina-ringos-new-single-chosen-for-coca-cola-campaign/

Thanks Milton, the autotune really blows, I'm digging the other track though, has a kind of OSCA feel about it.

the autotune one is just hilariously bad. the other one is a bit of a mess, but the good parts are good.

she's recently admitted to not trying with her music so much anymore, so it's little surprise that her output's going in this direction.

Yeah, the non-autotune one has moments of lol wut, but actually is a pretty good tune.

I'm glad this thread popped up, because this is one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard and I always forget who was responsible for it:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5q71o_shiina-ringo-x-saito-neko-yokushits_music

quality on that upload is brutal, but that's one of my favorites off the amazing heisei fuuzoku. ain't no self-cover like a shiina self-cover

Everything on Dailymotion sounds like crap these days. This is a bit better:

Yokushitsu

Yeah, sorry, I was searching for a video clip on the train so I couldn't actually watch it. Is the YouTube clip the remix? I haven't heard the original so I don't know how different it is.

I still prefer this version:

http://nhacso.net/nghe-album/shouso-strip.X1BYVUpZ.html

x-post

I don't remember which is original. There's also this earlier (EP?) version:

http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/la-salle-de-bain.Vl1SVUBZ.html

(I'm still not sold on her singing in English most of the time.)

An early live version. I don't think I've seen her hop around like this anywhere else. Not sure I like it:

http://vk.com/video62610559_165946360

(The opening reminds me of Psychic TV c. 1988.)

Tsumi to Batsu live, 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoTAXRGzq3s#t=49

Not unworthy.

why did i never listen to her 2014 record? it's pretty good

A fair chunk of her back catalogue is up on Spotify now [in the UK at least] under 'Sheena' Ringo, no Jihen as yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhNeT152Qs