Chee Shimizu - Obscure Sound (a music book)

Nice, that's good news! Curious to see what it'll be like/if there'll be any changes in its approach. I still regularly dip into the lists (posted on Discogs) for new discoveries and will look up random things from his instagram account from time to time. The latest one which I'll bump here is this Saada Bonaire album:

https://www.discogs.com/Sa%C3%A2da-Bonaire-Sa%C3%A2da-Bonaire/release/5106716

Fingers crossed he may take it as an opportunity to do another printing of the first one.

this looks U&K: https://lightintheattic.net/releases/4088-kankyo-ongaku-japanese-ambient-environmental-new-age-music-1980-1990

holy shit that packaging is irresistible to me

yeah that looks great

it is v pretty

Oh wow, way to go LITA!!!

I've reactivated my Apple Music subscription, for now at least, so I spent a bit of time this morning rebuilding the Obscure Sound playlists. Here's the master one with everything on it; the chapter-by-chapter ones are on my Apple Music profile.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/playlist/obscure-sound/pl.u-RRbV7YVFxxNWe3

Now that I know that cancelling your subscription nukes all the playlists, I'll try and give everyone advance warning next time!

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm probably going to let my Apple Music subscription lapse again at the end of the month as I'm not using it as much as I'd hope. I know a couple of people are following these playlists, so if it's anyone here please do copy/back them up now!

Thanks again for putting these together! i have reposted them so that the link will still be active, so if anyone on apple music is interested:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/obscure-sound/pl.u-V9D73lKhWbB2o

categorized sub lists on my page: https://itunes.apple.com/profile/rawconverter

https://youtu.be/dbq4P2_XkdI

for any Glen Velez fans out there, this looks great - a collection of tracks from his 1st three solo LPs on CMP:

https://emotional-rescue.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-season

Man Emotional Rescue is on a goddamn tear

New edition of Obscure Sound is on its way (!!!)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5ZglqbACqd/

“Obscure Sound” record guide book is coming back again as revised edition in February 21st 2020. 200 record reviews left on first edition, and about 600 new reviews added. Further long interview with Yasuaki Shimizu, feature articles for ECM, japanese ambient/new age, spanish experimental/new age music appered. Regular reviews are inheriting unique categories likes organic, ethnic, psychedelic, spiritual, experimental, cosmic, meditative, and floating.
Please email us, if you would like to order this. Will get you back information. We accept PayPal payment.

i✧✧✧@organicmu✧✧✧.j✧

author : Chee Shimizu
deformation A5 / 248 pages (full color)
price : 2,530 JPY
ISBN978-4-8456-3409-5
publisher : Ritto Music co., ltd.
.
CONTENTS：
THE WORLD OF YASUAKI SHIMIZU（with interview）／JAPANESE AMBIENT & NEW AGE／SPECIFICITY OF ECM／ACCIDENTAL MUSIC IN SPAIN／ORGANIC／ETHNIC／PSYCHEDELIC／SPIRITUAL／EXPERIMENTAL／COSMIC／MEDITATIVE／FLOATING

It's xmas!!!

amazing, thanks for sharing

Immediately sent an e-mail to order a copy (have yet to hear back).

dead link! Need to order this. Do you remember the email address you used?

link to Chimizu's shop

Looks like a beautiful resource but... no English translation?

^^ that's my question too

i think the original edition was all in japanese apart from the titles, guessing that this will be the same

there's always word lens though (anyone ever used it?):

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-word-lens-ar-app-now-translates-japanese

I've been deliberately avoiding this book and the associated playlists because I'm afraid that it'll just take up too much of my time and probably money. Not sure if I'll be able to resist much longer.

I'm not even halfway through the ILM top 100 ambient albums yet

Looks like a beautiful resource but... no English translation?

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