Remixes from Needless Purchases

Thanks for all the kind messages celebrating my 10th anniversary, means a lot to me.

Now, onto new and (hopefully) bigger things. It’s been a busy year for me so far. I got a big update to my guide to Tokyo record stores in the works, and I should have another piece of YMO up sometime relatively soon, hopefully by the end of the month. In the meantime, I recently wrote a piece over on my other blog about the insanity of Robot Restaurant which I hope you’ll find fun and entertaining. I also wrote a piece on the current state of gaming, which I hope you’ll find soul-crushingly depressing.

Sorry. Here’s some pop music to cheer you up.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Haruomi Hosono Special Message
Rydeen (Live 2-6-80 Yoru No Hit Studio)
I have what I would consider to be a rather expansive YMO collection. I have every proper album on CD, as well as more than a fair share of compilations, remix albums, singles and other miscellany. I also own several of their albums on vinyl, some multiple times over. For example, in America I have the regular black LP edition of Service, but here in Japan I have a copy on translucent yellow vinyl. I also have every re-issue that Music On Vinyl have put out to date.

However, that didn’t stop me from buying this.

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That massive box is the YMO LP Box set, a huge 13 LP box set that includes every YMO album proper that was released on vinyl, including both the Japanese and American versions of their self-titled debut and ×∞Multiplies.

I got it for a pretty good deal, less than $100, which is how I justified buying it despite owning nearly everything on it on CD and LP already. It was nice to buy and fill in the remaining holes in my YMO vinyl collection.

To my surprise, when I got home I discovered that it had a bonus record, a bonus record that is literally titled “Bonus.” See?

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Bonus.

What’s the bonus? Well, sadly it’s not much. Most of the record is an interview with Haroumi Hosono. I’d love to offer you a complete transcript of what he’s saying, but my Japanese is garbage, and my boyfriend has better things to do than feed my unhealthy obsession with YMO and translate it for me.

The real treat, however, is this exclusive version of “Rydeen.” From what I read online, it’s apparently a live version that was performed on a Japanese TV show, although to me it sounds more like a remix. Regardless, it’s a pretty radical version, deviating from the original in some subtle, but great ways, such as a slightly more analog-sounding synth and a more pronounced sequencer rhythm. The guitar work is a bit more noticeable too. All in all, it’s a stellar version, and while I wouldn’t go as far to say it was worth the money I paid for the box set, it sure as hell was a pretty nice bonus, so I guess that 13th LP was named properly.

Filter & The Crystal Method
(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do (Danny Saber Remix)
(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do [Instrumental]
This is the second-best Filter song. The first is obviously “Hey Man Nice Shot.”

There is no third-best Filter song as Filter is not a very good band.

I got this off of a strange EP called Spawn The Album 2nd. Obviously a sequel to the fantastic Spawn soundtrack, it also included a remix of Marilyn Manson’s “Long Hard Road Out Of Hell” and a track by Apollo 440 and Morphine that was probably cut off of the original soundtrack because it’s not very good. I’ll probably share these soon though, so all your Apollo 400 and Morphine completists (I assume those groups don’t overlap all that much) take note!

5 Responses to “Remixes from Needless Purchases”

  1. Simon says:

    I agree with the quality of the filter song – I got the CD single when it was released and loved each of the versions of the track. Almost agree re: Filter’s lack of ‘3rd best song’, but I’d recommend listening to their ‘Hey Bro’ track off one of the X-Files compilations (Songs in the Key of X I think) and ‘Jurassitol’ (from the second The Crow soundtrack) before completely making up your mind. Thanks for the interesting reading and views as always!

  2. Taffy says:

    I only know two Filter songs, so i’ll accept that they suck. But one of the two I’m familiar with is Take a Picture, which is at least OK, if not third best! 😉

  3. DJBenW says:

    I actually enjoy the other Filter tracks listed above and I’ll add that these were some pretty fun remixes as well

    https://www.discogs.com/Filter-Where-Do-We-Go-From-Here-The-Remixes/release/543239

  4. Drain says:

    Filter is not a very good band? I sincerely disagree. “Short Bus” is a fantastic album, “Title of Record” is a bit hit and miss, Amalgamut is a step up from Title and is a bit more solid. On top of that, the 4 soundtrack songs Filter released between Short Bus and Title are some of the best songs they’ve ever released: Jurassitol (from The Crow: City of Angels), Thanks Bro (from Songs in the Key of X), One (from The X-Files Album) and Trip Like I Do. Oh, finally I must say this… if Filter ever comes near where you are, please do take a shot and see them live. They put on a very good show. I saw them play where I live just before The Trouble with Angels got released and I was blown away. They actually played Trip Like I Do live without The Crystal Method… so that was pretty awesome.

  5. Hey I want people to understand you better, there are two places where you messed up writing I understand what you mean but others may have not…..I love love the C.M. best wishes to you ….chris

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