Archive for September, 2015

The Moog Strikes Bach

Sunday, September 27th, 2015

Wrote some whiny self-indulgent stuff on the other site. Go check it if you’re interested.

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Hans Wurman – Moog Strikes Bach (Complete Album Download)
I’ve often shared Moog covers albums, and I think it’s something I’ll continue to do until I stop finding weird Moog covers albums.

There seem to be hundreds of these out there, many of which were released in the years immediately following the surprise runaway success of Wendy Carlos’ Switched On Bach.

At first taste, Moog Strikes Bach would appear to be an exceptionally derivative example of this trend. Shit, it even has Bach in the title. And while this album does owe the entirety of its existence to Hooked On Bach, there’s actually a lot to like here.

For starters, it’s not really a collection of Bach pieces, despite what the title says. There’s only one Bach composition on here. The majority of the album is actually Mozart, but I guess they couldn’t come up with a “funny” pun with his name. The Mozart stuff is good, but of all the tracks on this record I really prefer some of the less covered ground. This is the first Moog album I’ve come across that has interpretations of Prokofieff and Rachmaninoff on it, so it gets points for originality if nothing else. Also the “Variations on Paganini” track is a 10 minute banger that features some really crazy and out-there synth work that I feel was a little bit ahead of its time.

I tried to dig up some information on Hans Wurman, but I could only gather the odd bits and pieces. He was a composer and pianist, but I don’t think he ever released anything of his own commercially. But he did love him the Moog. In addition to this record he released a Moog cover of “Carmen” and a collection of Chopin Moog covers as well.

He’s also credited as an engineer and performer on a few other Moog releases as part of the Electronic Concept Orchestra. I actually own two of their releases, Moog Groove and Electric Love, and while both feature some truly amazing covers, I can’t really recommend them.

Outside of that, I can’t find much on him aside from a pair of credits at the IMDB, including one for a horror movie called Bog about a giant gilled monster. Gonna have to dig that one up.

Like I said, this is a pretty great record, and a big step up from the typical rip-off rush job Moog records that were coming out at the time, especially in the classical market. Get your Moog on and give it a go.

Posted in Complete Albums, Moog | 1 Comment »

Another Post With Synthpop From Two Different Continents

Saturday, September 19th, 2015

Been busy! Mostly the good busy! And I wrote a lot of shit on my other site. I finished my guide to YMO’s albums, which took me far too long so I hope you all read it, share it and enjoy it. Then I did a write-up on the Mario Anniversary Celebration that I went to. I still haven’t seen much English language coverage of that, so if you know anyone who would be interested in reading such an article please pass it along to them. Same goes for my review of the Mario Anniversary music CD.

Basically, I’m asking you all to read my shit and pass my shit along to others who might enjoy it and do the same. Because sometimes validation via readership feels nice.

Lots of music tonight! Shit, lots of words tonight!

Berlin
Masquerade (Extended Version)
Like Flames (Extended Version)
Dancing In Berlin (Dance Remix)
You Don’t Know (Extended Remix)
The Metro (Remix)
No More Words (Dance Remix)
These are all of the Dancing In Berlin remix EP, which only came out in Japan. And if you think that the only reason that I moved to Japan was so that I’d have a chance of finding rare out-of-print CDs like this in budget racks for less than five bucks you’d be…not entirely off mark.

Seriously though, I was pretty excited to come across this one today. I already had most of these tracks as vinyl rips, but most of them were still kind of scratchy despite my best efforts to clean them up. And these remixes of “Masquerade” and “Like Flames” are entirely new to me.

If you’re reading this blog then you’re probably in agreement with me that Berlin is totally one of the best bands of the 80s. If you’re not, well then, why the hell are you reading this blog? All their albums are good, even Information, which doesn’t feature Terri Nunn. I’m partial to the last “classic” album Count Three & Pray though, thanks largely to the inclusion of “Pink And Velvet” which is an achingly beautiful tragic ballad about junkies that just happens to feature one of the best guitar solos that David Gilmour (yes, that David Gilmour) ever put on wax.

That album also features Ted Nugent. So if you want to stump your friends on trivia night with “What album features David Gilmour and Ted Nugent?” then you’re welcome.

By the by, I didn’t include the extended version of “Sex (I’m A…)” because you can get that on the CD and digital editions of Pleasure Victim.

Akiko Yano
Tong Poo
Tong Poo (Welcome To Jupiter Version)
Tong Poo (Naked Jupiter Version)
Zai Kung Tong Boy (在広東少年) (Original Version)
Zai Kung Tong Boy (在広東少年) (Tobashite Yukuyo Version)
Zai Kung Tong Boy (在広東少年) (Live Version with Ryuicihi Sakamoto)
Akiko Yano is a pianist singer-songwriter who came to prominence in Japan during the 80s due to her relationship with YMO (which was more than professional, she was married to Ryuichi Sakamoto for a bit). I put some of her stuff on here ages ago, including the first version of “Tong Poo” that I’m including here again tonight.

The other two version of “Tong Poo” (which I keep typing as “Tony Poo” for some reason) are new. I mean that literally, they’re on her new album, Welcome To Jupiter, which just came out this week. I know I usually don’t post music you can get legally but I do realize that the overwhelming majority of you all reading this don’t live in Japan, so your options for picking this up by legal means are relatively limited. Because record companies don’t understand how digital distribution works.

The Welcome To Jupiter version is an interesting take that combines acoustic instruments with some oddball electronic sound effects. I don’t know if I like everything it does (but waterdrop sound effect is a bit much) but I do appreciate its eccentricity. The “Naked Jupiter” version is an instrumental that’s included as a bonus version of the deluxe edition of the album.

“Zai Kung Tong Boy” is a great song with a really interesting lineage. It was written by Sakamoto and included on Yano’s album Dinner Is Waiting, which was co-produced by Sakamoto as well and features contributions with the rest of YMO. The song was also frequently performed live during YMO concerts, with Yano still on vocals as she was one of their touring keyboardists at the time. It was apparently also performed often at Sakamoto solo shows. The second version is taken from one such show, included as a bonus track on a Sakmoto box set I purchased last year. This version is over seven minutes long and features some SICK shredding.

The final version was taken from Yano’s 2014 album  Tobashite Yukuyo, which featured Yano working with several prominent Japanese producers (a trend she repeats on Welcome To Jupiter). In this case, the producer is Yoshinori Sunahara, formerly of Denki Groove, who has also done remix work for Cornelius and Yukihiro Takahashi of YMO. That same album also features a collaboration with Boom Boom Satellites, and I’ll try to share that sometime soon.

 

Posted in Akiko Yano, Berlin, remixes, Ryuichi Sakamoto | 1 Comment »

Let’s All Go Back To LiveJournal and Listen to Madonna Together

Saturday, September 5th, 2015

Okay so I need to rant about something and I really can’t do it on my other site because less understanding family go there and I can’t do it on Twitter because it would be about a thousand tweets. So congrats, you all win.

Like, what the fuck is wrong with Facebook?

What is it about Facebook that brings out the absolutely shittiest forms of expression in people? Facebook should be awesome, especially for someone like me, an expat who has friends on multiple continents. But it’s not. It’s a wasteland of horrifically unfunny plagiarized memes, anti-science babbling and racist bullshit.

Why? Why do people feel the need to contribute to that festering stew? Who clicks “like” on something that says “click like if you remember [NOSTALGIA]?” Why do that?

Ugh. It’s disgusting. And seeing a sizable minority of my friends recently speak out against #blacklivesmatter as something that’s allegedly racist just makes my head want detach itself from my neck and crawl itself up my ass just because it might find less shit there.

If your natural response to seeing someone post something related to #blacklivesmatter is to say “hey all lives matter” then shut up. Just shut up. Google “All lives matter” and see the racist mountain you’re willing to die on. Shut up. It’s not about you. Shut up and listen. I’m willing to bet you don’t do that a lot.

I’ve given up all hope that we’ll ever live in a “post-racial” society but I’m counting down the days and praying that we someday live in a “post Facebook” one.

There should be a social network dedicated to only sharing original content. Of course, if there was no one would bother to use it, because writing original content is hard and scary and omg look at this Minions meme.

Here are some Latin interpretations of Japanese techno songs performed by a German DJ. And Madonna because I’m gay.

Señor Coconut and His Orchestra
Limbo (instrumental version)
Behind The Mask (Original Hamster’s Yellow Miami Magic Sound Orchestra Machine Remix)
The Madmen (instrumental version)
Ongaku (instrumental version)
Simoon (instrumental version)
I could have sworn that I posted some Señor Coconut before. Huh. Strange. Maybe it was attached to one of the very few posts I’ve had flagged for DMCA violations before (upside to maintaining a woefully unpopular blog on my own server is that I don’t get a lot of those).

Anways, Señor Coconut is the alter ego of one Uwe Schmidt, a German DJ based in Chile. As Mr. Coconut, Schmidt takes classic songs and reimagines them as bossa nova dance jams. It’s a solid concept.

In 2005 he dedicated an entire album to bossa nova covers of Yellow Magic Orchestra songs and called it Yellow Fever. I found a vinyl copy of it last year and fell in love with it. But I was extra elated to pick up a used copy of the Japanese CD edition last week, as it contains a shitload of bonus tracks, all of which I’m including here.

Strangely, on the CD itself the remix of “Behind The Mask” is included as a “secret track” attached to the instrumental of “Ongaku.” As to make things a little less confusing, I went ahead and separated them into two separate tunes.

Madonna
Give It 2 Me (Eddie Amador Club)
Give It 2 Me (Fedde Le Grand Remix)
Give It 2 Me (Eddie Amador House Lovers Remix)
Give It 2 Me (Oakenfold Extended Remix)
Give It 2 Me (Tong & Spoon Wonderland Mix)
Give It 2 Me (Jody den Broeder Club)
Give It 2 Me (Sly and Robbie Ragga Mix)
Another product of the great Madonna singles buying marathon of April. While “Give It 2 Me” is not a bad song, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it didn’t deserve this multitude of remixes.

Posted in B-sides, Madonna, remixes, Senor Coconut | 5 Comments »