Archive for May, 2018

パックマン・フィーバー (Pac/Puc Man Fever)

Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Buckner & Garcia
Puc-Man Fever (Japanese Version)
Buckner & Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever” is kind of an infamous track at this point, but I think it gets a bad rep. Sure, it’s not the best song ever written and its definitely not a song you’d want stuck in your head for more than 10 minutes. But as song about video games go, it’s pretty damn good. And yes, there are other songs about video games. Who could forget Gary Wright’s “Dig Dug?” (The answer is, of course, literally everyone.)Don’t forget, this song was a Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit single, peaking at number nine.

But the song wasn’t only a hit in the states, it saw an official release in many other territories too, including Japan. That makes sense, Pac-Man was just as big (if not bigger) in Japan than it was in the states, so why not release the song there?

Well, one problem with that, in Japan, Pac-Man was still officially Puck-Man.

I’m sure a large portion of my audience already knows this, but Puck-Man was Pac-Man’s original name. It was only changed after someone realized that Puck-Man looks and sounds way too much like Fuck-Man, with the graffiti and vandalism possibilities too horrific to even imagine. So “puck” became “pac,” and most of world never realized that the little yellow guy was supposed to be shaped like a hockey puck.

Anyways, back to the song. When the time came to release the song in Japan, Buckner & Garcia apparently went back into the studio to re-record the chorus of the song, changing every instance of “Pac” to “Puck.” If you ever wanted proof that record companies just had fucking millions to burn in the early 80s, there you go.

I highly doubt this version of the song ever got any other official release aside from the Japanese 7″ single. The album itself was never issued in Japan. Hell, the original version of “Pac-Man Fever” has never been re-issued on a proper Buckner & Garcia CD or digitally (any CD or iTunes version is a re-recorded take from the 90s). So I feel safe in assuming that this is a proper rarity.

Here’s an idea for Record Store Day 2019; completely remastered “Pac-Man Fever” 7″ single using that dope as fuck Japanese art, with “Puc-Man Fever” as the B-side. Someone get on this now.

Posted in Buckner & Garcia | 1 Comment »

Towa Tei Or Towa Die

Friday, May 25th, 2018

Towa Tei has a new album coming out this summer, in a sense. It’s actually a collaborative effort between him, fellow Metafive member Yoshinori Sunahara and someone who goes by the name Bakarhythm (“baka” is Japanese for “stupid” FYI). The project is using the name of an old Towa pseudonym, Sweet Robots Against The Machine.

I have high hopes for this one, despite the fact that the original SRATM album a rather forgettable affair. I’m much more of a fan of Towa’s current sound than his older stuff, and anything he’s done with anyone from his Metafive crew has just been fabulous. His albums Sunny, Lucky, Cute and Emo are all top-notch dance-pop bangers so here’s hope the streak continues with what he has coming up next.

In the meantime, let’s check out some of the stuff he put out in the past, which I coincidentally bought last week.

Towa Tei
Let Me Know (TT Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix Instrumental)
This is a track from Towa’s 1999 album, Last Century Modern, featuring Chara on vocals. This is very 90s Towa, with a heavy emphasis on that ever-so-hard-to-define “lounge” sound that he typified at the time. I really dig this stuff, but only in really small doses. It’s very much a singles genre for me. A whole album of it tires rather quickly. It’s just not uptempo enough for me. I need some more beats. I guess that’s why I prefer his newer stuff, it finds a happy middle-ground between his low-key lounge act stuff and the hyperactive techno that’s still relatively popular here in Japan. These remixes came from a 10″ single that, in addition to being green, has the cutest damn cover ever.

Deee-Lite
Pussycat Meow (The Meow Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Boys Miami Mix)
Pussycat Meow (The Pussy Power Remix)
Pussycat Meow (Infinity Extended Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Bonus Dub)
I’ve listened to this track about 10 times now and have gone from kinda liking it to kinda outright hating it. It’s such a non-song. Man, Deee-lite is fucking tragic. I’m including this for all your remix completists out there and for no other reason at all. I can see why I disliked a lot of early Towa Tei now, he had to get stuff like this out of his system.

Also, if you like this song, HEY THAT’S COOL MAYBE DON’T LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT HOW I’M STUPID FOR NOT LIKING IT.

Posted in Deee-Lite, remixes, Towa Tei | 2 Comments »

Electronic Music For Dead Feet

Monday, May 21st, 2018

Entertained a guest the past few days, which was very fun. It’s always great to show someone around Tokyo for the first time. It’s also incredibly exhausting. Holy shit I’m tired. Hence the short random post tonight. And hence the first post without proper art of any kind since December of last year. Damn. I was on a roll too.

Nah, fuck it. Here’s a picture of dancing mascots.

Okay, the streak continues.

Ram Jam World
Bluesy Baby
Bluesy Baby (Instrumental)
Bluesy Baby (Ed Rush & Optical Remix)
Ram Jam World is a Japanese drum and bass act. That was a surprise to me, because in my four years here I have yet to find anyone who remotely enjoys DnB. On the few occasions that I visit dance music record stores, I rarely come across the genre. Most dance music here is house or techno. I had no idea the act was Japanese when I bought this single. I snagged it solely because it featured a remix by Ed Rush and Optical, my favorite drum and bass act of all-time.

Now that I am aware of Ram Jam World’s existence, I hope that I can find some of their CDs proper. I really want to track down Uta To Oto, since it features Tomohiko Gondo from Metafive. This track doesn’t feature any luminaries of the Japanese electronic music scene (as far as I know) but it does feature Speech from Arrested Development. Speech is big in Japan. I have no idea why. I just know that he toured here as recently as 2016, and has several albums that either are exclusive to Japan or came to Japan first. So the next time someone drops on you that Mr. Big and Scatman John are big in Japan, you can throw that fact on them too.

Of course, no one in Japan is bigger than me in a literal sense because I’m a giant.

Gershon Kingsley
Popcorn (2000 Instrumental)
Popcorn is, of course, not a rare track. It’s probably still one of the most popular and recognizable electronic songs of all time. But this version is, as it was a vinyl only bonus track to the Grand Royale compilation At Home With The Groovebox. That album contains another version of this song that features Gershon Kingsley describing how he created the song the first time around. This version strips away that explanation and leaves us with a rather interesting modern take on the song, one that I can assume was created primarily with digital synths and computers of the era. It doesn’t have the classic analog sound of the original version, but it’s still great. And the wordless vocalizing that fades in near the end of the track is a nice touch that serves the song well.

Posted in Gershon Kinglsey, Ram Jam World, remixes | No Comments »

Easy Going – Claudio Simonetti’s Inappropriate Disco

Wednesday, May 16th, 2018

Easy Going
Fear
I Strip You
To Simonetti
Put Me In The Deal
Easy Going was an Italian Disco act that featured horror rock icon Claudio Simonetti. While Simonetti’s involvement with such a project might be surprising for fans of his work with Goblin, it wasn’t the only time that he was involved with dance music. Around the same time of Fear, Simonetti was working as Capricorn, pumping out a few singles from 1980 to 1982. There was also Kasso, probably the best known of his disco aliases. He released three albums as Kasso in the 80s, with the first two being very widely acclaimed by fans of electronic disco. Like Kasso and Capricorn, Easy Going was more or less a Simonetti solo project. The album has a multitude of performers, but Simonetti composed, arranged, conducted and produced the album, with lyrics by Giancarlo Meo.

Also like Kasso and Capricorn, Easy Going is a good example of Italo-Disco. For those not familiar with the genre, it is disco from Italy (duh) that blends the disco sound of the 70s with the Hi-NRG and synthpop sounds of the 80s. The best cuts from this album, the first two tracks, are both very Italo-Disco, very Moroderesque, while the latter two are decent examples of more traditional disco.

“Fear,” sounds like a horror remix of “I Feel Love,” with a pulsing sequencer rhythm wonderfully punctuated by some ominous-sounding strings and intense vocoder-aided vocals (along with some random screaming). And then there’s “I Strip You.” It’s halfway between traditional disco and electronic music, with just as much strings as keyboards and sequencers. It’s a really powerful, funky song with a fantastic groove…that seems to be from the point-of-view of a potential rapist, maybe?

You made a mistake
Don’t play games with me, girl
You made a big mistake
And now you’re staying here

Furthermore, he seems to be willing to commit this crime just because he wants to disprove rumors that he’s gay?

This way you won’t say
That you think I am gay
To the people you won’t say
That you think I am gay

But wait, maybe he is gay! Because as the song ends…

Now that you’re turned on
I don’t want you now, girl
So now you’re free to say
The truth that I am gay
It’s better that I go
I don’t want you no more
You’ve got the reason to say
To say that I am gay

So he was gay all the time and he was just fucking with her? Or he was gay and he was trying to convince himself that he wasn’t? Or he can only be with women when they’re not interested? This is a weird track. It sounds like a treatment to an unmade Argento film that was turned into a club track.

It should be mentioned that Easy Going was named after a gay night club. The cover of their first album is an explicit piece of art that was part of the club’s dance floor. It has a song called “Little Fairy.” Their third album has a cover of “Gay Time Latin Lover.” I have no idea if anyone involved with Easy Going was actually gay, but they were certainly playing with the idea that people must’ve thought they were. I’m sure there’s something icky about the politics of that, but I don’t want to bother going there.

Regardless of all of this, these tracks are certainly better than the Capricorn disco cuts I’ve heard, and actually make me interested in tracking down those first two Kasso records. I assume they have less songs about potential sexual assault and ambiguous sexual orientations.

I mean, I don’t know for sure, but it’s a safe bet.

Posted in Claudio Simonetti, Complete Albums | 3 Comments »

Hudson Game Music – Arranged Versions

Thursday, May 10th, 2018

Hudson Game Music
Bomberman (Arranged Version)
Nuts & Milk (Arranged Version)
Binaryland (Arranged Version)
Championship Lode Runner (Arranged Version)
Star Soldier (Arranged Version)
Hudson Game Music was the third release by G.M.O. Records, a subsidiary of Afla Records that was set up by Yellow Magic Orchestra for releases of game music soundtracks. Nearly all of the label’s early releases were compilations for specific developers, most likely because games at the time didn’t have enough music on their own to fill a complete album.

Most of the early releases by G.M.O. featured only one or two “arranged” (or remixed) versions and instead focused on pure audio rips from the games themselves. The Hudson Game Music release is a bit different as its entire B-side is dedicated to arranged versions, with nearly every game from the A-side getting a proper arranged version on the B-side. I don’t know if this was because Hudson didn’t have enough games of note to fill an album, or because G.M.O. wanted to showcase arranged versions, it’s hard to say.

Some of these titles are pretty damn obscure. Of course, I know Bomberman and Lode Runner (albeit not in its “Championship” variation), and I have a vague recollection of Star Soldier, but I know Nuts and Milk by name only, and have never even heard of Binaryland. A quick YouTube search of both confirms that I’ve never played either.

These arrangements were all done by Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who did a ton of arranging and remixing for a lot of early game music releases by GMO Records. He also worked with a few legends of Japanese music, including Jun Togawa and Denki Groove. He certainly knows what he’s doing here, all of these arranged versions are pretty damn great. The standout for me is the manic take on the Bomberman theme, a sample-heavy remake that also features a rad guitar solo. The Nuts and Milk track is a bit more sedate, but builds off the game’s simple melody in some fun ways, while the Binaryland theme is oddly re-imagined as a string quartet piece (with some synth overdubs) that makes it sound a bit like a lullaby. Championship Lode Runner is the sparsest of the bunch: a dreamy re-working that’s bookended with music box-esque takes on the tune, while Star Soldier is probably the most standard of the group, but that’s not a bad thing; it’s a fully synthed out remix that would fit alongside most 16-bit shooters, and with so much synth-bass. Love the synth-bass. Need more synth-bass.

According to the Video Game Music Database, Hudson Game Music was released on vinyl and cassette on July 25, 1986, with the CD version coming out exactly one month later. That would make it the fifth GMO title to be released, between Konami Game Music Music Vol. 1 and Capcom Game Music. It’s exceedingly rare to find these days, I’ve never even seen a CD copy. This rip is from the vinyl edition. Unlike other early G.M.O. releases, the Hudson Game Music vinyl edition was a picture disc. And yes, that certainly does look cool, it doesn’t do wonders for audio quality. Thankfully, I think my vinyl restoration software did a pretty good job of cleaning it up. Hope you dig it.

Posted in Game Music, remixes | 5 Comments »