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Video game music plagiarism, Kraftwerk and Brian Eno

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Okay, am I insane, or does part of the  music in this game sound totally like Shelia E’s “Glamorous Life”?

The shit you find working at a used game store…

Kraftwerk
Radioactivity (Francois Kevorkian Remix)
Radioactivity (William Orbit Hardcore Mix)
Radioactivity (William Orbit Remix)
My Kraftwerk obsession is getting dangerous. Earlier this year I paid the most I ever paid for a record when I snagged a copy of their entirely out-of-print third album (which I’m going to write about on the new site…which is coming I promise). Then when I went to Japan I paid far too much for a Japanese pressing of The Man Machine, as well as some 12″ singles of “Expo 2000.” Then just last week I bought the German editions of The Man Machine and Computer World, which has led me on a journey to buy the German pressings of Radio-Activity and Trans Europe Express as well.

I already own The Catalog box set that came out a few years ago, but I’m always nervous that I’m going to cave and buy Der Katalog, the same box set but with the German editions of the albums. Even worse, someone has the black box copy of it on Discogs right now! It’s crazy expensive! There’s nothing different about it aside from the fact that the box is black! But I want it! Someone slap some sense into me!

So yeah…I like Kraftwerk. These are some pretty great remixes that I found from a 12″ single that I picked up a few weeks back. The hardcore mix is shockingly hardcore, and pretty rad.

Brian Eno
Fractal Zoom (Up River Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Naive Mix II)
Fractal Zoom (Separate Time Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Mary’s Birthday Mix)
Fractal Zoom (Small Country Mix)
Fractal Zoom (A Cappella)
This is a Brian Eno song, but I don’t really have much to say about Brian Eno. Instead, I want to talk about Robert Fripp. He plays guitar on this this track as well as several other songs on Nerve Net, the album from which the original version of this song is from.

I’m a latecomer to the wonderful world of Robert Fripp, having only recently got into King Crimson and the more ambient experimental work that he did with Eno back in the 70s. However, after looking into the diverse discography of Fripp, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I’m a latecomer to being consciously aware of Robert Fripp. I’ve been unknowingly listening to his guitar work for most of my life.

While what I’m going to say probably isn’t a shock to most fans of the guitarist, it was a shock to me: Robert Fripp, is like, everywhere. Own one of Peter Gabriel’s early solo records? Fripp is probably on that. How about Bowie’s Heroes or Scary Monsters? Fripp plays on those. Like The Talking Heads or Blondie? So did Fripp, he turns up on some of their records. He’s been married to Toyah Wilcox forever, so you can bet he shows up on her albums from time to time. He dropped in on The Future Sound Of London’s ISDN; he’s on a live Stranglers record; he’s done some stuff with David Sylvian of Japan; and he’s worked with electronic artists like The Orb. Shit, the dude even co-wrote and produced some tracks on a fucking Daryl Hall album. And guess what? It’s a really good record!

Robert Fripp is the Kevin Bacon of guitarists. He’s everywhere and has worked with such a bizarre variety of musicians, that I bet you could tie anyone to him in six steps or less. For example, through this song along you can tie him not only to Brian Eno (who himself has worked with a billion or so different artists), but Moby as well, since he’s credited for most of these remixes. Between those two alone you can probably connect Fripp to nearly every popular artist from the last 30 or so years. And that’s just from one song.

Now, it would be really impressive if someone could tie Robert Fripp to Kevin Bacon’s band The Bacon Brothers in six steps or less. Anyone up for that challenge?

Posted in Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, remixes | 13 Comments »

They Might Be Sakamoto

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

I finally went through and cleaned the rest of the records I bought when I was in Tokyo, as well as everything that wasn’t cleaned before I went…as well as the stuff I’ve bought since I returned to the states.

It took me four hours.

Seriously. I was able to watch the first two Fast & Furious films in the time it took me to clean all the damn things.

So, yeah, I guess I really did buy a lot of records when I was in Asia. So many records! They’re surrounding me! I feel like a hoarder, except, y’know, not as insane or on TLC.

The prospect of listening to/recording all of them would overwhelm me if I wasn’t looking forward to it so much. Although to be honest, now that I see my pile of Japanese anime soundtracks next to my turntable, I’m starting to question the level of restraint (or lack there of) that I had while in Japan. Oh well! I bought those Gundam soundtracks and dammit I’m going to listen to them! I might even share them with you all.

Also, look forward to Kraftwerk. Holy shit. So much Kraftwerk. And Leftfield, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Primal Scream, Erasure…you know what? I’m just going to stop now. I want to leave some surprises. I’ll just say that I think I got the next few months, if not year, of The Lost Turntable covered now, and it’s going to be full of some really amazing shit.

Speaking of amazing shit. Yo, check this shit out.

001

Ryuichi Sakamoto (with Thomas Dolby)
Field Work (London Mix)
Field Work (Tokyo Mix)
Exhibition
I’ve begun to slowly dig into the Sakamoto back catalog. Right now I want all of it, but I suppose that’ll stop once after I accidentally buy one of his classical or more jazz-influenced records. I’m sure all that stuff is excellent for what it is, but I’ll pass.

As for these tracks, they are from a 12″ single. The original version of “Field Work” first appeared on the Western version of Sakamoto’s 1986 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia (an abridged and re-edited version of a Japanese only release that first came out in 1984). Dolby fans, however, probably didn’t discover the track until the 2009 re-release of his 1984 album The Flat Earth, which also included soundtrack rarities “Don’t Turn Away” and “The Devil Is An Englishman.”

The version of “Field Work” on The Flat Earth re-issue is labeled as the “London Mix” but it is actually an abridged version of that mix. The proper version runs at about six minutes in length, while the version on the album is only four minutes long. The Tokyo Mix, as far as I can tell, has never been released on CD in any form, and that’s a real shame because I think its the better of the two mixes.

Also rare to my knowledge is “Exhibition.” Dolby is nowhere to be found on this track, and its certainly not a radio-friendly pop number. Instead it’s a 15 minute ambient soundscape with no beats, no melody and no motifs outside of a constant, looping set of beeps and bloops. It’s kind of like something you might find on The KLF’s White Room album, or maybe on an Orb b-side. Not for everyone, but I find it relaxing and oddly enough, a great track to write to. I’ve certainly heard worse Sakamoto, I bought his disco album. It’s…something.

They Might Be Giants
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Brownsville Mix)
Stormy Pinkness
Chalk up TMBG as another band who seemed to be doing their damnedest to make sure their fans have easy access to all of their b-sides and other rarities. Like I said before, I wish all bands would do that, even if it makes my job of finding out-of-print and hard-to-find stuff all the more difficult.

Still, it looks like at least a couple of b-sides slipped through the band’s re-releasing machine. I found these two oddities on the 12″ single for “Istanbul (Not Constantiople),” which also had “James K. Polk” and “Ant,” two songs that have made their ways onto proper TMBG releases.

The remix of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” is one of the strangest TMBG compositions I’ve ever heard, and if you know anything about the group, that’s really saying something.. The TMBG wiki states that it contains a sample of Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” as well as an unidentified Janet Jackson sample. I couldn’t make that out, but I wouldn’t doubt it. The vocal samples at the beginning of the track are even weirder. What the hell is a white tornado?

“Stormy Pinkness” is weird, but it’s also pretty short (about a minute) and there’s not much to it. So I really don’t have anything to say about that one. I’m glad I found it though.

Posted in B-sides, remixes, Ryuichi Sakamoto, They Might Be Giants, Thomas Dolby | 14 Comments »

Punch The Monkey! Lupin The 3rd Remixes, Part 1

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Now for some real Japanese stuff.

022

It seems to me that most anime/manga is fleeting. Many shows and books have intentionally short runs and are more like mini-series than full-fledged shows. But when a show or book takes off in Japan, it really takes off. Titles like Gundam, Macross, Dragonball, those aren’t just TV shows or comic books in Japan, they’re freaking institutions, multi-generational cultural milestones that seem to go on forever and ever.

While I find the enduring popularity of those series to be utterly fascinating, I can never seem to get into them myself.  Gundam and Macross are too complicated and self-serious for me to enjoy, while series like Naruto, Dragonball and One-Piece are about as aesthetically and thematically pleasing to me as an 18th century Russian novel or an British soap opera. There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just not my thing.

The only long-running Japanese series that I have ever been able to get into at all is Lupin The 3rd, which started as a comic in 1967 before branching out into a TV series in 1971 and even a film series starting in 1978. That’s a lot of Lupin, and while my overall exposure to the the various forms of Lupin-related media have been relatively slim in comparison, I’ve loved just about everything I’ve been able to get my hands on.

I think the main reason that I like Lupin more than those other series is that it’s relatively self-contained. You can pop in any Lupin movie or TV series and figure out the basic gist within minutes, and as a whole it’s pretty light entertainment. While I’m sure Lupin has had his serious moments of the years, most of what I’ve seen has been incredibly easy-going and wacky, just the kind of thing I want to watch when I feel the need to escape for a bit. I also love the style of the series, and how its managed to maintain its 1960s aesthetic in one way or another to this day. (Of course, given my limited exposure to Lupin as a whole, I could just be talking out of my ass, but this is what I’ve noticed from the stuff I’ve seen.)

And it’s music is really dope. In the pantheon of anime soundtracks, the Lupin The 3rd main theme takes my second place spot as greatest of all time, right behind the jazzy perfection of Cowboy Bebop. Just like the series itself, I love its retro style, and how it’s managed to evolve over time to incorporate more modern musical movements. It’s a blast to listen to, and apparently I’m not the only person who thinks so, because holy shit there are a ton of remix compilations of the Lupin The 3rd theme music in Japan. I bought a couple of them (as well as some other Lupin-related vinyl) and I’ll be sharing them over the course of the next few days.

Up tonight are the tracks from the 1998 2LP set Punch The Monkey! Lupin The 3rd; The 30th Anniversary Remixes. I was going to do an artist by artist breakdown of the compilation, but I can hardly find anything about any of the people who worked on this record. When I do, it’s typically in Japanese, so that’s not much of a help. The record does have one name I recognize though, and that’s Yasuharu Konishi; the founder of Readymade Records and original member of Pizzicato Five, one of the only Japanese acts ever to make any kind of headway in the American music scene. His remix is pretty great, but then again, nearly all of these remixes are great. But if I had to pick a favorite, I would probably choose Escalator Team’s “Club Escape Mix” of the ’78 Theme, if for only its completely random sample from Mortal Kombat. How the hell did that happen?

Toshio Matsuura
Lupin The 3rd ’78 Theme From Lupin III (Walther P99 Mix)

Masanori Ikeda
Lupin The 3rd ’80 Theme From Lupin III (Latin Calcutta Mix)

Comoesta Yaegashi
Afro Rock Theme (Afro Rock Mix)

Escalator Team
Lupin The 3rd ’78 Theme From Lupin III (Club Escape Mix)

Fuzita Blender
Funny Walk In Old Fashion (Mori No Blend Mix)

Fantastic Plastic Machine
Theme From Lupin The 3rd (F.P.M.’s Reconstruction Mix)

Yasuharu Konishi
Theme From Lupin The 3rd 3 (The Readymade Yangu Oh! Oh! Mix)

Fantastic Explosion
Toward The Patrol Line (You & Fantastic Explosion Mix)

Sunaga T Experience
Lupin The 3rd ’80 (Sunaga T Experience 9849 Mix)

Jun Sasaki
Love Squall (Fujiko’s Love Mix)

Izuru Utsumi
Theme From Lupin The 3rd II (Bossa ’98 Mix)

 

Posted in Anime, Complete Albums, remixes, soundtrack | 1 Comment »

Play Video Games Be Happy. Also, listen to rad remixes of awesome tunes.

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Do you live in the greater Pittsburgh area?

Do you like video games?

Do you ever wish there was a place where you could buy vintage and import games at affordable prices and play classic arcade games on giant 99″ projection screens?

Then I got the place for you, the Penn Hills Game Exchange, an awesome video game store/arcade in, duh, Penn Hills, PA.

It’s a new store that a couple of my friends just opened, and it’s totally rad. You should check it out. Tell them I sent you. That way when I come in they can reward me with free candy.

Now that I got the plugging out of the way, here’s an incredibly eclectic assortment of electronic music.

Boom Boom Satellites
Push Eject (Howie B Remix)
4 A Moment of Silence
4 A Moment of Silence (Trapezoid Mix by Jack Dangers for Meat Beat Manifesto)
I plan on writing something a bit more in-depth on Boom Boom Satellites sometime in the future. For now I’ll just say that they’re one of my favorite Japanese bands, and I’ve been somewhat of a fan of theirs ever since I saw them open for Moby in 1999. However, it’s not easy to be a fan of the Boom Boom Satellites if you live in America, as almost none of their albums have been given a physical release in the states, and a few aren’t even available on Amazon MP3 or iTunes. That’s why I went all out when I was in Japan and I bought every single Boom Boom Satellites album I could find, giving myself a complete discography of their studio albums; one of their live releases, and a CD single for “Broken Mirror” which was apparently in a Gundam soundtrack (yo, the Japanese love Gundam, for real).

But these remixes are from none of the albums or singles I bought in Japan. Nope, I got these off of a 12″ single that I bought right here in Pittsburgh. Funny how that works.

The Future Sound of London
Snake Hips
The Future Sound of London have done a hell of a job of making sure all their 12″ singles, remixes and other assorted oddities are in-print and easy to snag on various digital services. And good on them, it’s nice to see a band actually understand that if you make  music available, people might buy it. Makes finding a track for me to share a real pain in the ass though. I bought a few FSOL singles in Japan, and this extended mix of “Snake Hips” is the only one that I am sure isn’t on a CD or digital release that you can find in America. The album version from ISDN is about five minutes long, but this version taken from a 12″ single is about eight and a half minutes long. Not surprisingly, it’s still weird.

The Folk Implosion
Natural One (Unkle Mix)
Natural One (Unkle Instrumental)
As the 2000s progress, I find myself more and more often identifying certain pop culture artifacts from the 1990s as “90s as shit.” My Saturday Morning Cartoons covers compilation: that’s 90s as shit. Space Jam: incredibly 90s as shit. Anything with Seth Green where you watch it now and go “holy shit, Seth Green is in this?”: also 90s as shit.

This right here, a song by Lou Barlow from a controversial Miramax film (Kids, a vomit of a film if there ever was one) that was in turn remixed by Unkle, one of the greatest flash-in-the-pan acts of the decade, and a poster child for mid-90s “electronica,” is some real  “90s and shit” shit. It’s also some really good shit, so check them out.

Posted in B-sides, Boom Boom Satellites, Future Sound Of London, remixes, The Folk Implosion | 4 Comments »

Slyvester Goes To Hollywood

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

I’m on my new hosting service! But stuff is still kind of on fire. That’s why there’s no logo at the top of the screen. Hopefully that will get worked out soon. Double hopefully now that everything is moved I can finally start getting that other site in a state where I can unveil it to the masses. I think it’ll be relatively dope.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Two Tribes (Fluke Magimix)
Two Tribes (Olav Basoski’s Tiberium Power Mix)
Two Tribes (Rob Searle’s Club Dub)
While in Japan I picked up the Frankie Said, a  2CD compilation that assembles a rather bizarre combination of Frankie b-sides, remixes and outtakes. It’s an awesome collection, with multiple versions of classics like “Relax,” “Weclome The The Pleasuredome” and “Two Tribes.”

One of the most interesting things about the album is its sequence and editing. It has many interludes, 30-second to one-minute tracks that contain spoken word bits and song fragments. Many of them work to seamlessly segue into the next track. In doing so, it kind of transforms the hodgepodge collection into a concept album of sorts , and not just because parts of it sound like one big song mixed together, I mean thematically too. The compilation focuses on what Frankie knew best, hedonism, sex, drugs, and the constant threat of World War III. If that doesn’t have the makings of a concept album about life in the early 80s, I don’t know what does.

If you can find a copy of that 2CD set, I recommend picking it up. None of these remixes are from the said set though, they’re from a 2×12″ single that I also bought in Japan. The Fluke mix is the best of the bunch. And I love the fact that Fluke did a Frankie Goes To Hollywood remix.

Sylvester
Band Of Gold
Band Of Gold (Dub Mix)
Band Of Gold (Radio Edit)
Does the original version of “Band of Gold” by Freda Payne count as disco? It came out in 1970, which I guess predates disco by a few years, but it sure sounds like something that could have torn up a disco club in the 70s. It’s certainly one of my favorite pop songs of the decade, and has turned into a surprising recurring track here on The Lost Turntable. First I put up a cover by Modern Romance that was featured on the wonderfully horrid Party Party soundtrack. Then I shared it again years later, this time being Belinda Carlisle’s version. Those versions were good, but they can’t hold a candle to this one. I mean, c’mon, Sylvester? Patrick Cowley? Can’t top that.

Listening to this track got me on a disco kick, and I searched to see if Sylvester ever did a cover of my favorite classic disco track “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” Turns out he didn’t. However, I did find a cover of the song by his friend and fellow disco diva Jeanie Tracy. That cover has a remix called “A Sylvester Mix.” I don’t know if he had anything to do with the mix, or it if was a tribute to him and/or his boyfriend who had just succumbed to AIDS that year. “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was a rallying cry for the AIDS-affected gay community of the early 80s, so that wouldn’t surprise me. It’s awesome though, so now I have a new 12″ single to track down.

Posted in Fluke, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Patrick Cowley, remixes, Sylvester | 2 Comments »

Vib-Ribbon! Make me happy and tendentious!!!!!!!!

Monday, January 28th, 2013

Scan

I wanted to stock up on game music when I went to Japan, but little did I know that the greatest game music I would find while there wouldn’t be on a soundtrack, but on the actual game itself. Thank you PS1 games with Redbook audio!

Laugh And Peace – Music From Vib Ribbon
Polaroid
Sunny Day
Laugh And Beats
Universal Dance
Overflowing Emotions
Roll Along
Vib Ribbon Blues
When it came to shopping in Japan, I was definitely focused on music more than anything else. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t spend at least a little bit of time in Tokyo going after some vintage Japanese games and systems. The classic games that I was after ended up costing way more than the albums I wanted though, so my gaming purchases were rather limited. I did, however, pick up a few nice items, among them being an original Famicon Twin system, the Japanese version of Contra, and a game for the PS1 by the name of Vib Ribbon.

Vib Ribbon is an early rhythm game that was originally released in Japan in 1999. It was released in PAL territories the following year, but it never made its way to the states for some reason. I have no idea why, because it’s the dopest shit ever.

In Vib Ribbon you’re tasked with guiding a rabbit by the name of Vibri across a simple one-dimensional plane (or ribbon) that is filled with obstacles that are roughly based on the rhythm of the game’s music. Each obstacle can only be cleared by pressing the correct button (or button combination) at the exact right time. It starts out easy, but it gets crazy hard as you progress.

One of the most noteworthy things about the game is that you can remove the game disc and put any audio CD in the Playstation and play each song on the CD as its own “stage,” basically giving you as many stages as you have CDs. It’s a cute idea, and while I’ve done plenty of that in my time with the game, I’ve actually spent more time sticking to the game’s built-in soundtrack, because it’s incredible.

I had decided about twenty seconds into the first time I heard the adorable “Polaroid” that it was my new favorite song of all time of the month, only to have it immediately usurped by the even more adorable, beautiful and lovely “Sunny Day,” a song as bright and uplifting as its title. It’s so good. So good! I had to walk away from my computer before writing this post. It’s so good, I had to calm down, or tonight’s post would have been just something like “OMG YOU GUYS! THIS MUSIC! IT’S SO….AAAAAAAGRHGHRRDHRATERHEHEHGERHAE THERE’S NO TIME HURRY UP EVERYTHING’S SO FANTASTIC!”

And that’s just unprofessional.

But yes, you need to listen to this music especially the first three tracks, they are perfection, so happy it hurts.

As far as I know, all of these songs are by a Japanese group called Laugh And Peace. They are best known for…this. They released one album in 2006, but it was never released in the states (of course). You can stream it on their MySpace page though. I have no idea what the members are up to now, so if anyone does please let me know!

Listen. Be happy. (That’s an important part). And I’ll see you all later in the week with more awesome music, although to be honest I doubt it will be as awesome as this. It’s awesome.

Awesome.

Posted in Complete Albums, Game Music, Laugh And Peace, soundtrack | 10 Comments »

Some choice records from Japan and Beijing

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

While my in-depth articles on buying records in Beijing and Tokyo are still  in the works, I thought some of you might like to see some of the stuff I snagged. So here you go. No music tonight, I’ll have something up tomorrow though.

YMO (Yellow Magic Ochestra) are an amazing synthpop act from Japan who have been around since the late 1970s. One of the members is Ryuichi Sakamoto, who would later go on to some American success as an Oscar-winning film composer for his work on The Last Emperor. They’ve served as a major international influence on electronic music, but most of their best albums aren’t available in the states, so I snatched up as many as I could while in Japan. I bought almost all of these CDs at Tower Records(!!!) while I got the LPs from a variety of stores. All great finds. The live CDs are especially good.

 

I also grabbed some YMO-related albums, mostly solo projects and spin-off groups from the band’s three members. Of the ones I’ve listened to so far, I like The Beatniks one the most. That Summer Nerves album by Sakamoto is some ultra-cheesy disco and I love/hate it.

 

Boom Boom Satellites are another one of my favorite Japanese bands. Only their first album was released on CD in America, and most of their others aren’t even available digitally, so I had to grab as many as I could. Turns out they’re one hell of a prolific group, with nine albums and countless singles to their credit All these records are great by the way, if you like 90s-style electronica or electronic-rock ala Garbage then I highly recommend them. Their newest record, Embrace, is excellent.

 

One of my big goals in this trip was to find some X Japan on vinyl, but this proved much harder than I thought it would be. The only proper X Japan LP I could find was this picture disc of their last studio release, Dahlia, and it set me back about $50. I found a picture disc of one of their singles, but the store was asking (a fair) $200 for it and I passed.

 

I did find some cool X Japan-related material though, including their late guitar player Hide’s debut CD Hide Your Face (in deluxe packaging) and a copy of the band’s massive 2CD live album “On The Verge of Destruction.” The real treat, however, was that black box you see there. That’s not a CD nor an LP, it’s, in fact, a USB drive shaped like a heart!

 

Inside is the complete Hide discography in high quality MP3, including all his studio releases, both his live albums, and all his singles. Even better? I got it used for $40 at a camera store! Score!

 

Time for some wacky soundtracks. Of course I had to pick up some Godzilla LPs.

 

A selection of anime film scores.

 

The requisite Gundman BGM collections (spoiler: Japan LOVES Gundam)

 

And a nice assortment of Lupin The 3rd soundtracks. That one on the bottom right is especially interesting. It’s a two-LP set, and the front and back cover of one of the sleeves are pairs of interlaced images. On their own they look like a scrambled mess.

 

But when you slide the outer sleeve over them and adjust it accordingly, the real images become clear.

Simple but cool.

 

I really wanted to get some video game soundtracks on vinyl when I was in Japan, but this proved to be a near impossibility. In fact, I only found one but it’s a goodie. You can expect that on here soon.

 

While I couldn’t get much in the way of video game vinyl, I did end up snagging a good deal of game soundtracks on CD. Got some good stuff including some Sega and Nintendo greatest hits. The Bare Knuckle (Streets Of Rage) CD was a real find, and cost accordingly.

 

Some other great soundtracks. Breakin’ 2 and Warlock, together at last!

 

Got some great soundtracks on CD as well. That 2CD set of The Fog is a real nice find.

 

Of course, coming across this one made me really happy. I think I scared some clerks with my yelling. Or maybe it was because I’m 6’6″ tall?

 

I was hoping to pick up some Nirvana when I was there, and thankfully the local stores didn’t disappoint. All of these are first printings, and all look flawless. Definitely stoked to pick these up. On a related note, I now own six different versions of Nevermind on CD and vinyl, and four different versions of Incesticide. No, I don’t have a problem. I can stop anytime I want to.

 

You know who’s big in Japan? Japan.

 

Public Image Ltd. is also apparently big in Japan, if the wealth of PiL vinyl I saw was any indication.

 

Also got this pretty radical CD box set.

Who likes brit-pop singles box sets?

 

Wow!

 

Wow again! I now own the America, German and Japanese pressings of this record. No wonder I’m running out of shelf space for my LPs.

 

I’ve never seen so much 90s vinyl in my life as I did in Japan.

 

Came across a lot of Dinosaur Jr. and Dinosaur Jr. related records while I was in Tokyo as well, I don’t know why. I sure bought a lot of it though.

 

Some random silliness.

 

Random silliness continues. Once I bought one I had to get the other.

 

Some lovely nostalgia. Seeing The Muppet Show soundtrack made me squee with joy, while I picked up the Saturday Morning Cartoons compilation just for fun, I bought that CD the week it came out, it has some of my favorite tracks from the era (Sponge’s take on “Speed Racer,” The Ramones tearing up the theme to “Spider-Man”).

 

If there’s a more appropriate record to pick up in Japan I don’t know what it is. Thank you very much Mr. Roboto.

Of course, there was plenty more where that came from, but I don’t want to ruin all the surprises!

Hoped you like this, stay tuned for a lot of music this week!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

I’m back! And I brought all the Japanese synth-pop with me!

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Okay, so here was my plan: Put a couple posts in the pipe while I was in China, and then once I got to Japan, occasionally blog about the stuff I was getting/feature some music from any out-of-print CDs I may have bought while in the country.

The first part of my plan worked perfectly, however, once in Japan I realized I failed to take into account HOW FUCKING AWESOME TOKYO IS. Sorry, but once I got there the last thing I wanted to do was sit in my hotel room and write about what I bought that day. I wanted to go out and play in the arcades; walk around Shibuya until midnight; go to crazy Japanese clubs; drink crazy Japanese drinks; and so much more! There’s so much to do and see in that city, and the longer I was there, the less I cared about getting back to my hotel in time to write a really good blog post. I just wanted to explore that city until my feet couldn’t take anymore, sleep, wake up, and repeat the whole process. So sorry if the blog kind of fell into a wasteland for a couple of weeks, but I was honestly having too much fun to really care.

But I’m back now! And holy shit do I have a lot to talk about! I plan on writing a couple of massive posts about my trip in the coming weeks/month, hopefully for my oft-delayed new site, but until then, I’m just going to start posting music that I picked up on the trip. I bought a ton of Western stuff, but expect to see a good portion of Japanese music as well, starting with tonight.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Y.M.O. Mega-Mix
Firecracker (Remix)
Behind The Mask (Remix)
I wish I knew the reason why most of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s discography remains painfully hard to get in the states. Only one of their albums is available digitally on Amazon, and only a select few are available to buy via import. Is it a right’s issue? Or is Sony (I think that’s who own this stuff) just too stupid to give the stuff a proper release. I get why they haven’t bothered to put the CDs out here, but it would cost them next to nothing to get this stuff on digital download stores. What gives?

I didn’t want to wait to find out, so when I was in Japan I pretty much picked up a complete YMO discography across both CD and LP, and over the next few months I’m going to try and figure out what to post and what not to. Sure, nearly all of their albums aren’t available in the states, but I still think that most of them are worth tracking down and picking up, even at import prices. Maybe I’ll do some kind of “Greatest Hits” where I choose my favorite YMO tracks across the records I picked up. I think that’s the best and most ethical way to do things.

Tonight though I’m putting up a complete CD single, because even if the YMO albums proper ever make their way to American shores, I really doubt these remixes will. These are from a 1990 CD single simply called Y.M.O MEGA MIX that contains the self-titled medley track, and two additional YMO remixes.  The mega-mix is a massive 12 minute beast, containing snippets from seven different YMO tracks. None of them are massively re-worked, but it’s a great brief journey through some of YMO’s better tracks, including the excellent “Rydeen” and the super-catchy “Computer Game.”

I personally prefer the two additional remixes more than the mega-mix, especially the mix of “Behind The Mask” that extends the song by nearly two minutes and really lets the track’s excellent melody come to life.

It’s good to be back! And expect plenty of amazing stuff over the next few months! I bought so many records in Japan…

Posted in Complete Albums, remixes, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 3 Comments »

I’m not dead.

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

I just have a nasty head cold and hella jet lag.

New post coming soon.

PS: I bought all the music in Japan. It’s all gone. Sorry.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Grunge Thunder From Down Under

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

As this post goes up I will probably be finishing up my trip in China and getting ready to head off to Japan. That will be the closest I ever make it to Australia, so I thought I’d share a concert that was recorded down under to mark the occasion.

Why will I never go to Australia? Because I don’t want to be killed by any of the deadly spiders, snakes, insects, fish, jellyfish, dingoes, kangaroos  bats or koalas that seem to roam around that country with impunity.

That, and records cost a fucking fortune there.

Nirvana – Live In Melbourne, February 1st, 1992 (Complete concert link)
Aneurysm
Drain You
School
Sliver
About A Girl
Come As You Are
Lithium
Breed
Polly
Lounge Act
In Bloom
Love Buzz
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Druid’s Jam
Negative Creep
On A Plain
Blew
Been a while since I shared a Nirvana bootleg so I thought I’d ring in the New Year with one.

I do know there are other source recordings for this show, it shows up quite a bit on various bootleg sites in varying degrees of quality. It’s been released on CD at least four times, under the names “In A Land Far Far Away,” “The Druids Jam,” “Melbourne 1992” and “Narcolepsy.” My source for this recording was a 2LP set that came in a plain white sleeve and a sheet of paper with a “Live Wire” logo. Beneath that was the text “Show #57 for the week of October 13.” I can assume then that Live Wire was a radio show that featured live performances, and this was the performance for that week.

I think this version that I have sounds pretty damn good, and the records were very well taken care of so I barely had to do any cleaning to the recordings. About the only problems with the audio are from the source material. Parts of this set are pretty feedback-laden, and Kurt and company didn’t seem to be completely on fire that night, making a few mistakes early on before settling into a nice groove. There is also no talk from Kurt, Dave or Krist for the entirety of the concert. Nirvana was never a band that was chatty with the audience, but most shows I have include at least a little bit of wacky banter from Krist, this one has nothing at all.

As it stands though, this is a pretty good concert, warts and all. It also has an honest-to-goodness rarity, the instrumental “Druid’s Jam,” (a name that a fan probably created). It’s pretty much just four minutes of feedback and noise, but hey, it’s something.

Looking for more Nirvana bootlegs? Well check out this post that has a great Boston show from 1990, and this post for a legendary set from 1991 that was also in Boston.

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