Hatsumi Shibata — レッド・スキャンダル (Red Scandal)
from ラブ・イズ・イリュージョン b/w レッド・スキャンダル (1979)
My favorite Japanese disco diva, Hatsumi Shibata, with a smoking track from 1979, ‘Red Scandal’… the b-side to ‘Love is Just an Illusion.’ The vinyl cover is rad, too.
If you like this, don’t miss ‘Singer Lady.’
Haruko Kuwana — Downtown
from Moonlight Island (1982)
More Japanese disco bliss. Here Haruko Kuwana covers the 1975 classic ‘Downtown’ by Tatsuro Yamashita’s short-lived pop group Sugar Babe. But she sings it in 英語 kids: Downtown Saturday Night…
I would love to track down this album.. hit me up if you have it! (Mas disco…)
R+Naaaa — IE
from R+Naaaa (Riow Arai + Nonpareille, Anna Yamada, Akane Del Mar, Ayako Akashiba, Achico) (2009)
Understated beauty from Tokyo-based electronic producer Riow Arai in collaboration with Anna Yamada.
Testpattern — Techno Age
from Après-Midi (1982)
Gorgeous technopop from Japan… half video game soundtrack, half zen meditation.
Tipped off to this masterpiece by YingYangs.
Haruomi Hosono, Suzuki Shigeru, Tatsuro Yamashita — Passion Flower
from Pacific (1978)
Aw yeah. Three incomparable instrumentalists, one sparkling disco rhinestone. You might call this elevator music. But it’s the kind you’d hear as you breeze out of the elevator at your Hanalei Bay resort, hiding behind your Ray-Bans, and someone hands you a coconut with a straw in it. Oh yes.
Jiro over at the fantastic Ying Yangs hooked me up with this album and I thank him warmly from my cabana.
Gypsy Blood — Wasurekaketa Kotoba (Forgotten Words)
from Rokko Oroshi (1972)
If ニールヤング.. er.. Neil Young.. had been born in Japan instead of ol’ Canada… he might have sounded something like this! Rokko Oroshi is Gypsy Blood’s second and final album, and it’s a pity, because this is classic dust-under-the-wheels road music… roll the windows down, dude. (Or roll another number…) Other tracks are straight-up Deliverance-style hand-clappin’, fiddle-sawin’, mandolin-pickin’ jams—wild stuff.
I am only guessing, but they may have gotten their name from the raw solo guitar track of the same name, recorded by Jimi Hendrix in 1968.
Piano parts on this album performed by none other than Alan Merrill, frontman of the amazing Tokyo glam rockers Vodka Collins. Stay tuned for some of that too.
Grabbed this record at Japanese Old Prog.
Urban Dance — Alienlover
from Ceramic Dance (1986)
This…is the FUTURE. Well ok actually, it’s 1986—incredible Japanese techno-pop that sounds like it could have come out yesterday. What is up with those crazy guitar loops? Amazing stuff, really.
Urban Dance is headed by Shinobu Narita, who handles electronics, guitar and vocals. And as many trailblazing projects are, this EP was produced with help from Haruomi Hosono.
Read more here, in Japanese. WaxMask has the follow-up album to this EP.
Tatsuro Yamashita — Daydream
from Ride on Time (1980)
One of my absolute favorite things is Japanese disco. So smooth, so sugary…like Fun Dip in musical form. Makes you wanna scream. Tatsuro Yamashita is one of my musical heroes, as he also founded the classic Japanese group Sugar Babe about seven years before this. Pop genius.
http://soundcloud.com/greenraymusic/greetings-from-tokyo-bay
Marble Sheep — Melted Moon
from Marble Sheep & The Run-Down Sun’s Children (1990)
“HIGH ENERGY PSYCHEDELIC NOISE PUNK EXPERIENCE”
Just made my pledge to my darling WFMU… stoked to hear Scott McDowell’s premium of Japanese freak-out psych!
KEEP FREEFORM ALIVE!
wfmu:
“Ritualistic wooly psych from Japan. My own personal Tokyo Flashback compilation.”
from Scott McDowell’s Red-Hot Iron Ball: Japanese free-psych and ritual music from the Long Rally vaults. Swallow it. [WFMU 2012 Marathon Premium]
The Long Rally airs Fridays 9am-12noon | Pledge to WFMU in the name of Scott M!
Agata Morio — Submarine
from Norimono Zukan (1980)
Heard this track on Liz Berg’s show this morning. It’s from Japanese folkie Agata Morio’s 1980 album Norimono Zukan, aka Transportation Encyclopedia. Don’t be fooled, though. This sounds nothing like folk—it’s one of the 11 LPs issed on the underground “techno-pop” label Vanity Records:
“Vanity Records in Osaka was one of the unforgettable hallmarks of the early Japanese underground music scene of the late-70′s. This label was founded by Yuzuru Agi, the music critic/editor of ROCK MAGAZINE. Agi was a sort of alternative visionary with a superb talent to assess new musical modes at a time when blues and West Coast-style rock still dominated the local music scene…Inspired by punk and the flood of indie labels that swept New York and London, Agi started Vanity Records in 1978, releasing 11 LPs, 3 singles, 12 flexis, and 6 cassettes between ’78 and ’82 (each release limited to 300-500 copies).”
- Satoru Higashiseto from Music No. 2, 1998, via Dave Knapik
Someone over at Direct Waves says the Morio track might actually be a cover (the music, at least) of the 1979 Joy Division track ‘She’s Lost Control‘… it’s a dead ringer.
Trippple Nippples — Golden Road (Oli Chang Remix) (2012)
More beautiful sounds from the Tokyo dream team, Trippple Nippples, re-imagined by remix wizard Oli Chang. (you can hear the original on the Trippple Nippples soundcloud)
I was lucky enough to catch the girls’ Glasslands show last month, an audio freakout with a jaw-dropping stage show to match. Catch them if you can… (bring earplugs)
In this past week the High Highs’ Oli Chang has dropped half a dozen amazing new remixes over on his Sndcld. Don’t miss his redo of Empire of the Sun’s “Walking on the Sun” and Millionyoung “Replicants” - all stripped naked and repainted with piano and atmospherics. Absolutely lovely.
Oh, and speaking of the women of Tokyo’s Trippple Nippples… I can’t wait to tell you about #MEGABLAAG SXSW 2012. Sayin’. Shhhh. Here. Shhhh.
Jimmy Takeuchi — Soulful Strut
from R&B Drumming (1969)
Jazz drummer and drum break king Jimmy Takeuchi’s take on the smooth jazz classic ‘Soulful Strut,’ recorded in 1968 by the Chicago jazz group Young-Holt Unlimited. [original here]
There are some nice breaks in this version, but the thing that really sets Takeuchi’s version apart is, of course, the VIBRASLAP. Niiiice…
The Tigers — Seaside Bound (1967)
This is what 1967 sounded like in Japan. No doubt that ザ・タイガース (Za Taigaasu, sounded out) are some fucking cool cats… look at that cover!
Haruomi Hosono — Libble Rabble
from Video Game Music (1984)
Here’s one for vintage arcade game enthusiasts: a 1984 album of video game music, mostly from early Namco games like Libble Rabble, a 16-bitter in which your task is to harvest mushrooms. Nobuyuki Ohnogi wrote this track, Harry arranged it. Check out some screenplay, too.
