Masaki - Tubo -1982- (Cassette, Stratosphere Music 001), Japan

 

Dear music friends, it has been a while! Had to adjust to some new life developments, couldn't come up with the right connecting piece (it's all in my mind obviously) and even thought to maybe quit this blog after more than ten years. I could go into everything that is going on out there in the world and fabricate some narrative about where we are standing in these common music fields, but everyone knows what's the situation, so why even bother. Another thing is I'm also not really in a hurry I guess. Let's just go for another run now that summer is over and see what comes next. Maybe a longer hiatus will just happen every now and then. So with that being said.

Here's a nice short cassette by Japanese home-taper Masaki 江口昌記 (Eguti Masaki). He worked on collaborations in the early 80's with Merzbow and the Italian industrial project Laxative Souls a.o. He also had his own label called Stratosphere Music of which the most iconic release was that 40 Days / 40 Nights picture disc compilation that was posted on Mutant Sounds ages ago. 

Even though I suppose that contextually one might feel that this music is quite on the noise and industrial side of the spectrum, I find it more playful and primitive. Maybe minimal synth-ish even. Great cut-ups with primitive drum machines, analog effects. Has a resemblance of a lot of stuff on Vanity Records (ofcourse).

Enjoy and Macht das 耳 auf!

Get it HERE

S·Core - Senile Decay -1987- (Cassette, De Koude Oorlog! I.U.04), Japan/Netherlands

Here we have one of the last tapes by S·Core that wasn't available so far to my knowledge. S·Core was the project by Japanese industrial musician Yutaka Tanaka. He released many cassettes during the 80's of which some were released on his own Afflict label. This cassette is an exception because it was released on the Dutch De Koude Oorlog! (The Cold War!) label, a small cassette label from Den Helder that was quite industrial oriented releasing artists like Dikyl Brobojo and Szarkov.

S·Core's music is a nice example of Japanese industrial music that isn't just pure noise. Tracks vary from rhythmic analog industrial sounds in an Esplendor Geométrico (Spain) or Mesh (Australia) way to dark ambient pieces. It somehow relates a bit to Zoviet-France, early Muslimgauze or music I can recall from the amazing Vanity Records label from Japan. S·Core is not musically active anymore, but he released material until the late 90's. I'm not sure how this material ended up on this Dutch cassette label, also not sure whether he was touring in The Netherlands. In any case this is another piece of the S·Core puzzle. Specially the rhythmic tracks are quite nice. Also a good title for the times we are facing I suppose... You can find most other S·Core tapes over here.

This tape was limited to 50 copies.

From the collection Allard pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Yasui Kazumi (安井かずみ) - 空にいちばん近い悲しみ -1971- (LP, Philips), Japan

*Archaic Inventions 5 years anniversary post!*

Yasui Kazumi (安井かずみ) aka ZUZU was a known Japanese essayist, fashion model and poetess from Yokohama. At a young age she started to translate and write poetry, learn French and write many songs. In 1970 and 1971 she released two records through Polydor and Philips. Her first album "ZUZU" was named after her own nickname and was a classic japanese female pop, bossa nova, enka album that was quite chic but still also quite traditional. One of those tracks got compiled on the excellent Nippon Girls compilation series.

In 1971 she released the album 空にいちばん近い悲しみ (Sora Ni Ichiban Chikai Kanashimi) meaning something like The sadness closest to the sky. This album featured an overview of her poetic work on top of a variety of musical theme's: from a French chanson style to hippie-esque fuzz jams. Even though I cannot understand Japanese, it's clear how she gives an insight in her mind through poetry while being indulged in a life of decadent travels, fashion, hippies, melancholy and isolation. Sora Ni Ichiban Chikai Kanashimi was also published as a book aimed at girls and apparently she decided to adopt it in a musical format the same year.

The book was illustrated by the famous Japanese graphic artist Aquirax Uno who was also related to the psychedelic and tripped out theater group Tenjo Sajiki. He was known for his utterly psychedelic erotic and surrealistic drawings that are to be found all over Japan's hippie scene from the early seventies as a visual trademark. He also did many posters for experimental film. 

By the late sixties Kazumi had married a businessman in Rome and divorced a year later in New York. Just a few years later she found herself already in Paris and returned to Japan in 1971. On the album it's clear that she was travelling a lot and lived a cosmopolitan life. There is the Arc de Triomphe on the inner sleeve and many musical signs of Paris. Other places that are mentioned are India, California and New York where she probably was also finding her way into hippie scenes as well as celebrity insanity. Check out a translation of the tracklist:

The sadness closest to the sky
Voice comfort
Seaside dialogue
Young people's notes
For example, likes and dislikes
Five people in one person
Love in a beautiful city · · · white water drops in the morning
Wind
Returning from India - New York 29, April - Light of St. Moritz - Spring in California
Deauville's determination

Still you can find a lot of melancholy on this album that she displays poetically in her fragility and theme's. Kazumi died in 1994 after becoming quite famous in Japan. Most interesting is this part of her music and life when she was merging a decadent life with a hippie mind and created this beautiful concept album that catches a certain time, lifestyle and the feeling of being far from home coming from another culture. Even though I don't speak Japanese I can still kind of appreciate it. Sometimes she namedrops something from popular culture like Rosemary's Baby. It gives me a bit of a Gainsbourg and Jane Birking feeling, but also hints towards other Japanese singers or music like Harumi. 

Anyone that knows Japanese or more about ZUZU should feel free to add some information in the comments. Also I have an original book copy of The sadness closest to the sky for sale, since most of it is just Japanese verse with a few Aquirax Uno drawings and I cannot read it. I included all the interesting scans and pictures in the file and video below. Write me in the comments if you would like to get the book. The rip is from a 90's CD, although it was originally released on vinyl in 1971. Here's a nice crooked poetry translation excerpt to end this with: 

I am getting tired of being deeply rooted now, trying to think that I am improving after thinking about everything and thinking that it is wonderful.

I do not have the time to think about someone who I do not know, I feel so tired anyway.

It's really sad, the more I want to have fun, the more sad the depression is.
 
I wonder if that is the closest thing to the sky

Get it HERE

Luna - Comment Sa Va ? -1985- (EP, Toypick, Zero Records), Japan

Luna was a female duo from Kyoto, Japan that made this jewel of an EP in 1985. Backed by other musicians they created these songs of naive wave sweetness in French, complete with the grammatically incorrect way of spelling Comment ça va? It got released on a sublabel of Zero Records that also released early Shonen Knife and After Dinner.

The EP contains four songs that remind me of other Japanese music from the eighties that used the French chanson style as their conceptual image and sound like a.o. Variètè, Ichiko Hashimoto or Corina Corrina. Actually this cultural appropriation often displays great sensitivity. Furthermore it uses a format which feels like a very honest approach to music. Let's say a toy keyboard, a synth, some simple percussion, a duo or a person by itself, broken language, childish naivety, simple melodies and timid vocals. An example of pure simplicity transformed into honest emotion and love.

Today these type of sounds are for example still to be found in acts like EYE or maybe Le Fruit Vert. Other acts from the past with a similar sensibility that come to mind are The Same, Aksak Maboul or Antena. Ofcourse they have nothing to do with each other contextually. And yeah I guess I'm a sucker for this type of music. 

So far only the main track Comment Sa Va ? was around, which is still the highlight, but finally it's here in its entirety.

Hopefully this adds to a naive, warm, healthy, and romantic summer for you all !

Get it HERE

Wha-Ha-Ha - 女でよかった -1981- (7 Inch EP, Better Days), Japan

This is a pretty rare single only release by the crazed out Japanese experimental RIO synth jazz outfit Wha-Ha-Ha. They consisted a.o. of saxophonist Akira Sakata and singer Mishio Ogawa. Sakata recorded many strange albums and contributed to many artists like Kiyohiko Senba and His Haniwa All Stars and also participated in Gilbert Artman's Urban Sax project, the great French avant-garde multimedia saxophone orchestra.

Wha-Ha-Ha released two amazing albums in the early eighties as well as an EP.  Their material was also released in Europe on Recommended Records as a compilation. It's a weird combination of jazz, Rock In Opposition, Japanese melodies, pop songs, unexpected transitions and synthesizer sounds. They remind me a lot of Japanese RIO band After Dinner, also due to the female vocals. I recommend you to check out all the other Wha-Ha-Ha material.

The first song on this single was reissued as a bonus track on a CD in 2003, but the second song hasn't been re-released as far I know. Both of the songs do not appear on the albums.

Get it HERE

にんぷたい (I Want Pregnant Women) - Nymph -1987- (Cassingle, Elecuitel Records), Japan

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So usually I don't really post stuff if I don't know what it is that I exactly share, but then again that really happens rarely. This is a Japanese cassingle from 1987 of a band which name would be more suitable for some sort of Japanese harsh-noise project. I translated the Japanese band name and found out it meant I Want Pregnant Women, what to think of such a band name? Anyway, it turned out that this is everything but harsh-noise: the music is strange kawai Japanese new-wave pop or something like that.

The three song-cassette contains the song Nymph in two different versions and a cool weird late eighties electronic track with drumcomputers. The only thing I know is that this was released by the Elecuitel label in Japan, which also published the great Dali-Soli flexi disc (might be the same group) that was presented years ago on Habit of Sex, a blog specialized in Japanese underground music. I recommend you -if you haven't done it yet- to walk through the archives of the Habit of Sex and Stalking Duppi blogs to discover endless great recordings from the Japanese eighties underground.

UPDATE: Thanks to a follower of the blog I now know that the sound engineer was Masaharu Tanigawa who made a strange record in the early eighties and also played on the first Ché-SHIZU album. Also the band consisted of about five people playing different instruments. Check out the comments for more information.

Get it HERE

Tokyo Kid Brothers - Saiyuki - The Moon Is East, The Sun Is West -1972- (LP, Dutch Private Pressing), Japan

After this first record I posted a while ago, here is the second Dutch private pressing of this freaky Japanese acid drenched, political activist theatre outfit. Actually the recording for this album, which came out one year later after Story Of Eight Dogs, was made during a performance in London, but was only released in The Netherlands in limited quantities. More information about Tokyo Kid Brothers in the previous post.

The music consists again of some real communal psychedelic jams combined with cheerful songs and a lot of humor. Through this stance the Tokyo Kid Brothers are also able to express their criticism on certain things in society. Unfortunately, unlike their early Japanese releases, most songs are cut off quite early which doesn't allow them to get into real long jams, but it's nevertheless really enjoyable. You really get a sense of a community feeling during the play, because they always interact with the audience. Also during the first couple of songs a baby is crying throughout the recording.

Some of the highlights on the album consist, among others, of Motorbike in which they mix a song in Japanese with yelling "Motorbike". In another song called Jumping Song, one of the Japanese girls is "looking for the monkeys" and tells people they look like a monkey in a very playful manner. The most psychedelic jam is Goeika. Other songs are about Mao, socialism or have hippie titles like Budist Trip. Ofcourse part of the NWW-List.

"You look like a monkey!"

 Get it HERE

Tokyo Kid Brothers - Songs Of The Story Of Eight Dogs -1971- (LP, Dutch Private Pressing), Japan

This vinyl is a private pressing of the recording of the play “The Story of Eight Dogs” by Japanese musical theatre group Tokyo Kid Brothers. In 1971 they played the "The Story of Eight Dogs" for five weeks at the Shaffy Theatre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This record came out in very limited quantities in Holland during their period of performing in Amsterdam.

These NWW-listers stand in a similar tradition as other counter-cultural musical theatre outfits like the American Living Theatre or Théâtre Du Chêne Noir from France. Tokyo Kid Brothers was founded by Yutaka Higashi in 1968 and made some very weird recordings during the early seventies like the albums “Throw away the books let’s go into the streets” and "Golden Bat" from 1971. Those are being regarded as two of the most important cornerstones of Japanese freak-out psychedelia from the seventies. They should reissue that stuff on vinyl. Tokyo Kid Brothers' early sound was reminiscent of other Japanese acid fuelled underground groups like J.A. Seazer and Food Brain, but also brings to mind some of the more free-form krautrock bands like Amon Düül and Faust. During that era The Tokyo Kid Brothers performed quite often outside of Japan, like New York and Amsterdam.

This recording has some great seventies underground jams combined with intense Japanese vocals. Also the difference between audience and actors at times becomes blurry when they involve the audience and try to teach them about Japanese language characters and so on in a subversive and playful manner. All with a great Japanese English accent.

My copy is not in the best shape as you can see and is quite crackly. It might have had an insert, but I don’t have it. The record doesn’t list titles of the songs, which doesn’t really matter, because it was meant as a play. Anyway this is crazily rare if you’d ask me and absolutely essential to all Japanese psych-heads and NWW-list fans.

“The history of eight dogs is the story of the Japanese young generation in reality and illusion. We came to Holland: Exodus from Japan!”

Get it HERE! Or check it out here:

SHUN・4 - Shun -1987- (12 Inch, EP, CSV Shibuya), Japan

Shun was created during the eighties by Japanese chameleon composer Susumu Hirasawa. Hirasawa started out in the late seventies with Japanese devo-ish quirky minimal synth unit P-Model. Shun was already less driven by dada-esque craze and has more elaborated compositions you would expect to hear in a movie or play. It is real composed music that moves away from "pop-music", but still has quite a few new-wave influences in it. It reminds me a lot of the solo music of Holger Hiller around the same era when he started to use German classical music combined with drummachines and samplers, but then Japanese.

You should read this excellent article about Susumu Hirasawa over here, because the person that wrote it obviously knows much more than I do. Hirasawa did numerous projects and always seems to musically transform into something else. A 16-CD box set came out which covered most of Hirasawa's career. I believe the material of this EP is also included, but I still present it here in all its individual vinyl glory. Many of the songs here have had multiple remakes.

Get it HERE