Japan 2.0

NOW JAPAN 2.1...all new files & codes

 Sorry to everyone but this is now Japan 2.0. I posted this last night but for some unknown reason it never showed up so I had to repost the entire thing. I'll try this again...

Well, looks like I bit off more than I can chew, I mean, it's no Mongolia, but after all, it is Japan. They've got so many varieties of music going on I just couldn't control myself. I finally reduced it down to five categories: psych; punk; noise; soundtrack; & random craziness.

Here goes nothin'...

Blues Creation are Japan's premier purveyors of heavy blue-based psychedelia. They released Demon & Eleven Children in 1971. This is their second album. Their first is a less than spectacular collection of American blues covers. However, on Demon & Eleven Children the band started writing their own songs in the style of Cream, Mountain, & Blue Cheer. Blues Creation was lead by guitarist Kazuo Takeda who used a revolving door of musicians. After a brief stay in London in 1972 Kazuo returned to Japan & shortened the band name to Creation. They continued to make albums into the 80s but it is really Demon & Eleven Children that really stands out, especially the title track. All in all this is an ass-kicking piece of fuzzed out Asian psych.

 BluesCreation - Demon & Eleven Children, Denon JX 162, 1971. 

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Side 1 –

Atomic Bombs Away

Mississippi Mountain Blues

Just I Was Born

Sorrow

Side 2 –

One Summer Day

Brane Baster

Sooner or Later

Demon & Eleven Children

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The Mops were formed in 1966 by a group of high schoolers: Taro Miyuki – guitar; Masaru Hoshi – guitar; Kaoru Murakami – bass; & Mikiharu Suzuki - drums. They began as an instrumental rock group similar to The Ventures, but soon after forming, Mikiharu Suzuki's brother Hiromitsu joined on lead vocals. The group began to play psychedelic rock at the suggestion of their manager, who had brought home recordings of American hippie groups such as Jefferson Airplane from his trip to San Francisco. The group signed to JVC Records, the Japanese wing of Victor Records. They released a single in November 1967 called "Asamade Matenai", which hit #38 on the Japanese charts. In April 1968, the full-length debut, Psychedelic Sounds in Japan, followed; the album included covers of "White Rabbit" & "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane, as well as songs by The Doors & The Animals. They received much press for being the 'first psychedelic band' in Japan, & performed with elaborate light shows.

 The Mops -Psychedelic Sounds in Japan, RCA Victor Japan SJV-356, 1968. 

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Side A –

Asamade Matenai (Can't Wait 'til Morning)

San Franciscan Nights

I am Just a Mops

Inside Looking Out

The Letter

Somebody to Love

Bera yo Isoge (Hurry Up Vera)

Side B –

White Rabbit

Asahi yo Saraba (Goodbye Morning Sun)

Light My Fire

Kienai Omoi (Unforgettable Memory anthem)

All of You

I Can't Get Hot

Blind Bird (Please Kill Me)

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Yuya Uchida & the Flowers is the original incarnation of the legendary Japanese hard prog psych rock act Flower Travellin' Band. Yuya Uchida & The Flowers was started by Yuya Uchida who already was making some rockabilly singles in the early 60s. In fact, he was one of the opening performers when The Beatles came to Japan in 1966. Yuya became good friends with John Lennon.

But when he traveled to Europe in 1967 to visit his friend John in England, he was immediately inspired by Cream, Jimi Hendrix, & The Who. When he returned to Japan, he wanted to introduce their work to the Japanese audience, so he formed the band The Flowers with female vocalist Remi Aso. The band quickly caused a sensation on the Japanese music scene. They released this album, titled Challenge! in 1968. Most of the tracks on this album are covers of songs by Cream, Big Brother and the Holding Company, & Jefferson Airplane, with only one original tune, “Hidariashi No Otoko”.

The art-work caused a stir in the Japanese media as it depicted each member posing naked.

In 1969, after the release of the album, singer Remi Aso & guitarist Katsuhiko Kobayashi relocated to the United States. Later that year, Yuya recruited Hideki Ishima, Joe Yamanaka, Jun Kobayashi, & Flowers member Joji Wada. He formed the Flower Travellin' Band as a way to produce & explore a new prog psych musical direction.

Yuya Uchida & The Flowers are: Yuya Uchida – percussion & vocals; Remi Aso – vocals; Katsuhiko Kobayashi – steel guitar; Ken Hashimoto – bass; & Joji "George" Wada – drums.

 YuyaUchida & The Flowers – Challenge!, Columbia Japan COCA 7252, 1969. 

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Side 1 –

Combination of the Two (Big Brother cover)

Intruder (Big Brother cover)

Summertime (Big Brother cover)

I’m so Glad (Cream cover)

Greasy Heart (Big Brother cover)

Side 2 –

Hey Joe (Hendrix cover)

White Room (Cream cover)

Hidariashi No Otoko

Piece of My Heart (Big Brother)

Stone Free (Hendrix cover)

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This is some weird Japanese punk. Inspired by the Sex Pistols, then-high school student Machida formed a punk rock band called Inu (meaning a dog in Japanese) in 1978. His stage name was Machida Machizō. Inu released their first album Meshi Kuuna! ( Don't eat food!) in 1981. The band split shortly after the album release. Machida went on to form a number of bands & released several albums. His albums earned reasonable critical acclaims but limited commercial success.

He decide to turn his efforts from music to writing. His first literary work published was Kūge in 1992 that included a selection of his poems. His first novel was Gussun Daikoku in 1996 that earned him the Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Award. His unique style of story-telling marked by nonsense, irrelevance, & slapstick is influenced by Kamigata (Kansai) Rakugo and Jidaigeki (samurai dramas). Some critics link him to self-destructive I Novel writers before the World War II such as Kamura Isota and Chikamatsu Shūkō. Oda Sakunosuke is also cited as an influence. He won the 123rd Akutagawa Prize with Kiregire ("Shreds") in 2000 & the Tanizaki Prize with Kokuhaku ("Confession") in 2005.

On Meshi Kuuna!, Inu are: Machida Machizō – vocals; Kitada Masahiro – guitar; Nishikawa Masako – bass; & Higashiura Shinichi – drums.

 Inu – MeshiKuuna!, JAL-4, 1981. 

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Side 1 –

Feido Auto (フェイド・アウト - Fade Out)

Tsuru Tsuru no Tsubo (つるつるの壺 – Slippery Vase)

Osan to Oba-han (おっさんとおばはん - Aunt & a Kinda Old Man)

Damudamudan (ダムダム弾 - Dum Dum Bullets)

Yumenonakae (夢の中へ - Into the Dream)

Meshi Kuuna! (メシ喰うな！- Don’t Eat the Food)

Side 2 -

Raito saidā B (ライト・サイダーB – Right Fielder B)

Inroutakin (インロウタキン)

305

Merīgōraundo (メリーゴーラウンド - Merry-go-round)

Kikurute  (気い狂て – Mad, Don’t Care)

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Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer...always dug their sounds...street punk, working class. Oi Polloi...the common folk. Kinda got out of it when it got associated with the right-wing racist crowd. The general ideology of the original movement was a rough sort of quasi-socialist working class populism. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers' rights, harassment by police & other authorities, & oppression by the government. The genre became recognized in the latter part of the 1970s, emerging after the perceived commercialization of punk rock, but still before the soon-to-dominate hardcore punk sound.

In 1980, writing in Sounds, rock journalist Garry Bushell labeled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band's songs. The word Oi is an old Cockney expression, simply meaning hey or hello.

Although Oi! has come to be considered mainly a skinhead-oriented genre, the first Oi! bands were composed mostly of punk rockers & people who fit neither the skinhead nor punk label. Because some fans of Oi! were involved in white nationalist organizations such as the National Front & the British Movement, some histories of rock music dismiss Oi! as racist. Because of its racist connection, the Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, but Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, Asia & other locations.

In Japan, the street punk, skinhead, or Oi! movement is a vital part of the Japanese musick scene. Although Baws is probably the first Japanese Oi! band, Cobra is usually sited for this honor. Cobra is regarded as one of the world’s best Oi! bands, giving influences for South American & European bands as the original wave of Oi! died out. The lack of schism between skinheads & punks, between left-wing & right-wing is one of the reasons why the Japanese skinhead culture is regarded as one of the most organized & prospering in the world. The contemporary Japanese bands stress unity in their works, as well as a disregard for mass cultural acceptance; the desire to remain marginal.

This compilation is a bootleg of an AA Records release. All recordings were made between 1986 & 1990 & feature some of the early Japanese Oi! bands.

(note: the tracks are not listed on the album label, only on the back cover. both sides list nine tracks but there are only eight tracks on each side. i have done my best to decide what's up. i have noted the inconsistencies. bootlegging/translation problem? someone shed some light here. first one with the correct info wins a prize of my/their choice.)

 VariousArtists - Oi of Japan, Volume 2, AA Records bootleg JAP 02, 1991?? 

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Side A –

Mamat's - To Sex to Money 1, 2, Clash

Baseball Furies - Carry on True

Baseball Furies - Don't Go Out of Vogue

Cockney Cocks – Blue / Wasted Time

(The Cockney Cocks tracks appear to be only one track, the lyrics seem to say Blue Time?)

Gruesome - Wind Jammer

Gruesome - Dog & Stag

Real - ??? (something in Japanese)

Index - Dream in Actuality

Side B –

Bugs Bunny - Holy Terror

Wanderers - Don't Look Tomorrow

Wanderers - Here We Go Again

Doccoi - Right & Duty/ Cross My Heart

(Seems to be the same place on both sides, tracks 4 & 5, appears to be only one track. This time Japanese lyrics give me no clue, but near the end is an instrumental break then a repeated chorus that might be 'Cross My Heart'. Can anyone translate the lyrics & let me know?)

Baws - We Are the Baws

Shuffle - Angel Baby

Cockney Cocks - Empty Heart

Cockney Cocks - Don't Say Any More

  *******************************************************

On September 1, 1923, the great Kantō earthquake (関 東 大 震 災) struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū. First hand accounts reported the duration of the earthquake at between 4 & 10 minutes, believed to be 7.9 on the Richter scale. The power & intensity managed to move a 121 ton statue of Buddha almost two feet. An estimated 100,000 to 140,000 people lost their lives. In present day Japan, September 1 is Disaster Prevention Day. Schools & both public & private organizations host disaster drills. Because of these practices, the Japanese people are more prepared than most populations for current disasters.

Karasyozoku’s debut release, Mischievous Sigyn 1923 is based on this natural disaster as well as the political & social events that accompanied it. This is the second release from Lust Vessel in the new wave of Japanese noise. It is a mixture of terrifying heavy electronics, de-constructed organ, tortured female vocals mixed with various field recordings. It has elements of Musique Concrète & old school industrial. It could easily be the horrifying soundtrack of past or current events in Japan. Not for the squeamish.

Karasyozoku is made up of three members: Dr. Torikabuto; Kichi; & Annoying Labia. All tracks were recorded & mixed late 2007 at Sacred Lust Studio. It was released on cassette with an A5 sized 14 page booklet with photos & lyrics, limited to 150 copies, currently out of print.

 Karasyozoku- Mischievous Sigyn 1923 cassette, Lust Vessel LV#002, 2008.

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Side A –

Sigyn Turned the Basin Over Her Husband at Last

Strayers Seek Crowd, Even Though They Don't Have the Reason

Balm from the Crucible of Corpses

Side B –

Fact is More Horrible than Drama

To Be or Not to Be; Criminals as Existence

Die Todesfalle und die Dirnen

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What do you get when you pair the most diverse Japanese power trio with one of the same country's most inventive guitarists?

Rainbow pairs Boris, a band who makes so many different kind of records -- though all of them in their way are ‘heavy’ & Michio Kurihara from Japan's longest running freak scene band Ghost, who are also known to change sounds, themes, & styles each time they record.

The end result is a series of psychedelic songs that provide the Boris trio of Takeshi - guitars, bass, & vocals, Wata - guitars, vocal, & glockenspiel & Atsuo - drums an opportunity to do what they do best: creating spooky, time-shifting soundscapes for Kurihara to play off of. This is a memorable disciplined series of songs that sounds more like Ghost than Boris, but Kurihara gets to cut loose with some of his most involved six-string freak-outs & electric craziness. Rainbow is arguably the most cohesive collaboration Boris has ever done.

The LPs are housed in a 50 page full color photo book bound in cloth. The book, with the LPs, & a DVD are in a plastic case box set. Limited to 500 copies.

 Boris withMichio Kurihara– Rainbow 2XLP, Inoxia Records IXLP-0007. 2007.

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Side 1 –

Rafflesia                     

Arco-Íris (Rainbow)               

Narrador Da Espaçonave (Starship Narrator)            

Minha Chuva (My Rain)       

Brilho (Shine)

Side 2 -

           

Você Sorriu Como Uma Marca D'Água (You Laughed Like a Water Mark)                       

Reator Difuso (Fuzzy Reactor)         

Doce №1 (Sweet No_1)                    

E, Eu Quero (...And, I Want)

Side 3 –

           

Olhei Para O Vento Varrendo As Nuvens (I Looked Up at the Wind Sweeping Clouds Away)    

Side 4 -

           

Abraçando A Névoa   (Embracing the Fog)   

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Hanatarashi (ハナタラシ – which means sniveler or snot-nosed in Japanese) is a noise band created by later-era Boredoms frontman Yamantaka Eye & Zeni Geva guitarist Mitsuru Tabata. The band was formed in Osaka, Japan in 1984 after Eye & Tabata met when they were working as stage hands at an Einstürzende Neubauten show. After the release of the first album, the I was dropped at the end of their name & the name became Hanatarash.

Hanatarash used a variety of unusual noise-making objects, including power tools, drills, & heavy machinery. They were notorious for their dangerous live shows. Some of the band's most infamous shows included Eye cutting a dead cat in half with a machete, strapping a circular saw to his back & almost cutting his leg off, & destroying part of a venue with a backhoe bulldozer by driving it through the back wall & onto the stage. At a 1985 show in Tokyo's Superloft, the audience was required to fill out waivers due to the possibility of harm caused by the show. The show was stopped when Eye prepared to throw a lit molotov cocktail onto the stage. The performance cost ¥600,000 (approximately $9,000 US) in repairs. After several years of these intense live shows, Hanatarash was forbidden from performing at most venues. They were only allowed to return to live performances in the 90s without their trademark danger.
One short one & one long one from their many releases.

 Hanatarash –Total Retardation 7”, Vinyl Communications VC-063, 1996. 

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Side A – Untitled

Side B – Untitled

Hanatarash – 4(Aids-a-delic), Public Bath PB CD3, 1994. 

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Track List –

No Go

Zen Sex

Web Wig

Space Is Meat

Here Come The Hanatara – Crew

Buy My Bone

Zion Maggot

Bonus Track

Ultra Tired

Full Speed – Forgetman

Meat ~ A ~ Delic

Bank is Dead Eskimo

How to Use My Hole

Vegitalian is Meat

Anti Satori

Osaka: Out of Order

Something by Something

Ok

Mind Man

Ponchobilly

My Tooth is Sore Diamond

Hopeless Smile Speed

Blah Men

Head is Foot

Love & Love Love TV7

Now

Rat Pows Penguin

Low-N-R-G

My No. is 9999999999

Burning Pro-Sleeper

Car is DNA

Snake is Long

Call Me Sea

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This is the soundtrack from one of my favorite films, a 1989 cyberpunk vision of urban nightmare & bod-mod horror from avant-garde Japanese filmmaker extraordinaire Shinya Tsukamoto, filmed in 16mm. Tetsuo:The Iron Man is a nonstop barrage of nerve-shredding, mind-splitting surrealism that serves as a jarring analysis of the paranoia of industrialization. The constant manipulation of multiple cinematic techniques, including film-speed & stop motion, coupled with the film's fever-pitched assault on the senses, creates a consistently unsettling aura of impending doom.

Chu Ishikawa’s intense soundtrack is equally discordantly grating, filled with the searingly crackling & pounding sounds of scraping metal & rending tissue. It is the perfect match to the film, easily as assaulting on the ears as the film's visual scheme is on the eyes. This film & score are impossible to forget, leaving a lasting impression on those who subject themselves to its cognitive horrors, searing itself into not only your mind, but into your entire consciousness.

This CD also contains the soundtrack to Tetsuo II: Body Hammer.
Tracks 1, 4, 5 from "Tetsuo: The Iron Man", tracks 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 from "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer".

Chi Ishikawa –Tetsuo OST, Japan Overseas JO94-0, 1994.

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Tracklist –

Megatron

The Sixth Tooth

Rana-Porosa Porosa I

Mausoleum

Lost

Dinosauroid

Rana-Porosa Porosa II

A Burned Figure

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Another one of my favorite films is Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django. Miike is my all-time favorite Japanese director (Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi the Killer, 13 Samurai to name but a few).

In this movie we’ve got some crazy cross-culturalism going on here that is fantastic. Sergio Corbucci's violent 1966 classic Django was one of the highlights of the Spaghetti Western genre. He & fellow Sergio (that Leone one) skewered both Westerns & Akira Kurosawa to create memorable Italian westerns. Miike takes those Spaghetti classics & re-invents them in his own inimitable way. This results in a movie of unbridled violence, humor & weirdness. The mix of different cultures: Japanese; American; Italian; creates a heady blend. The film seems to be set in the American West, in the Japanese named town of Yuda in the state of Nevada (sign written in Japanese). Yet the architecture of the town itself is unmistakeably Japanese, reminiscent of the town in Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. The inhabitants are all clearly Japanese, but they speak American, though with very noticeable Japanese accents. At times the line delivery of some characters posits the question whether the actors really spoke American or if they merely memorized their lines. I have decided after numerous viewings that this flick was set in some kind of bizarro alternate universe.

Koji Endo has done the musical scores for many Miike films & seems to understand the director’s art perfectly. Here his score continues the cross-culturalism musically. It is fantastic, IMHO.

Koji Endo -Sukiyaki Western Django, Crown, 2007.

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Tracklist -

Django Sasurai

Foot of a Mountain in the Wilderness

Main Title Sukiyaki Western

A Vast Plain at High Noon

Gold Rush

Red

White

Denhichi Heihachi

Shizuka Dance on the Table Fiercely & Sadly

Sukiyaki Guitar

Ex. 1

Nearby the Mountain Road

Blood

The Blade

Climb a Mountain Road

A Mountain Ridge

Heihachi

Ex. 2

Gion Shouja no Kane no Oto

Sukiyaki Trumpet

The Gunman

Death

Benkei, I'll Make him Notice Me

Denhichi

Benten

Sukiyaki Flute

Something White Floats Down from the Sky

I Ain’t Dead ‘til I Beat You

Django

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The Blues may not be native to Japan, but there is one artist in Japan at the very fore-front of what he himself has named 'Japanese Blues'. That is the legendary Mikami Kan (三上 寛). Mikami is a guitarist, singer & songwriter, a fixture in the Tokyo musickal underground, the master of twisted Enka Blues, Japan’s king of the surrealist aside & situationist duckwalk. Kan has been around for over four decades, playing his solo material in Tokyo live musick houses regularly. He is a mainstay of the Japanese countercultural underground, having over time worked with everyone from Shuji Terayama & his Tenjo Sajiki theatrical troupe to leading lights of the PSF Records Japanese noise psych camp via his work in Vajra with Haino Keiji & Ishizuka Toshi or the Haino/Mikami/Yoshizawa trio.

When Mikami arrived in Tokyo in 1968 he was overwhelmed with the feeling of violence in modern life as a result of American intervention in Japan. So, harnessing that universal emotion, a whole new species of Blues was born. The Japanese Blues... the 'Mikami mojo'. A unifying thread of violent emotion runs through all of Mikami's recordings. It's a thread composed of brutality tempered with tenderness, angst with empathy. It's a harsh yet graceful sonic melee sung in Mikami's singular silken rasp. Perhaps the most striking of Mikami's muses is his use of anger in a powerful homegrown blend of rustic wisdom & urban cynicism.

Most people associate the blues with depressing lyrics about loss or loneliness, but that’s not completely accurate. As the famous Bluesman Willie Dixon explains, "It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be Blues." The Blues is about life, the good parts & the bad parts, but the Blues has always been a musick of hope & healing. It reflects humanity’s power to overcome adversity & empathize with others. Here’s hoping that Mikami Kan’s surrealist take on the Blues will ring a unifying note in these surreal days.

Kan Mikami – Bang!, Sound Marketing System SM20-4144, 1980.

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Side A -

このレコードを私に下さい (wo watashi ni kudasai)

逢えてよかった (aete yokatta)

華麗なる絶望 (kareinaru zetubou)

BANG!

Side B -

密漁の夜 (mitsuryou no yoru)

なんてひどい唄なんだ (nante hidoi uta nanda)

赤い馬 (akai uma)

最後の最後の最後のサンバ (saigo no saigo no saigo no sanba)

Kan Mikami's 1972 Kochi University Live has long circulated in fan circles. It is rumored to be one of the most powerful dates the bald colossus ever played. Captured live at Kochi University in front of a crowd of hyped-up wannabe student revolutionaries, Mikami breathes raging white-heat into a set of lurid, rabble-rousing classics. This is an excellent early live recording but the quality isn’t as superb as studio recordings. Sadly there are no track titles available.

Stunning cover painting by Kazuki Tomokawa. Special card jacket, limited edition of 1000.

 KanMikami-LiveIn Kouchi University 1972, PSF MKCD-03, 2005.

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Tracklist –

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

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Takehisa Kosugi is without doubt one of the most important & influential figures of the Japanese avant-garde still performing into the 21st Century. Over the years he has worked with everyone from John Cage to Sonic Youth as well as being an active member of the Fluxus group. He has started his own performance units Group Ongaku & also the Taj Mahal Travellers. Catch-Wave was released in 1975. It features on Side A "an excerpt from a meta-media solo improvisation" utilizing heavily-processed violin, voice, radio, & oscillators (the latter modified via wind & light) to create a massive drone. Side B is "a triple performance by a solo vocalist" where a vocal phrase is taken & electronically modified until it loses any meaning other than as part of the wave form.

From the album sleeve: "The deaf listen to sounds touching, watching...the blind watch sight listening, smelling. Sounds speeding on lights, lights speeding on sounds, music between riddles & solutions."

Limited edition of 300 copies.

 TakehisaKosugi – Catch-Wave, CBS/Sony SOCM 88, 1975. 

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Side 1 – Mano Dharma '74

Side 2 - Wave Code #e-1

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Hanayo is the stage name of Nakajima Hanayo (中島花代) born in 1970. In 1989 Hanayo began training as a junior geisha in Tokyo. She publishied an account of the experience in her 1991 book, Oshakuchan No. 1. Together with Japanese noise musicians Masami Akita (Merzbow) & Masaya Nakahara (Violent Onsen Geisha) she formed the band Muscats in 1992. Later that year Hanayo was featured on the cover of The Face magazine's December issue in full geisha attire. In 1993 she modeled for a Jean Paul Gaultier advertising campaign.

Gift is some demented Hanayo world & once you’ve journeyed there, you’re hardly ever the same. Hanayo is known as a Japanese indie goddess & it shows in her unique blend of various musical elements (ambient, industrial, noise, psychedelic, & trip-hop being but a few of the genres she mixes) combined with her soft deceiving voice. With the release of Gift perhaps Hanayo managed to break out of indie obscurity & carves herself a spot among indie/experimental royalty around the globe.

Hanayo – Gift, Geist Records geist 013 cd, 2000.

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Tracklist –

Some Time A Girl Loves A Boy (featuring – Terre Thaemlitz)

Give U The Star (featuring – Schorsch Kamerun)

Sala Sala (featuring – Subtle Tease)

Dear My Doc (featuring – Curd Duca)

Les Sucettes (featuring – Candie Hank)

874 Crybabykiller (featuring – Woodman)

Comonamyhouse (featuring – Patric Catani)

Omisoshilu (Miso Soup) (featuring – Merzbow)

Aua (featuring – Rocko Schamoni)

ISDN (featuring – Console)

(Ga) 2 (Bon) 2 (featuring – Christoph De Babalon)

Banzai Neoteny (featuring – Vredus)

Kimigayo (Japanese National Anthem) (featuring – Stilluppsteypa)

Joe Le Taxi (Hidden Track) (featuring – Jürgen Paape)

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This is Koji Ueno from Halmens & 8 1/2 with Jun Togawa from Yapoos (she did some backing vocals on the second Halmens album too). Guernica was a result of Koji Ueno’s lucid imagination.  In partnership with lyricist Keiichi Ohta & pop-chanteuse Jun Togawa, Ueno produced a series of unforgettable recordings in the early 1980s.  Adopting a moniker from Picasso’s largest canvas, Ueno’s art focused on tongue-in-cheek modernist revival, the praise of machinery, speed & technological progress.  However, contrary to the then reigning ethos of pessimism toward industrialization, Guernica’s music is eternally optimistic, vivacious, euphoric.  Jun Togawa’s always versatile voice mauls any pretence of seriousness even for those who cannot understand Ohta’s ironic lyrics. Togawa shifts effortlessly between malice & hysteria, between operatic arias & coquettish vocal winks.

  

Guernica-  Shinseiki eno Unga (新世紀への運河 or Canal to the New Century),  

Teichiku Records ‎28BA-18, 1988.

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Side 1 –

Jiryoku begin (磁力ビギン - Magnetic Force Begin)

Shuudan Noujou no Aki (集団農場の秋 - Fall of Collective Farm)

Suishou Miya (水晶宮 – Crystal Palace)

Ni Hyaku Juu Nichi (二百十日 – Stormy Day)

Shounen no Ichiban no Tomo (少年の一番の友 – A Friend to Most of the Boys)

Kura Udo 9 (クラウド9 - Cloud 9)

Panorama Awaa (パノラマ・アワー - Panorama Hour)

Side 2 –

Rinten Ki (輪転機 - Rotary Press)

Koutsuu Sanka (交通賛歌 - Traffic Anthem)

Denryoku Kumikyoku (電力組曲 – Power Suite):

     part A (Damu no Uta) (ダムの唄 – Song of the Dam)

     part B (Denryoku no Michisuju) (電力の道筋 – Path of Power)

     part C (Denka no Kurashi) (電化の暮らし – Life of Electrification)

Dokuro no Enmaikyoku (髑髏の円舞曲- Waltz of the Skull)

Zekkai (絶海 - Distant Sea)

**************************************************

After posting up Guernica, I thought it would be great to feature some more of the great singing of Jun Togawa. Her work with Guernica was not her typical style. Her songs musical content usally is relatively consistent: keyboards, bubbly bass lines, & synthetic drum sounds. Above all of that, Jun's voice rages & pushes forth with an intent that is both sweet, naive, & utterly sinister.

This is the Towaga Legend Self Select Best & Rare 1979-2008 album. It's a huge collection of music; three separate CDs with stuff ranging from her solo works, some jaw-droppingly intense live songs, as well as music recorded with a few of her other bands (Yapoos, Guernica, etc) & even a rare cover song of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale".

Jun Togawa – Togawa Legend Self Select Best & Rare 1979 – 2008, Generasia MHCL-1285/7, 2008.

Disc 1 

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Tracklist -

Teinen Pushiganga (諦念プシガンガ; Singing and Dancing Resignation)

Konchugun (昆虫軍; Military Insects)

Tonari no Indojin (隣りの印度人; The Next Indian People)

Tamahime-sama (玉姫様; Princess Tama)

Punk Mushi no Onna (パンク蛹化の女; Punk Pupating Woman)

Doto no Ren'ai (怒濤の恋愛; Equal Romance)

Radar Man (Original Mix) (レーダーマン)

Boshi Jusei (Original Mix) (母子受精; Star Fertilization)

Densha de GO (電車でGO; GO Train)

Odorenai (踊れない; Don't Dance)

Gankyu Kitan (眼球奇譚; Strange Eye Ballad)

Umi Yakara (海ヤカラ; Fellow Sea)

Kyokuto Ian Shoka (極東慰安唱歌; Far Eastern Comfort Songs)

Yumemiru Yakusoku (夢見る約束; Promised Dream)

Osozaki Girl (Single Mix) (遅咲きガール; Late Blooming Girl)

Suki Suki Daisuki (好き好き大好き; I Like I Like I Love)

Aurora B (オーロラB)

Koi no Corrida (恋のコリーダ; The Real Senses of Love)

Sayonara wo Oshiete (Single Version) (さよならをおしえて; Teach Me Goodbye)

Free Talking (フリートーキング)

Punk Mushi no Onna (パンク蛹化の女; Punk Pupating Woman)

Kojo Kengaku (工場見學; Check Out Workshop)

Doryoku no Hime (動力の姫; Princess of Power)

Marronnier Tokuhon (マロニエ読本; Marronnier Reader)

Disc 2 

Tracklist -

Barbara Sexeroid (バーバラ・セクサロイ)

Nikuya no Yoni (肉屋のように; As a Butcher)

Collector (コレクター)

Virgin Blues (Single Version) (バージンブルース)

Fukeba Tobu Yona Otoko Daga (吹けば飛ぶよな男だが; A Good Man Strolls By)

Men's Junan

Hysteria (ヒステリヤ)

Akai Sensha (赤い戦車; Red Tank)

Kimi no Dai (君の代; You Die)

Virus (ヴィールス)

12 no Ichiban oku (12階の一番奥; Far End of the 12th Floor)

NOT DEAD LUNA

Theme (テーマ)

Hiss (ヒス)

Ijime (いじめ; Bully)

Open the Door (オープン・ダ・ドー)

Radio no You ni (ラジオのように; Like a Radio - Brigitte Fontaine Cover)

Chikyu Goma (地球ゴマ; Gyro Top)

Seidou no Nantai (青銅の軟体; Soft Body of a Bronze)

Higashiguchi Toruenzu no Tema (東口トルエンズのテーマ; East Entrance Trend Theme)

Disc 3 

Tracklist -

Mustard (マスタード)

GESSEKAI RYOKOU

SHINKUU KISS

Figure & Ground (フィギュア&グラウンド)

G (Kachiku Kaikyo) (家畜海峡; The Cattle Straights)

Seinaru Izumi ~Mosura no Tabidachi~ (聖なる泉~モスラの旅立ち~; Journey ~The Sacred Fountain of Mothra~)

Shinsei mu Teikoku Boukoku Uta (神聖ムウ帝国亡国歌; Sacred Empire Ruined Country Song)

Oh Bureneri (おおブレネリ)

Rhythm Undo (Toshiro Izumi featuring Togawa Jun) (リズム運動)

Raja Maharaja (ラジャ・マハラジャー)

Soshu Yakyoku (蘇州夜曲; Suzhou Nocturne)

Kotan Bushi (降誕説; The Nativity Scene)

The homage for Jean-Luc Godard~movement #3

Ribon no Kishi (リボンの騎士; Princess Knight)

Futari no Kotoba (二人のことば; The Words Togetherness)

Asa no Nagareboshi (朝の流れ星; Shooting Star in the Morning)

Suki Suki Osuki (スキスキ大スキ; Like Like is Like)

Suzuki Kensetsu Shaka (鈴木建設社歌; Construction Company Song)

Rawhide (ローハイド)

Kare ga Naguru no (彼が殴るの; I Beat Him)

Hone (骨; Bone)

Femme Fatale

Tanoshimu,

NØ