Synthetic Space – Early Japanese Synthesizer Tunes

July 8th, 2021

I’ve been meaning to post this for over a year now. I kept putting it off because I wanted to do more research, or even pay someone to translate the liner notes. But I realized that it’s more important for the music to get out there than it is for me to spend literal months reading machine translated Japanese webpages, hoping to find tiny morsels of info that a small handful of people might find moderately interesting. So here it is.

Synthetic Space – Complete Album Download

Synthetic Space was released by RCA Japan in 1978. It is a collection of synthesizer music created mostly be amateurs or non-professionals. They were the winners of a contest that was sponsored by a Japanese magazine called Weekly Playboy, of no relation to actual Playboy. From what I found online, judges for the contest included members of the early synth act The Bach Revolution, and synthesizer pioneer Isao Tomita, who also served as the album’s producer.

There are some notable people on this compilation.

Track one is credited to three people, one of which is Makoto Inoue. He was a member of Hikashu, a very strange kind of post-punk, experimental act that formed in the late 70s and released several interesting albums in the early 80s. He’s also a member of Inoyama Land, an ambient act that was on Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yen Records in the 80s. Their debut album, Danzindan-Pojidon, is a masterpiece. Inoue is also the person behind the Godzilla Legend albums, amazing compilations featuring unique adaptations of music from Godzilla movies. I highly recommend those. Inoue’s track on this album, “Sunset World,” serves as the album’s opener. It’s a highlight, a fantastic, slightly creepy, track with a slight industrial bent.

Another major player in the Japanese electronic scene who is present on this album is Susumu Hirasawa, who is the main songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and synth player for P-Model, a hugely influence Japanese post-punk synth-pop act from the late-70s and early-80s. While YMO was taking synthesizers and using them to craft elegant, sophisticated pop music ala The Human League, P-Model were much more interested in combining synths with more out-there and abrasive sounds. They’re much more in line with acts like Devo or early Talking Heads, really crazy stuff. His track on here is called “Cosmic Dancer.” It is of no relation to the T-Rex track. It kicks ass.

There might be some other people of note on this compilation, but I can’t seem to find any. The Discogs pages for most of them are completely blank. Hell, for a few it’s even hard to judge how to pronounce their names. Kanji names can have different pronunciations, and with no English frame of reference to go by on a few of these, I just left their names in kanji to play it safe.

This is early synthesizer music, and while a lot of those collections of early synth music skew towards the atonal, experimental, and avant-garde, this one is much more listener-friendly. Yeah, it’s a bit out-there at times, but most of these songs are recognizable as songs, really good songs at that. I would not be surprised if everyone involved with this record went on to work in the recording industry, if not as performers like Inoue and Hirasawa, then as behind-the-scenes engineers or producers. This is awesome stuff. It’s also insanely rare and from what I can tell, I’m the first person to share the complete album online.

I actually have another album like this, also comprised of contest winners. I hope to get that one up sometime this year. I promise.

 

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Big Shots – a song you’ve never heard from a movie you’ve never seen

June 22nd, 2021

Sorry for the lack of updates for over a month. If you follow my Twitter, you know why I was unable to write for a while. For those who don’t know, I had a family emergency back in the states that necessitated a visit to Ohio. It was an absolutely terrible experience and I’d rather not spend to much time talking about it. Again, if you want to know all the details, check my Twitter.

Anyways, I’m back in Japan now! And I’m trapped in my apartment for a two week mandatory quarantine (despite being vaccinated). And that sucks, but I’m committing to not complaining about it too much and will try to make the most of it. I hope I’ll finally get around to writing about some more obscure records that deserve proper, well-researched posts. In the meantime, he’s an obscure record that probably doesn’t deserve hours of research.

West Coast Posse
Big Shots (Put On The Brakes) 12″ Remix
Big Shots (Put On The Brakes) 7″ Version
Big Shots (Put On the Brakes) Instrumental Dub
Big Shots was a film that came out in 1987. It’s one of many 80s kids movies that is woefully problematic when looked at with modern eyes, but I sure loved it when I was a kid.

The film is about a young white kid named Obie (sigh) who runs away from his home in the Chicago suburbs after his father passes away suddenly. Lost in inner city Chicago, he becomes friends with a street smart black kid who calls himself Scam. Together, the pair embark on adventures that include running away from mob hitmen, grand theft auto, and armed robbery, eventually going on a road trip in a stolen car so Scam can reunite with his father who has relocated to the south.

It’s a weird flick, and definitely one in a long line of 80s kids movies that simply could not be made today. Iffy (if harmless) racial issues aside, these kids jack cars, and even hold up a pawn shop with a gun. Hell, one of them even drinks beer with no negative repercussions. Not to mention the whole “on the run from a mob enforcer who literally wants to murder them” subplot. The entire films feels like an evil twin to Adventures In Babysitting, right down to its Chicago setting.

No one of note stars in the film. Obie is played by a child named Ricky Busker, and this is his only role in anything ever. Scam is played by Darius McCrary. His career has fared a bit better, and he’s in a lot of movies and TV shows, but usually in smaller or supporting roles. He did have a role on The Young and the Restless for a few years, and more recently he was in The Leftovers, so he’s definitely getting by, so good for him.

About the only actors of note in the film have bit parts. Bill Hudson, best not known as Kate Hudson’s actual father, makes a quick appearance as Obie’s ill-fated father, and character actor Paul Winfield shows up as fence with a heart of gold who helps the kids out. Robert Proskey, who you probably know as the boss from Mrs. Doubtfire and the bad guy from Thief also drops in a for a few brief scenes, playing an ultra-scummy pawn shop owner who gets what he deserves from the kids.

The film was directed by Robert Mandel, who also directed School Ties and The Substitute, as well as the greatly underrated F/X. More notable, however, is the film’s writer: Joe Eszterhaus. That’s right, between writing Flashdance and Basic Instinct, the man who would eventually create Showgirls decided to pen a movie for kids. I guess that explains why it’s a little dark, and features a subplot about a dead body in the trunk of a car.

Big Shots is an above average 80s kids flick with some surprisingly dark elements and some decent performances. But that’s about it. If you don’t have the nostalgia for it, there’s probably nothing in it for you. However, if you were a weird kid like me and watched it over and over again while you were staying at your dad’s apartment on the weekends, you’ll probably be surprised by how well it holds up if you watch it again as an adult. It’s on Amazon as an SD rental, but the picture quality is good enough to get the job done, if you’re interested in seeing it.

But what about this song?

“Big Shots (Put On The Brakes)” shows up near the tail end of the film, for about 10 seconds at most. The song was obviously created for the film, so it’s strange that its sidelined so quickly. It never plays over the end credits, hell it’s not even mentioned in the credits. My friend and I could only find it by doing a Google search of the song’s title, which led us to Discogs. Where I, of course, immediately bought both the 12″ and 7″ singles of the track after I found out that no one had, to the best of my knowledge, ripped the tracks and put them online.

(For the record, the film’s actual theme song is “Freedom Overspill” by Steve Winwood, which plays at least twice throughout the film. That song ain’t bad, but it’s no “Valerie.”)

The song is a weird half electro and half rap thing. The rapping is what it is, forgettable at best, but I do like the instrumental sections, the breakdowns, and the dope guitar solo.

From what I can gather, this track is one of one two songs that wonderfully generically named West Coast Posse ever managed to get released. The other appears to be a remix/cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” But I would not be surprised if that was a different West Coast Posse, given that the track was released some 13 years after this one.

I bet there have been many acts that called themselves “West Coast Posse.” But who is this West Coast Posse? The two rappers are MC Jam and Pee Wee Jam. Aside from this track, they also showed up on the soundtrack to the classic Action Jackson, under their stage names, not as West Coast Posse, performing the movie’s closer “Protect and Serve.” Both the 12″ single for this track and the soundtrack to Action Jackson were released by Atlantic Records. Furthermore, Big Shots and Action Jackson were produced by Lorimar Film Entertainment. My guess is that these guys were somehow connected with someone at that studio.

Near the end of the track both MC Jam and Pee Wee Jam shout “Stevie No Wonder!” That’s not a random aside or adlib, that’s the nickname of the track’s guitarist, Stevie Salas. He’s worked mostly as a session dude. He’s on a bad Eddie Money album. He also shows up on some Terence Trent D’Arby stuff. His most noteworthy work (to me anyways) is his stuff with Was (Not Was) on their fantastic 1988 album “What Up, Dog?” (that’s Stevie playing guitar on “Walk The Dinosaur) and his work with Bootsy Collins. The dude even formed a band with Bootsy at one point, a funk-metal group called Hardware that doesn’t seem all that bad.

Finally, behind the scenes we have David Kershenbaum producing the track. Kershenbaum did remix work for Duran Duran, he produced for Joan Baez, The Hues Corporation, Joe Jackson, and countless others. He’s won Grammys.

I have no idea what the hell he’s doing here.

Enjoy. It’s good to be back. I hope I can get at least one more post out during my enforced isolation from the rest of the world.

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Remixes of dubious origin

May 10th, 2021

Obligatory Cinema Oblivia plug. Many new episodes since my last post, including an episode with Alex Navarro, formerly (sadface) of Giant Bomb! Check it out! And remember, if you like it, leave a good review on iTunes or whatever other podcast service you grab it from (if they allow reviews) and tell your friends!

Okay, done shilling. Kind of a short post this week about some tracks that are pretty stupid. Sorry it’s not something more substantial. Not only can I still not go out to buy records right now thanks to Japan’s pitiful vaccine rollout, pretty much all the super-interesting stuff I yet to write about that is in my queue requires some substantial research and in some cases some translation work by the boyfriend. Also, there’s been some bad family stuff going on lately that has made it hard for me to sit down and really write something substantial.

I really want to do those albums justice, so I wouldn’t feel right shitting out something flippant and silly about them.

However, tonight’s music, yeah, I’m okay with doing that.

Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There (Junior Vasquez Remix)
Pat Benatar – Love Is a Battlefield (Junior Vasquez Remix)

These are a pair of remixes from a 12″ white label bootleg that I bought…I don’t know when and I don’t know where. I definitely grabbed it pre-pandemic. I might have even snagged it the last time I was in America two years ago. Shit like this usually doesn’t it make it over to Japan, they have better taste over here.

These remixes are credited to Junior Vasquez. Maybe that’s the case? Maybe not? I have no idea. I find it highly doubtful that Vasquez was putting out bootleg house mixes of Pink Floyd and Pat Benatar in 2000. He probably had better (and more profitable) things to do at that point. But hey, who knows? Maybe the dude just wanted to make some 10+ minute remixes of tunes that he really dug, and he just happened to choose Pink Floyd and Pat Benatar? Sure, why not?

I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why not, but let’s not get too negative here.

These remixes are fun. They’re stupid as fuck. But they’re fun. The Pink Floyd remix is barely Pink Floyd. Aside from the titular vocal sample, nothing else from the source material is incorporated into the “remix.” Still, it’s not bad. Has a good energy, and that’s a good sample, obviously.

The Pat Benatar remix draws substantially more from the original version. Variations of the melody play throughout most of the track, and more of Benatar’s vocals are incorporated into the tune. Good breakdown in the middle too. It reminds me of Faithless a bit, and makes me wish that Pat Benatar would’ve done some house collaborations like Sarah McLachlan or Tori Amos. She could’ve had her own “Silence” or “Blue Skies!”

Again, I doubt these are actually Junior Vasquez remixes. I didn’t spend a lot of time digging to find out, but I couldn’t find them on any official releases or on any proper Vasquez mix. I would guess that if they were real remixes by Vasquez, he would’ve put them into his sets at some point, right? But again, I could be wrong. I could also be an idiot and missed a super obvious way to find this out. If I am an idiot and did miss a super obvious way to find this out, let me know in the comments.

Just don’t call me an idiot, leave that implied.

Posted in remixes | 2 Comments »

French Fried Prog

April 20th, 2021

I’ve put up two episodes of my movie podcast, Cinema Oblivia, since my last blog post, and I’m quite happy with both of them. First up, Shane Bettenhausen, formerly of EGM and 1Up, occasionally of Retronauts, joined me to talk about the so-bad-it’s-really-bad camp classic The Apple. And then, my good friend Matt recorded an episode with me about Joysticks, the incredibly bad 1983 sex comedy set in an arcade.

I don’t plan on regularly dumping on bad movies with my podcast, it just kind of worked out from a scheduling standpoint. This coming Thursday the quality of films I’ll be discussing does slightly improve, as my friend Erik Pepple joins me to talk about Rad (a bad movie about BMX) and BMX Bandits (a very good movie about BMX). And next week is the big one that I’m very much looking forward to y’all hearing, when I’m joined by Giant Bomb’s Alex Navarro to talk about Sam Peckinpah’s bloody boozy classic, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.

New episodes go up EVERY THURSDAY MORNING so check them out sometime! And spread the word! I got big plans for that sucker, but I need at least a little bit of an audience first!

Okay, enough shameless self-promotion. Here’s an all French prog rock post because why not.

 

Adonia
Approche Sur A
Orgasmachine
Adonia was a one-off act featuring two members of influential early electronic prog pioneers Heldon (Richard Pinhas and François Auger) along with Hervé Picart, who seemed to be the real brainchild behind the thing if the liner notes are any indication. Picart composed the entire album, with Pinhas arranged it and provided his trademark spacey guitar riffs to each track, while Auger played drums.

Heldon is a weird band and a band that I always want to like more than I actually do. Truth be told, I prefer this album to Heldon proper. Picart’s compositions are just grounded more in reality for me, I guess. They work better as music that I want to listen to, instead of the sonic experiments that seem to make up most of the Heldon/Pinhas stuff I’ve discovered. I think the only Heldon album I prefer over this is their final release, Stand By, which is a fantastic record that I recommend to anyone with a penchant for electronic/minimal/ambient/Tangerine Dream/whatever type music.

I don’t know what to compare these two tracks to. My go to reference point for any music like this is Tangerine Dream, but that really doesn’t do it justice. It features far more guitars and actual drums than any Tangerine Dream album that I can think of. Maybe Cluster? Harmonia? Neu!? It’s very Krautrock, that’s for sure. Despite the fact that it’s from France. I also appreciate the idiocy of a track called “Orgasmachine” especially when’s as anti-sexy as this track is. Amazing, fantastic, great guitar work on it though. Really trippy shit.

 

Eden
La Nuit Des Sorciers
Theme O.V.N.I.
Another one-off act from France, and one I know even less about than Adonia. Eden was a duo, comprised of Allan Lys on percussion, and Hubert Vrayance on…everything else. Most of the songs on the album have a strong electronic feel to them, but the duo weren’t afraid to keep things more ogranic. This is a very bongo heavy album, and “La Nuit Des Sorciers” starts with organ and drums before the synthesizers and other electronic elements move into the mix.

“Theme O.V.N.I” (don’t ask me what it stands for, I have no idea), on the other hand, is much more electronic. While the first track is built entirely around an organ melody, this one layers multitudes of synthesizers and other electronic sounds on top, with acoustic drums serving as a backbone. It’s fucking rad. The drums really move. It almost reminds me like an electronic version of The Ventures or something, but with a classical bent? All while being primarily electronic? Am I making any sense at all? Probably not, oh well. I got bigger things to worry about than “am I properly describing the French electronic prog act correctly.”

The only thing that I can find out about either member of this group is on a review from Prog Archives, which claims that Vrayance quit music to become a police officer. I have no idea if that’s true, but I can’t imagine that would be the kind of information that someone would go out of their way to make up. In my head-cannon, dude kept a rack of synths behind his office. I don’t know why, but I like that image.

 

THX
Telstar
Richard Pinhas and François Auger come again with this one-off release of a cover “Telstar” that was released as a single under the name THX in 1978. I feel that it’s a safe bet to say that they named themselves after the Lucas movie THX-1138, given the duo’s tendency for sci-fi and spacey sounds. This is a very good version of Telstar, which is one of my all-time favorite songs, and it’s probably the most poppy thing that Richard Pinhas ever played on, unless he did a cover of a Beatles track or something and I just don’t know about it.

I could listen to “Telstar” covers all day. In fact, I’m depressed as hell and need something to cheer me up, so I just might do that.

Posted in Richard Pinhas | 1 Comment »

Enka Synths

April 4th, 2021

I hope you’re not sick of me talking about my podcast, Cinema Oblivia, because I’m about to talk about my podcast, Cinema Oblivia.

Sorry (not sorry).

The podcast has actually been going pretty well. It’s not setting the world on fire or anything like that, but I didn’t expect it to, especially out of the gate. I’ve been really happy with every episode so far. It’s been a while since my last post here, and I’ve put up quite a few episodes since then.

On March 18, Madeline Koestner and I talked about William Friedkin’s amazing forgotten film Sorcerer, a wild flick about a group of goons transporting nitroglycerin through a South American hellscape. It’s a fantastic movie (with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream!) and you should totally watch it (and listen to that episode). After that Emma Buntrock-Miller joined me to discuss Brian De Palma’s wacked-out horror-musical Phantom of The Paradise. This movie stars Paul Williams and was a major influence on Daft Punk, so if that sounds cool to you, maybe check it out.

Last week I put up the strangest episode to date. Dr. Sparkle of Chrontendo fame called me up to talk about Seeds, a batshit crazy movie by the late not-so-great Andy Milligan. Even if you haven’t heard of that movie (and let’s be real, you probably haven’t) I think the episode is well worth a listen; we dive into some pretty cool topics like lost films and gay underground cinema.

I’ve already recorded the bulk of the episodes that are going up in April and I’m excited to share them with you. This week Shane Bettenhausen and I talk about the disco nightmare that is The Apple, and the following week an old friend of mine joins me to discuss the 1983 video game sex comedy (yes, really), Joysticks. After that, Erik Pepple, a film scholar and another old friend of mine, comes on for the first Cinema Oblivia double-feature, Rad and BMX Bandits! And finally, I’m very excited to say that I’m closing out the month talking about one of my all-time favorite movies, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia. Joining me on that episode is none other than Giant Bomb’s own Alex Navarro! Wow!

Let’s celebrate with the most obscure album I’ve ever shard on this site. Seriously. I think it’s the all-time winner.

Beautiful Shateau & Synthesizer
The Charm of Synthesizer: Japanese Melody (Complete Album download)

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now. I keep saying to myself that I’m going to dig deep and try to uncover more about it, but each time I try, I turn up with nothing. Here’s what I know.

This is a very early project by Matsutake Hideki, aka Logic System. I’ve written about him before, (hell, I even met him once). He was the synthesizer programmer on the early Yellow Magic Orhestra albums, and he’s had quite the career aside from that both as a solo artist and a studio musician. Here, he’s working under the odd (and incorrectly spelled) name of Beautiful Shateau & Synthesizer.

From what I can gather, Matsutake released three albums under this name; Synthesizer 美しき日本の抒情; シンセサイザーが奏でる日本の名歌 – 都会の夜; and this one The Charm of Synthesizer: Japanese Melody. Again, from what I can tell, the first two were issued on LP, while this may have been a cassette only release. There may have been more “Shateau” albums too, I just don’t know.

I’m sorry for the all the caveats and uncertainty, but I literally can find zero information on these albums online in English. And what little I managed to find in Japanese haven’t been much of a help. Again, I can’t even find release dates on these albums. That’s insanely rare for Japanese albums. Most Japanese records print the release date on the cover, down to the day of the week. I don’t know why these are so lacking. I’m sure some of you are saying “well, just go to Discogs,” but they don’t have the release dates either. And trust me, I would know since I entered most of the data and took all of the pictures for all of the releases on the Discogs page!

However, one of the “Shateau” tracks did appear on the Logic System box set that came out a couple years back. On there, the track was given a release date of 1976. That’s the same year that Matsutake released his very first album under his own name, alongside fellow Japanese synthesizer pioneer Tsuneaki Tone, Pop Memories on Moog III. Again though, I really should caveat that with another maybe. There is a “III” in that album’s name, after all. They could have recorded something even before that. Still, I feel that it’s safe to say that the “Shateau” releases probably came out no earlier than 1975, and no later than 1977. These albums are very simple.  By 1978 he was experimenting with more complex arrangements, and in the following year he was working with YMO on their debut record.

All the songs on all the Shateau albums are covers of enka songs. Enka is a genre of music that’s often described as “traditional Japanese pop music” and I guess that’s accurate. It’s very pre-rock type stuff. Almost exclusively ballads. It’s the kind of shit that Japanese grandparents just fucking go apeshit for. Obviously, I’m not familiar with the original versions of any of these tracks. So I can’t tell you how many liberties Matsutake is taking with the source material. Given how barren and simple these tracks are though, I feel it’s safe to say that these are probably relatively faithful to the original versions, just like a lot of other early synthesizer covers of pop tunes.

Despite my complete lack of cultural awareness for anything on this album, I do really enjoy listening to it. Most enka songs are usually sad or melancholy, and it translates really well to the minimal arrangements that Matsutake put forth on all of these releases. They’re all so bizarre, like music out of time, obviously very old but recorded in a (then) very new way. Listening to them transports me to another reality, a retro-futuristic world where everyone is dressed like 1950s gangsters, but somehow all have cyberpunk gear hooked up to their trench coats. It’s detached and unfamiliar to anything else I’ve ever heard. It’s so my jam.

None of the Shateau albums I have sound particularly great from an audio perspective, sadly. The records are all pretty banged up, and this tape has seen better days too. Of the lot, I think this tape rip is the best though. It’s a little muddled, and there’s a weird audio glitch in one track that I just couldn’t remove, but overall it’s very clean and clear. I prefer a slightly muddy recording to a heavily scratched one, that’s for sure. If the quality bothers you, I recommend listening on your speakers instead of headphones, it sounds better that way for sure.

Let me know what you think of this one in the comments. I know it’s really out there, but I it’s so fascinating to me.

 

Posted in Complete Albums, Logic System | 2 Comments »

Nintendo Sound Adventures REMIIIIIIX

March 17th, 2021

Another reminder that I just started a new movie podcast called Cinema Oblivia. Every week, a guest and I take a look at a different old movie that I feel more people need to see, or at the very least is interesting and under-discussed today. The first episode covered Flashdance, while the second was all about Streets of Fire. The next episode will go up Thursday morning, and it will be about William Friedkin’s masterpiece Sorcerer! Don’t miss it!

Now, Nintendo music because no reason.

Nintendo
Overture (Mario’s Jungle Intro)
Yoshi’s Story (Breakbeat Inferno)
Versus (M.I.R. Rampage)
Sound Of Lylat (Hip Hop Hype)
Hyrule (Princess “Z” Trigger)
This should be my last drunken Discogs purchase post in a while. Actually, wait, that might not be true. I have to see if an exceptionally needless eurodance purchase I made earlier this month is currently in print.

Regardless, this will definitely be the last video game related drunken Discogs purchase post I’ll be sharing in the immediate future. Every other weird video game release I want to buy right now is either too expensive or not for sale. And even if they do go on sale and I do buy them – I won’t be drunk! I won’t be drinking for a few months it seems, as alcohol does not play well with a new medication I’m on (nothing serious or worth mentioning, don’t worry).

These tracks are from an album that Nintendo put out in Europe, I assume as part of some sort of promotion or giveaway, in 1998. It’s the kind of thing you find if you go to Discogs and type in “NINTENDO” in the search field, as I am want to do in these trying times.

Most of the CD is just standard game music taken from various Nintendo releases. You got some Yoshi’s Story, Star Fox 64, Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It’s all very 1998. All very N64. That’s all good stuff, but they’re not that unique or worth mentioning.

However, the album also features these five remixes, all of which seem to be exclusive to this CD. I have no idea why Nintendo decided to do this. Why release a promo CD in Europe only and fill it out with remixes that can’t be found anywhere else? Nintendo’s gonna Nintendo, as the kid’s say. As you can probably piece together from the song titles, the first track is from Mario 64, the second from Yoshi’s Story, and the last from Zelda. The other two were taken from Star Fox 64.

These are some…weird remixes. They’re very obviously going for a late-90s “electronica” vibe. Lots of breakbeats, drum and bass, vocal samples, and such. Sometimes it works really well, great even. The Yoshi’s Story mix is rad as hell, and I’m not just saying that because I love Yoshi. The beat is bit on the simple side, but it has a good bass groove, and uses the Yoshi vocal samples in a hilarious, and dangerously catchy, way. Good breakdown in the middle too. You could totally sneak this into a club mix and no one would be the wiser.

“Versus (M.I.R. Rampage)” is really great too. That music had a very cinematic feel, much like a lot of the music from the Star Fox games. The beat, not surprisingly, add an intense energy to the track. While the seemingly re-recorded (or at the very least, resampled at a higher bit-rate) orchestral elements make it sound even bigger. The beats are corny, no doubt, but it still works. Big “late-90s action movie” vibes on this one. The same goes with “Hyrule (Princess “Z” Trigger), which uses elements from the main overworld theme of Zelda and adds in gaggles of beats and other electronic wackiness. Again, it’s a bit cheesy, but I love the original melody so much that it’s hard for me to hate on it too much. And they still focus on the melody, played wonderfully on a piano-sounding keyboard, and that’s always going to set off the nostalgia dopamine triggers in my brain no matter what. I can’t judge that music objectively. Nintendo has corrupted me I’m sorry.

However, even with Nintendo owning a large chunk of my childhood hostage, I can’t say that the Mario nor the “Sound of Lylat (Hip Hop Hype)” tracks are particularly good. For some reason, the remixers decide to add very strange vocal samples to each. In the Mario track, the vocals are nothing more than an exceptionally deep voice saying things like “This is the sound of Nintendo” over and over and over again for no reason. It’s exceptionally distracting and just ruins the track.

Ditto for the Star Fox remix at the end. The same vocals are nearly non-stop , and they’re made even worse with the occasional “yeah, uh huh” thrown in for bad measure. It’s just so weird. Again, it’s not like it’s singing, or even rapping, it’s just some dude with an artificially deep voice telling you that you’re in Lylat. Repeatedly. It song is just under four minutes long and it gets old and downright aggravating within the first minute. It’s a real bummer too, cuz the music itself is really good! I suppose it’s too much/too late to ask for an a capella rendition on a 12″ single of something?

Posted in Game Music | No Comments »

A big (Mike) Hug(g)

March 11th, 2021

My long promised (threatened?) podcast is here! It’s not about music, but instead I’m focusing on movies, specifically movies that have fallen through the cracks of time. Maybe they were once huge but now irrelevant, massive failures, rarely-seen B-movies, or underground flicks that still haven’t gotten their just due. My focus is broad, there are a lot of films that I want to shine a spotlight on that I feel people either aren’t talking about or have barely even heard of. And no, you’re not wrong, there are some parallels  between what I want to focus on with my podcast and what I’ve always been writing about here. You might say that the podcast is the movie equivalent of this website.

It’s called Cinema Oblivia, and for the premiere episode I took a look at the film, Flashdance. Yeah, Flashdance isn’t exactly a lost or forgotten film, but I think that people today really don’t understand just how big of an influence it was on popular culture. I think that 80s nostalgia continues to refuse to die, but Flashdance hasn’t been part of that recently. Is it a great movie? Not really. But it’s an interesting movie, with some fascinating stories behind it. Joining me to discuss the movie is an old friend, Jennifer Fiorini. She was 13 years old when the movie came out (…and my babysitter!) so she was totally it’s target demographic. Also, as a former dancer and current film scholar, she brings a lot of interesting insight into the discussion.

I plan on making these weekly for a least a little while. Flashdance was actually last week’s episode. This week Eric Pope and I discuss the Walter Hill career-killer Streets Of Fire. That episode is up now!

After that, Madeleine Koestner joins me to talk about Sorcerer, the hyper-stressful dynamite-fueled thriller by William Friedkin. And then for the forth episode, Emma Buntrock-Muller and myself take a deep dive look at Brian Depalma’s musical horror classic, Phantom Of Paradise.

I got a few more episodes lined up already and I’ll announce them soon too. Also, I’m looking for more guests! If you are, or know anyone, with at least a modicum of experience talking or writing about film, shoot me a comment either here or on Twitter. I’m always looking for more guests. I’m especially looking for people of color and trans individuals. Not only for films that are relevant to them, but for any movie.

And if you like it, leave a review on Apple’s Podcasts. I hear that helps surface the show a bit better. There’s a sea of podcasts out there, it’s hard to get an audience.

In the interests of self-promotion, I guess I should share something tonight that has the chance of going viral, which in turn might lead people to the podcast. But instead, here’s some progressive rock/funk by a member of Manfred Mann.

I’m bad at this.

Hug
Look At Yourself
Breakdown
Star Traveller
Hug is the brainchild of Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann. When that band disbanded in the late 60s, he first stayed with Mann to form the Manfred Mann’s confusingly-named second band, Manfred Mann Chapter Three. He didn’t stick around for the far more commercially-successful Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, however, instead deciding to go solo. He released two albums in 1972 and 1973, respectively, but I don’t think either made waves on either side of the Atlantic.

After that, he formed Hug, and they released their sole album, Neon Dream, in 1975. Alongside Mike Hugg on the album is Marcus James on bass, Ron Telemaque behind the drums, and guitarist John Knightsbridge. Yeah, I never heard of any of them either. Knightsbridge apparently played with Illusion, the Renaissance offshot group, for while, and Telemaque and James worked with Eddy Grant for a bit. But most of their work is on smaller labels with artists I’m not that familiar with. That’s not to say they’re untalented musicians! On the contrary, if this album is any indication, they shred.

Neon Dream isn’t an earth-shatteringly great record, but it’s a very good one. It’s kind of a mix between jazz, progressive rock, and funk, with more of an emphasis on the latter two, thankfully. It has the feel of a bunch of dudes getting together and jamming, while keeping a pretty tight focus on making good, pop-friendly tracks with solid hooks. There are only six tracks on the album, five of which are over six minutes long. I bet they were really good live.

The three tracks I’m sharing here are the longer numbers, which I feel work better than the slightly-shorter tracks. These guys are at their best when they really let loose, especially Knightsbridge, he fucking kills it on “Breakdown” and “Star Traveller.” It’s a shame he didn’t put out more work back in the 70s, his loose, jazzy style would’ve fit in great with any number of progressive acts that were around at the time.

Hug’s Neon Dream seems to have been released in the UK only, and was never reprinted on tape or CD. That makes it pretty rare. It’s not a super-valuable record or anything like that, but it usually goes for at least 20 bucks when I see a copy, that’s more than a lot of other forgotten prog and funk from the early 70s. I hope someday that it can get a proper CD re-release. Fans of the genre should dig it.

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Totally Tubular (Bells) and Utah Saints

March 3rd, 2021

Keyboards Affair
Tubular Bells (New Dance Version)
Commando
I saw this in a progressive rock record store, of all places, for about five bucks. Upon laying my eyes on it I immediately knew I wanted it. A “dance version” of “Tubular Bells?” Who would be so stupid/insane/brilliant to try such a thing, and why did I know that they were Italian?

This is the sole release by Keyboards Affair, aka Roberto Rossi, best known as the producer/writer of Sabrina’s international trash dance hit “Boys.” You ever seen the original video for that shit? Jesus Christ. I’m gayer than a rainbow at a Cher concert but even I’m taken aback by that one, or should I say, those two. Did that actually air on TV?!

Sorry, something got the breast best of me for a second. This is a decent, fun mix of “Tubular Bells,” although the spoken word interlude is entirely worthless and should not be there. “Commando” is sadly not a remix of any of the music from the Arnold film, but an original piece (at least I think so). It’s a good jam, with a slight creepy, dark vibe to it. Have Justice sampled this? I feel like Justice should sample this. The end of this, vocal snippets not withstanding, is really quite good.

Utah Saints
Believe In Me (7″ Edit)
Believe In Me (DJ Tim’s Bliss Mix)
What Can You Do For Me? (Madness Mix)
“Believe In Me” features a sample of Sylvester’s “Do You Wanna Funk.” That, by definition, means it is one of the greatest dance songs of all time. These two remixes still have that sample, so they are very good.

The original version of “What Can You Do For Me?” is built entirely off of a sample from The Eurythmics’ classic “There Must Be An Angel Playing With My Heart.” That, by definition, also means it is one of the greatest dance songs of all time. Who doesn’t want to dance to Annie Lennox? This remix keeps that Eurythmics sample, but at a reduced rate. That’s not right. I feel that when you’re listening to “What Can You Do For Me?” you come in expecting a certain percentage of that song to be comprised of samples of Annie Lennox’s godlike voice. When you remove any percentage of said sample, you’re make the song that much worse. It’s just simple math. If anything, when remixing “What Can You Do For Me?” you should add MORE Annie Lennox. Well, I guess that’s true for most things. Nothing has ever been damaged by adding Annie Lennox to it.

 

Posted in remixes, Utah Saints | 4 Comments »

Super Mario’s first vinyl adventures

February 23rd, 2021

In 1986 Nintendo released two Mario-themed singles. As far as I can gather, the songs on these singles were never compiled on a proper LP, nor have they every gotten legit CD or digital releases. They’re some of the rarest, and most interesting, music tracks that Nintendo has ever put together.

Across the two singles there are three songs (click on the links to download the songs):

マリオの大冒険 (Mario no dai boken), meaning “Mario’s Big Adventure”
“Go Go Mario!!”
クッパ一族かぞえ唄 (Kuppa ichizoku kazoe-uta) which translates to “Koopa Clan Counting Song.”

I’m going to start with “Go Go Mario!!” because if you’ve heard any of these, it’s probably this one. This is just the game’s various themes blended together with lyrics on top. The sound effects area little more clean than what’s on the game proper, but very little has been changed musically. Some vinyl rips of this track made their way online a few years back, and a lot of blog posts wrote about the “weird” lyrics. Here are said “weird” lyrics, newly translated by my boyfriend, who is a native Japanese speaker (he prefers to be anonymous here, thanks).

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
He will go and rescue Princess Peach. Go.
Today, too, Mario runs vigorously.
Today, too, Mario jumps vigorously!
Today, too, Mario, find the coins vigorously.
Today, too, Mario, go ahead.
Get a Mushroom and you will be Super Mario.
Get a Flower and you will be Fire Mario.
Here come Goombas, here come Koopa Troopas, here come Buzzy Beetles. Beat them all.
Mario is always vigorous and strong.

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
He will go and beat the Bowser Family. Go.
Today, too, Mario runs vigorously.
Today, too, Mario jumps vigorously!
Today, too, Mario, find the coins vigorously.
Today, too, Mario, go ahead.
Catch Stars and you will be invincible.
Go and rescue Peach right away.
Here come Lakutis, here come Spinies, here come Cheep Cheeps. Beat them all.
Mario is always vigorous and strong.

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
Here is the Castle; set the fireworks off one after another.
Mario, dodge Hammer Bros. swiftly
And squeeze out every last bit of your strength.
It’s been a long journey but it’s going to be over soon.
You did it! You have beaten Bowser!
Princess Peach says Thank you! to Mario,
And his heart expands in delight.
Mario’s adventure has finished here,
But his dreams will go on forever.

What no one seemed to mention at the time, however, is that “Go Go Mario!” was just one version of the Super Mario Bros. theme with lyrics. Also released at the same time was “Mario’s Big Adventure,” a more full-featured arrangement with original instrumentation, not just game music samples. This is my preferred version. It’s more fleshed out. It has a livelier sound, and it makes use of the game’s sound effects. It also takes full advantage of the underwater theme. In “Go Go Mario!” the singer just talks over that part, this version features actual singing that goes along with the melody. “Mario’s Big Adventure” also adds in a full chorus that’s catchy as hell.

Here are the lyrics to “Mario’s Big Adventure,” again translated by my boyfriend.

Here goes Mario to slay Bowser,
Who is disturbing the Mushroom Kingdom’s peace.

Poor Princess Peach, held captive in the castle,
She is in tears, waiting to be rescued.

Trample Goomba the Traitor.
Kick Koopa Troopa down to Hell.

Super Mario, transform yourself with a Mushroom!
Super Mario, vent the wrath of Justice!

Quick! Jump! Run vigorously today, too!
Don’t miss the coins in the air!

After having gone through the flames, Mario finds Toad,
Saying, “Sorry, Princess Peach is in another castle.”

Mario, love is your force;
You’ll fight with your gentleness in your heart
That everyone has forgotten.

Super Mario, super star invincible,
Super Mario, miracle power!

Mario cannot make any mistakes, until he rescues Princess Peach
And breaks the Koopa Clan’s spell.

Super Mario, transform yourself with the Flower!
Super Mario, give Bowser your mortal blow!

Super Mario, Our hero!
Super Mario, glorious victory!

The B-side to “Mario’s Big Adventure” was “The Koopa Family’s Counting Song.” This song doesn’t feature any music from Super Mario Bros. Instead, it’s an “educational” song of sorts that uses the Mario villains to help teach children how to count. This may be based on an existing counting song, but my boyfriend didn’t recognize the melody. To me, this track features the strangest lyrics of the bunch. My boyfriend is steadfast in that the song refers to goombas as “bastards.”

Chorus
The Koopa Family’s counting song,
Here come bad guys one after another!
Koo-koo-koopas are desperate.

One:
What terrible bastards Goombas are!
They have betrayed the Mushroom Kingdom.
(Goombas are bastards, bastards!)

Two:
Trample and kick Koopa Troopas
When they are turned upside down, they are merely turtles.
(Let’s trample and kick Koopa Troopas!)

Three:
There is a big difference between being told about something and seeing it with your eyes.
The Piranha Plant is terrifying.
(You cannot buy it at a flower shop. It’s a strange flower.)

Four:
For heaven’s sake! In the sea,
Uninvited, Bloopers are coming up.
(Mario is good at treading water.)

*Chorus*

Five:
Fire comes up from the pond.
Mario can dodge it quickly.
(Fire Bars are turning round.)

Six:
Seeing it’s a reckless attack, Mario desperately tries to beat
Hammer Bros.
(Never does he fall without gaining something.)

Seven:
Spinies are scary enough to quieten a crying baby.
They are nasty guys because Mario cannot trample them.
(Who is the meek one?)

Eight:
Hateful Koopa Paratroopas!
They are turtles but flutter in the air.
(Cranes can live for a thousand years and turtles can live for ten thousand years.)

*Chorus*

Nine:
Straight-faced Lakitus go,
Dropping Spiny Eggs from clouds.
(They are cunning enough not to get off their clouds.)

Ten:
Be aware of Scull marks
As they are cannons firing Bullet Bills.
(The booming fireworks are beautiful.)

Extra:
Whether lucky or not,
After Mario has dodged a Buzzy Beetle, he falls.
(He looks self-important but very silly in fact.)

Finally:
A laughter is coming from the castle.
Devilish Bowser is hard to destroy.
Beat hell out of him!

 

The single with “Mario’s Big Adventure” and “Go Go Mario!” that I have is a promo release, most likely for record stores and radio stations. The cover advertises the 3/30 release date, as well as the 4/21 release date for the cassette single version. This promo record is the only release that has both “Mario’s Big Adventure” and “Go Go Mario!” on it. The commercial release of “Mario’s Big Adventure” (pictured at the top of this page) has “The Koopa Family’s Counting Song” as its B-side. “Go Go Mario!” was released separately as its own single, apparently only on cassette tape. That version has an instrumental version of “Go Go Mario!” as its B-side that is apparently exclusive to that release. So great, now I have to add that to my Discogs wantlist.

I tried to dig up more information on these songs performers, but I couldn’t find much. Aya are Nakayoshi Oendan credited as the performers of “Mario’s Big Adventure,” but I don’t think that they did anything aside from that one song. The singer on “Go! Go Mario!!” is listed as “Princess Peach” so good luck finding out who that actually is. The lyrics were supposedly written by fans, as a result of some contest or radio promotion.

Again, these songs are out-of-print. They’ve been out-of-print so long that I feel no guilt in sharing them today. Who knows if Nintendo will ever re-release them. I doubt it. Last year was Mario’s 35th anniversary and about the only thing that Nintendo bothered to do to commemorate it was release a shoddy collection of some old Mario games with barely any improvements or enhancements. Blizzard put more work into their recent release of Rock n Roll Racing than Nintendo did with their Super Mario 64 re-release, and that’s just messed up.

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lesser-known Mario Bros. arrangements. I have entire CDs of stuff like this. I might share some more in the future, but I don’t want to go too wild with it. Nintendo might throw me in a pipe and launch me out of the country.

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The Hitmen and other obscurities (special appearance by Bad Manners)

February 15th, 2021

Bad Manners – Bang The Drum All Day
Leisure Process – Cashflow
I Am Siam – Talk To Me (I Can Hear You Now)
The Hitmen – Bates Motel
All of these tracks are from the compilation, Wave Goodbye To The 80’s. This is a very strange record for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, it came out in 1995. Five years removed from the 80s is too soon for nostalgia, and too late for decade-ending retrospective/greatest hits of the decade type thing.

But the weirdest thing about the album is its tracklist, a very bizarre assortment of lesser-known tracks by moderately established artists and bizarre deep cuts from underground acts that never even came close to the mainstream. Why would a label decide to throw Mi-Sex’s “Grafiti Crimes” on a decade retrospective? Was anyone in 1995 clamoring for a re-release of Freur’s “Doot Doot” aside obsessive Underworld fans? Probably not. No one wanted to hear Men At Work’s “Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive” ever again, I know that for sure.

The four tracks I’m sharing tonight are the four on the album that appear to still be out-of-print. The biggest of these is Bad Manners’ cover of “Bang The Drum All Day.” This track was on the band’s 1985 album Mental Notes. That wasn’t as big as the four that preceded it, but I’m surprised that it remains out of print on CD save for a late-90s UK only re-release. Perhaps the album has some rights issues. It’s a great cover!

The other three rarities are some real obscurities. “Cashflow” was a single by Leisure Process, a synth-pop duo who released several singles on Epic in the first half of the decade, but never an album proper. A lot of bands like that have had their singles compiled for retrospective compilations, but not Leisure Process. Only a couple of their songs have made their way to CD, and only on bizarre releases like this one. “Cashflow” is some good mid-tier synth-pop with a unique sound. It has that 80s sax, and a bouncy, almost ska-like beat, combined with some dissonant post-punk guitars and sardonic vocals. I get a poppy Romeo Void vibe from them.

Gary Barnacle made up one half of Leisure Process, and while you might not know his name, you almost certainly have albums he appeared on if you enjoy 80s music. Dude is on albums by Kim Wilde, The Clash, Tina Turner, Soft Cell, Visage…the list goes on. He has over 900 credits on Discogs. I like it when “failed” acts can find success behind the scenes.

I Am Siam were a synth-pop act from New York, which means their singer was either a UK transplant or he’s faking that accent Al Jorgensen With Sympathy style. “Talk To Me (I Can Hear You Now)” is some typical-ass typical mid-80s synth-pop. If you told me that this was Wang Chung, Simple Minds, Thompson Twins, or any other moderately decent act from the era, I’d believe you. It’s the kind of track that you dig while you’re listening to it, but immediately forget it five seconds into the next track on the album.

Finally, there’s “Bates Motel” by The Hitmen, the actual reason why I bought this album. I’ve been obsessed with this track ever since I found it on some MP3 blog in the mid-2000s. I don’t know which one, all those blogs are gone now (EXCEPT MINE). But ever since then I’ve been trying to score a decent-sounding recording of it. I first posted this track back in 2013, recording it off of a promo 12″ single. That rip wasn’t great since the record was pretty beaten up. Since then, I bought the band’s 1981 sophomore (and final) release Torn Together twice! Each time only to rip this track, but in both instances the album was too torn up to get a halfway decent rip.

I was shocked when I discovered that the track somehow made its way onto this CD compilation, so I paid two bucks for this CD (…and $14 in shipping) to get it. But it was worth it! I was fearful that the track was going to be a cheap vinyl rip, but it seems to have been taken from the master, or at least a decent tape source. It’s the best version of the song I’ve ever heard, crystal clear. If I can ever have a Halloween party again, I can finally put it on the playlist.

The Hitmen were really good. I can’t figure out why their stuff has never been re-released on CD. There was even some pedigree in the band. Alan Wilder from Depeche Mode was there for a bit (albiet not on their albums) and other members in the group went on to work with artists like Gladys Knight, Nick Lowe, Kristy MacColl, and Allison Moyet. Have you seen some of the stuff that re-issue labels like Cherry Red put out? If acts like Dollar and Shoes can get their completely forgotten albums re-issued in deluxe box sets, the The Hitmen should get their stuff re-released too. That shit ain’t right.

Seriously, who is Dollar?

*goes to Wikipedia*

Wait, they had 10 top 40 singles in the UK? Listen, UK, someone needed to stage an intervention with you guys in the 80s. You took this shit too far. This is how you ended up with Living In A Box. You got no one to blame for that shit but yourself.

Posted in The Hit Men | 5 Comments »

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