Merry Christmas With Double Dragon

December 24th, 2022

Hey this thing still works, cool.

Wanted to get one more post out before the year was up. I know that a lot of you who still read this site (thank you) aren’t all that into video game music, but I’ve been meaning to share this for a long time now, and it’s what I really want to write about, so either it’s this or several more months of radio silence.

Before we get to the music, hey, hi, how’s it going? It’s been a busy year for me. Cinema Oblivia, my movie podcast, is still going strong so I hope you all check if out if you can! Unfortunately, we had to call it a day on Alexander’s Ragtime Band, the amount of work involved in researching, recording, and editing was just too much for us. Hopefully it will be able to return someday.

The same goes for my YouTube channel. I really like filming YouTube videos! Unfortunately, I really hate editing YouTube videos, and I REALLY hate doing voiceover on YouTube videos. I’m trying to think of ways to streamline the process. I don’t know how people like Techmoan can bang out multiple videos a month. Must be easier when it’s your full-time job. I do mean to get back into it soon though, I keep getting new subscribers! I have nearly 700 people following me on that hellsite now, I feel that I owe it to them to update with something sometime soon. Maybe over the holiday break?

Speaking of hellsites, I’m still on Twitter. As I write this I’m coming off of a 12 hour “twitter timeout” for saying that cisgender people commit more crimes than transpeople (yes really). I vowed to quit that shitshow multiple times, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. If nothing else, I need to use Twitter to find guests for my podcast. I also follow a billion Japanese record stores too, and how the hell else am I going to know when a copy of Capcom Game Music Vol. 3 is available on vinyl at a Hard-Off on the outskirts of Tokyo? That’s important shit.

Anyways, as I’ve said before, this blog isn’t going anywhere even if updates have slowed to a glacial pace. Thanks for sticking around in 2022 and I hope to get more written in 2023.

Now, let’s talk about game music on tape.

Original Sound of Double Dragon Arcade Version

For those who don’t know, Akihabara is an area in Tokyo that’s well-known the world over for its abundance of “nerd” friendly stores. Most of the biggest electronics stores are there, as are several stores dedicated to other geekly delights such as action figures, comic books, video games, and hardcore pornography of both the animated and live-action varieties.

Of the gaming stores, the most famous is Super Potato. It’s a really good store, don’t get me wrong. But for me, the best store in the Akihabara is Beep, a much smaller store located a bit off the main drag. It’s a tiny basement, and most of the store is dedicated to things I have no interest in, such as vintage Japanese computers and arcade game boards. But I still try to make my way to the store every week or so because they have often great game music releases that I never see anywhere else.

I got a crazy selection of vintage flexi discs taken from old game magazines there, for example. I also bought from them about about three dozen game music releases on motherfucking cassette tape.

I’m not saying I don’t have a problem, okay? I know I have a problem.

Most of them don’t even have any unique or original music. And I even owned quite a few of them on CD and LP. But…they’re tapes! Yeah, they sound like garbage, cost too much, and I’m probably only going to listen to them a handful of time at most, but…they’re tapes! They look cool. Sound bad. Look cool.

But I did pick up a few that were legit rare, with some honest-to-goodness hard to find tracks. Like this Double Dragon tape, for example.

This is the soundtrack to the original Double Dragon arcade game. The game came out in 1987, this tape came out in 1988. It was never released on LP, only on this tape and on a mini-CD that I have never found anywhere ever – not even online.

While it calls itself an arcade soundtrack, the tape is comprised entirely of arranged versions that I think are unique to this release only. At least, I’m pretty sure. The tracks aren’t on any other Double Dragon soundtrack release I have (and I have a lot, trust me).

They’re really good too! They all have that unique, 80s video game sound, just punched up just a bit. They sound too good to be authentic to 80s game hardware, but still sound like game music.  This version of the main theme fucking slaps. And I really dig the version of “The Battle Is Over” and “Forest” too. “Forest” hits especially hard. Sounds like music from a lost 80s ninja flick like New York Ninja (you should watch New York Ninja, by the way).

Another stand-out, simply for how batshit bizarre it sounds, is “Abobo the Giant Appears,” which is a remix of the main theme comprised entirely of sound effects from the game. Imagine Art of Noise covering Double Dragon. Bonkers shit.

It also came with this rad double-sided poster with liner notes. Love the artwork on this.

And it’s nice to know that I am, canonically, the same height as Abobo.

Anyways, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, all that jazz. I’ll be back next year at some point – I promise.

Posted in Complete Albums, Game Music | No Comments »

Back from the dead with YMO

May 2nd, 2022

Hey, how’s this thing work again?

Why the even longer break than usual? Well, the typical “I can’t find anything to share” excuse aside, this year has proven to be incredibly busy for me. Since my last post, I got a new job! I’m still teaching English in Japan, but now I’m working for a company that doesn’t seem to actively hate me, so that’s nice. I am working more hours though, which means it’s harder to dedicate free time to creative endeavors. And since more people seem to be visiting my YouTube channel and listening to my podcast than frequenting this blog, those have taken precedence, sorry.

As I’ve said before though, this blog isn’t going anywhere. On the off chance that I do decide to shutter it for good, I’ll definitely put out an update, but again, that’s not likely.

I got some really cool and rare video game music recently, but I know that most people who read my blog don’t come here for that and would be bummed if my first post in nearly half a year was dedicated to Double Dragon remixes, so I’ll save those for next time. Instead, hey check it out more YMO.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Tong Poo (Special DJ Copy)
La Femme Chinoise (Acoustic Version)
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (Acoustic Version)
Greenback Dollar (Re-Mix)
My new job is in an area with some record stores. As you can imagine, this is a problem. Thankfully the really good record store is some distance away, just far enough that I can’t make it there during my usual lunch break. However, if a student cancels their lesson, and that lesson is right before my scheduled lunch break, then I have more than enough time to make the walk and spend too much money on CDs I don’t need!

For example, I bought yet another Yellow Magic Orchestra greatest hits compilation. That brings the total number of YMO albums in my collection to a completely unsatisfying 87. That number is like a dare. It’s sitting there, egging me on to see if I can get to an nice big round and even 100. Goddammit.

Anyways, the compilation in question is YMO Go Home!, which the group released in 1999. It’s a two disc set, and while it’s not as good as what I consider to be their definitive greatest his set, UCYMO, it’s still damn good. In addition to all the bangers you’d want, it also has a few harder to find tracks, which are the ones I’m sharing here. The Special DJ Copy of “Tong Poo”was first made widely available as a part of the 1992 Techno Bible 5CD box set (which I own). I think before that it was only on some promo 12″ singles. It’s not crazy different than the original, but it has enough deviations to make it worth a listen.

When this compilation came out in 1999, it was probably most notable for being the exclusive home of both of those acoustic tracks. They have seen been re-released as a part of the 2005 8CD mega box set L-R Trax, which I do not own because I own nearly every single song in that box set and it usually goes for hundreds of dollars these days. I’m crazy, but I’m not an idiot.

The acoustic tracks are great. “La Femme Chinoise” works oddly well as a slow, acoustic number. The song’s melody sounds surprisingly haunting when plucked on an acoustic guitar. Makes me wish for acoustic re-workings of more YMO classics.

“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” is a bit, well, weirder? First of all, it’s a cover of a Pete Seeger song. How/why/when the hell YMO decided to do a Pete Seeger cover is a mystery. It’s probably for the best that they kept in an acoustic affair though. Pete Seeger’s quiet, contemplative anti-war ballad didn’t need a sequenced beat. Like the other acoustic number, it’s very good. And again, I hope that YMO have some more hidden acoustic gems in the vault that they’ll release someday.

Finally, there’s “Greennack Dollar,” which is on an entirely different YMO compilation called One More YMO, which collection of live cuts. I think that every track on that compilation was previously released save for this one. It was recorded in Budokan in 1980, but not as part of the December concert that served as the source for their legendary Budokan live album, it was recorded earlier in the year.

If you don’t know, “Greenback Dollar” is a cover of a Hoyt Axton song from the early 60s. So, yes, this is YMO covering a song written by the dad in Gremlins. The world is weird sometimes.

Posted in live, remixes, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 4 Comments »

Weird covers on moog, koto, and harpsichord (and more)

January 16th, 2022

Happy new year?

Eh, yeah right. I hope you’re all doing better than me, I’ll just leave it at that.

If you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t updated it in a while. Sorry about that. Life (and omicron) got in the way. I have a lot of footage shot, I just need to edit it and record voice over. Hey, it turns out that making good YouTube videos is really hard! There’s like, work involved, and stuff. How come more people can’t read blogs dammit! Writing is fun and easy! And no one has to hear my voice!

But if you do want to hear my voice, good news, you can do that on not one, but TWO podcasts this month. I’m still doing new episodes of Cinema Oblivia every other week, and there’s a new episode of my progressive rock podcast, Alexander’s Ragtime Band this month too! I’ve been taking over hosting duties as of late, and it’s been a lot of fun. The latest episode features Dr. Sparkle of Chrontendo fame. He, along with my regular compatriot Elliot Long, discuss three bands who only had one album of note: Affinity, Babe Ruth, and England.

Of all the podcast work I’ve done in the past year or so, I’m most proud of this episode from an editing standpoint. I think it turned out great, give it a listen if you have time.

After that, listen to some weird covers!

 

Planet Earth
Doctor Who
Telstar
Across The Universe
Here’s a weird one.

Planet Earth only released one album, a self-titled record that came out in 1978. I don’t know if they were even a real band, or if they were just a collection of musicians assembled by a producer or something like that. It’s not a bad record, kind of mellow disco-influenced instrumental rock, although to be honest, the highlights on the record are the covers I’m sharing now and not the original tunes. I might just think that because they happened to cover three songs that I absolutely love, including “Telstar,” I can’t even tell you how many versions of “Telstar” I have.

Wait, they’re all on my computer, yes I can. I have 10 versions of “Telstar.”

This isn’t the best one, but it’s a really good one! “Telstar” is a hard song to fuck up though, ditto for the other two tracks they cover. Have you ever heard a bad version of the Doctor Who theme? I thought not.

One thing is for sure, this is a really strange collection of musicians.

The album’s main guitarist is Colin Green, who was a session guy who played for a few different acts in the 70s up through the early 2000s. He’s the one playing guitar on Elton John’s “Your Song,” and apparently he’s one of 8 million people featured on Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” Drummer Barry Morgan also played on “Your Song,” and in addition to his work with Elton John he also played with David Bowie, The Walker Brothers, and Harry Nilsson.

The most surprising credits on here though are probably synthesizer players Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge. They were both in Soft Machine! That’s just…what?

 

Keiko Nosaka
Greensleeves
Auld Lang Syne
I’ve discovered that I apparently have a thing for reworkings of Western music on traditional Japanese instruments. I got a Beatles on bamboo album that’s decent (maybe I share some later) and I’ve previously shared koto harp reworkings of works by Vivaldi and Bach. I don’t know what it is about them. I find them oddly soothing I guess. I know I would never listen to more traditional versions of these. It’s really the koto that puts them over the top for me.

These tracks are from an album that koto player Keiko Nosaka released in 1980, simply entitled Koto Greensleeves. The album is comprised entirely of traditional English compositions performed on the koto. It’s quite pretty.

Nosaka released many albums during her career, and apparently she specialized in non-traditional music. She has a record that features her interpretations of Debussy and Ravel, and acclaimed Japanese composer Akira Ikafube (Godzilla) composed music for her. I think that her Discogs page is woefully incomplete, her personal site lists far more records. I hope I can track them down sometime.

Also, not gonna lie, when I hear “Greensleeves” on koto, in my head I imagine a feudal era Japan remake of the original King’s Quest.

THAT WOULD BE SO DOPE.

 

Tokyo Solisten
Yesterday
Eleanor Rigby
Here Comes The Sun
In 1978, this group released not one, but three albums of classical re-imaginings of Beatles tunes. These albums are really something. Their not just classical reworkings of Beatles tracks, actually, they often incorporate or interpolate classical compositions into the Beatles tunes. Don’t ask me which classical pieces, I’m bad at that. By anglophile boyfriend could compile a whole list of which songs pull from which Bach pieces, or whatever, but he has better things to do I imagine.

I’m not a giant fan of The Beatles, but I love these tracks. Like the koto tracks, they are very soothing. It’s been a rough year (already).

I don’t know who most of the individual performers in Tokyo Solisten are, but I can tell you that the conductor for a few of these tracks is Tadaki Otaka, who has served as the conductor for both the BBC and Wales. Additionally, if Discogs is to be believed, the harpsichord player on these tracks also played harpsichord on a Fire Emblem soundtrack album. Weird.

Like I said, there were three of these albums. I only have volume one and volume three. It’s safe to assume that I’ll acquire volume three soon. I also might try to seek out the CD release, but that’s sadly only a greatest hits compilation, and doesn’t include everything. Maybe I’ll share more of these at some point. I really love them.

Posted in Keiko Nosaka, Planet Earth, Tokyo Solisten | 1 Comment »

Shilling and Cyndi

December 5th, 2021

I’m not dead, I feel happy!

Well, I’m not dead at least.

Figures that right when I said I would do my best to update this blog on a monthly basis I go and flake out for a whole month. I guess I’m subconsciously putting this blog on the backburner while I work on other projects, like my podcast, my YouTube channel, and my other podcast. All of which I’m very proud of right now!

I’m continuing to post new episodes of Cinema Oblivia every other week. Since my last post here, I’ve uploaded episodes on Trick or Treat (with my friend/schlock connoisseur Matt Kucick), Manhunter (with Kotaku’s Brain Ashcraft), and The Visitor (with Joe Odber/aka @FrootoftheLoom1 on Twitter). I’m really happy with how all of them have turned out, not to toot my own horn. And I got some more episodes lined up. This week, Anthony Abatte joins me to talk about the crazy 70s horror/car chase flick Ride With The Devil! That episode was a lot of fun to record, so I hope you check it out.

Also, I’ve really started to kick my YouTube channel into high gear recently. Since my last post here I’ve uploaded FIVE videos, and in two of which you can see my face and everything (it’s terrifying). Check them out too if you can.

And finally, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, the podcast I’m on about prog rock, is getting updated more often as well. We put up an episode last month about The Mars Volta, and this week they’ll be another new episode, this one about post-Jon Anderson Yes (it’s a bumpy ride). So yeah, check that out too.

Sorry for all the shilling. It’s been a rough year, and all these projects are pretty much the only thing that’s keeping me remotely sane at the moment. I know a lot of you would rather me just continue this blog as is for infinity and beyond, but try to give these a shot too.

Now, here are some remixes to popular songs from the 80s. I used to post those a lot, y’know.

Cyndi Lauper
Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Extended Version)
Change of Heart (Extended Version)
What’s Going On (Club Version)
Money Changes Everything (Extended Live Version)
These tracks are from The Best Remixes, a Japan only EP that came out in…1996? Weird.

I found this CD at a Hard-Off, which are Japanese second-hand stores that I like to visit (and make videos about). The EP actually has six tracks, but I’m not including the ones that are on streaming services and other re-issues. So sorry, no Goonies or “She Bop” remixes here!

I know you’re gonna come for the “Girls” remix, but definitely stay for the “Change of Heart” remix and the live version of “Money Changes Everything.” “Change of Heart” ain’t exactly a Cyndi classic, but this remix slaps, with a fantastic extended outro. And the live version of “Money Changes Everything” is just fantastic, of course, that song is rad as hell, so I guess that’s not that surprising.

Probably the only less than perfect 10+ track on this EP is the remix of “What’s Going On” because, let’s be real, Cyndi’s cover of that wasn’t all that hot to begin with, still not a bad tune though.

I’ll try to have a Christmas-themed post later this month, but I’ve learned that I shouldn’t make promises about posts anymore. So, if I don’t post again until 2022, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Posted in Cyndi Lauper, remixes | 6 Comments »

New Wave from Z to B

October 17th, 2021

Thanks to everyone for the kind words after the last post, that was very nice.

My plans to eventually shutter this blog in its current form remain, but it might take a bit longer than I first thought, because I don’t want to shut this down without something else ready to replace it. Since my HTML and website building knowledge is forever trapped in 2002, I won’t be doing that on my own. I’ll need to use an external company/person. And I don’t want to screw it up. Don’t worry, all the old posts will remain. However, setting it all up how I want it to be is going to take time. So, my original plan of a Lost Turntable “reboot” by the end of the year probably isn’t going to happen.

Don’t worry, in the interim I’ll continue to write new posts, just don’t expect too many, this once a month schedule is working out well for me at the moment so I might stick with that.

In other “things I’m doing” news, I have ramped up my newly revived YouTube channel considerably since my last post. I’m putting up videos almost every week! Right now, I’m mainly focusing on videos about record stores and things I see in second-hand shops here in Tokyo, but I plan on expanding to videos about items in my collection soon. Be sure to subscribe!

And Cinema Oblivia is still going too, now on a bi-weekly schedule. Since my last post here I’ve uploaded three new episodes, including one about Urgh! and my legal nightmare around that! So check those out too!

Now for hyper-obscure new wave music from the early 80s.

 

The Zarkons
Screams In The Night
White Rabbit
Queen Of The Jungle
I’ve shared a song by The Zarkons on this blog a long time ago. The Zarkons are in Urgh!, back when they called themselves The Alley Cats. I have no idea why the band changed its name. Maybe they figured that since they weren’t exactly lighting the world on fire as The Alley Cats, a complete reboot couldn’t hurt? Regardless, I love that they went from “A” to “Z” when they renamed themselves, although it makes hunting down their records in the bins a bit tricky.

The Alley Cats were great and so were The Zarkons. These tracks are all taken from The Zarkons’ debut album, Riders In The Long Black Parade, which came out on Enigma Records in 1985 and has never seen the light of day digitally or on CD. That’s crazy, because this album is fantastic. I get big X vibes with them, and I’m sure they were an influence on the group, as they’re both LA post-punk bands with dual male and female singers. But The Zarkons have their own sound, They have this dark edge to them, very goth, almost horror-punk even. The main singer, Dianne Chai, has a great warble to her voice and it gives her an other-worldly, slightly creepy quality. It totally makes sense that they’d cover “White Rabbit,” her voice is perfect for that type of song.

Again, this is a great, amazing, fantastic album full of killer tunes. I cannot fathom why it has never been re-issued. I hope that it gets picked up by Red Cherry, Wounded Bird, or Esoteric at some point, it deserves a wider audience.

 

The Books
Metaphysic
When I was researching Urgh! for the previously mentioned podacst, I found some flyers to the concerts that were filmed for the movie. Those were really fascinating because it showed me that there were bands filmed for the movie that never even made it into the final cut of the film. Did you know that U2 were filmed for Urgh!? They weren’t included int the final product because the band wasn’t happy with the performance. Other bands cut from the movie include The Human League, Delta 5, and The Mekons.

Another band cut from the movie was this group, The Books, who I had never heard of before. After I sought out their debut (and sole) effort, I’m surprised that the group never came into my purview before. They’re an early synth-pop group, but a bit off-kilter. They’re kind of a gross between Gary Numan, pre-“Don’t You Want Me” Human League, and Echo and The Bunnymen. The album is a little all over the place, for every radio-friendly potential single, like “Rain” or the title track, there are bizarre, more punk-adjacent numbers like “Dusters” and “Spillane,” which have that rapid-fire staccato deliver that makes me think of Devo or even Polyrock.

The album is uneven, but overall it’s quite good and I hope that it gets a proper re-issue someday, which is why I’m only sharing the one track. The group was the brainchild of Steve Betts, who also was a member of The Assosciates, and he has shared the entire album on his Soundcloud. I hope he can put the album up for sale on Bandcamp sometime, I’d buy it for sure.

 

Posted in The Books, The Zarkons | No Comments »

The future of Lost Turntable – and a deviant disco song

September 7th, 2021

Sorry I’ve been missing in action for a while, I was embroiled in a legal battle with Warner Brothers Entertainment.

That’s not an exaggeration. Remember how I got banned from YouTube for uploading that 4K upscale of Urgh!?

Yeah? Remember how I said getting banned didn’t really bother me that much?

Yo, I lied.

It’s a whole thing. I created a Medium account specifically to write about it. I suggest you go read that for the details. I posted it on Medium because I figured more people would read it if I linked to a service like that instead of my own blog, and I’m pretty sure I was right. That’ll probably be the most read thing I write all year, by a longshot.

Here’s the thing; no one reads this site anymore. When this site was in its prime, I would say from 2006 to 2010, I was averaging literally thousands of visitors a day. I think I broke 10,000 in one day when I got Fark’d (ah, I miss Web 2.0 websites).

I’m lucky if I break 100 a day now.

I don’t think that Lost Turntable is going to be around much longer in its current state. I’m sorry.

I’m simply finding it harder and harder to make the time to do this. I still love writing about music, it’s just that it’s hard to find music that is I both like and is out-of-print. And I typically don’t feel like putting forth the time and effort needed to give those releases their just due, simply because no one is going to read whatever I write about them! And that’s not a slam on my writing or whatever, it’s just a fact that not many people care about weird French prog or avant-garde Japanese electronic music. I mean, duh.

Also, this shit with Warner Bros. scared me. They could have sued me hadn’t they also released Urgh! illegally (seriously, read that Medium post). Every time I post something here I theoretically run that risk. I sure as hell am never posting anything by a major artist ever again, it’s too risky.

Finally, and on a completely other topic, I just feel like I should be doing something else with my time. This feeling has been nagging at me for a while now, but it really went into overdrive after my dad passed away earlier this year. When I was at his memorial service, so many people came up to me and told me how much he meant to them, how he changed their lives, and how they felt he helped so many people around him. My dad was a businessman, I am very much not a businessman. That’s not my place in the world. But, when my time comes I really don’t want my legacy to be “hey, he was that dude who posted that Hulk Hogan album.” I would like to contribute something with a bit more substance than ironic copyright infringement.

So now what?

Yeah, that’s a good question.

Well, for the immediate future, probably at least until the end of the year, I’ll continue to update this blog on occasion, definitely at least once a month if not more. I got some genuinely obscure stuff that i want to share. And it’s all so far out there that I feel safe doing it. After that, I think I’ll finally redesign this sucker, merge it with Mostly-Retro, and turn it more into a general blog/website where I can share a wider variety of writing. And I might still share the occasional out-of-print song, if it’s obscure and weird enough, you never know. Even I don’t, I couldn’t stop writing about music if my life depended on it, so I’ll still be doing that in some capacity on this site no matter what. If that fails to find an audience, so be it, but at least I’ll be doing something I like to do.

Concurrently, however, I do plan on posting actual original content on my YouTube page. That’s one of the reasons that I fought so hard to get it back. I want to post videos about rare records, Japanese record stores, and more. I think that’ll be more interesting to more people than an old blog with music from some Italian disco no one has ever heard of.

And of course, there’s my podcast, Cinema Oblivia. That is still going strong! I’ve had to cut it back to a bi-weekly schedule for time being, but I genuinely enjoy doing that. It hasn’t exactly found an audience as of yet, but I’m not giving up on it anytime soon, it’s way too fun.

Honestly though, it would be great if one of those things got popular enough for me to monetize it in some way, just enough to qualify as a part time job, nothing major. It would mean so much for my mental well-being. On thing the pandemic has taught me is that businesses don’t give A FUCK about their workers. And I’m sick and tired of being treated as expendable as the crew of the Nostromo. If I could create something that would give me a bit more freedom it would be great.

If you’re a longtime fan of my blog and you want to help me out, share my videos and podcasts when I put them up. Spread the word. Hey, I love the 75-125 of your who visit my site every few days, but I need more than yinz to get by these days.

In the meantime, here’s some Italian disco no one has ever heard of.

Giants
Backdoor Man
Hollywood Queen
I very rarely buy albums because of the cover these days, but damn, that cover. Luckily, the record is really good too. Well, maybe “really good” isn’t the right phrase. “Really damn weird” and “a little fucked up” are probably more accurate ways to describe the magic and the mystery of Giants, who only released two album in the late-70s and early-80s before taking off the helmets and shoulder pads.

They certainly have an image, the football player from hell is a look, that’s for sure. If the Italian Wikipedia page is right, they named themselves after the American football team of the same name, and the look followed. Whatever the reason may be, I dig the hell out of it. They’re like Daft Punk’s evil fratboy cousins, but cool.

Giants was mostly the work of two dudes, Daniele Baima Besquet and Ronnie Jackson. I think the project was his baby. He’s the producer and the co-writer for every song, while Jackson just serves as the album’s other writer. Bequet seemed to have a decent career behind the scenes through the 70s and 80s. He worked with Libra, the prog rock act that was on Motown Records (okay then) and also worked with Nikka Costa on her first album. And I mean her actual first album, she was nine when it came out. Ronnie Jackson mostly worked as a writer, working with Besquet on that early Costa album and for a few Italian singers as well.

Synth pioneer Michael Boddicker is also a couple of tracks on this album, but he’s relegated to “guest” credit. I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He has a Grammy after all.

And all this is fine and good but whatever, I’m not posting these tracks because of who worked on them, or because of the album’s absolutely insane cover. I’m posting them because “Hollywood Queen” is a pretty good song, and because “Backdoor Man” is one of the craziest pop songs I’ve ever heard.

If you think you’ve guessed what “Backdoor Man” is by the title, congrats you’re right! But never has a double entendre been less of a double entendre than “Backdoor Man.” It makes ZZ Top’s “Pearl Necklace” Ovid by comparison. Once your song about an illicit sex act references lubrication, it’s no longer a metaphor, it’s just about the thing. And trust me, the line about lube is not the most depraved or bizarre in this song. I’m not going to write what those are, my mom still reads this blog, you’ll just have to download and listen to the track yourself.

I SIMPLY CANNOT BELIEVE THE CHORUS OF THIS SONG. IT’S SO DIRTY I DON’T WANT TO TYPE IT. BUT I LOVE IT. I ALMOST SANG IT ALOUD AT WORK HELP ME.

As for “Hollywood Queen,” it’s much more tame lyrically, even with its clear references to whiskey and cocaine. It’s just a great tune. It has the sequences and synths of “I Feel Love” but with a clear hard rock sound over top it. It’s like Giorgrio Moroder meets Van Halen. It reminds me of Macho’s cover of “I’m a Man.” Only slightly less gay. Slightly.

Look, I don’t care who that back-up singers in “Backdoor Man” are women. I don’t care that he explicitly mentions women in the opening verse. I do not believe for one second that the door in question belongs to a woman’s, ahem, home.

Thanks for the support everyone. Stay tuned for more news about the future of this site, and more weird old music from Europe.

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Less Olympics, more Be Your Own Pet

July 23rd, 2021

I’m writing this on July 23rd, 2021, around 9:00 pm Japan time. As I right this, the Opening Ceremonies for the 2020* Summer Olympics are underway. Like everything else about these bastard games, the Opening Ceremonies have had their fair share of controversy. Originally, Japanese musician Cornelius was going to be the composer for the event. However, after some pretty vile aspects of his personal life were unearthed, he was shitcanned.

So now, instead of music from the guy who abused handicapped children, they’re using music from video games. Nerd Twitter is, obviously, nerding out at this. “Yay Chrono Tigger music at the Olympics OMG wow!” And hey that’s great I’m really happy for all of them. But the Opening Ceremonies are also using music composed by Koichi Sugiyama, the Dragon’s Quest composer who, rather infamously, has been a longtime Japanese war crime denier, vocal racist, and proud homophobe who likes jokes about gay kids killing themselves.

The Olympics aide countries in committing human rights violations, ignore rampant genocide, are sexist as hell, and engage in anti-LGBT policies on the regular. So really, in the grand scheme of things, this ain’t shit. But I’m still surprised they didn’t even think “hey, we just had to fire a guy because he made handicapped people literally eat shit, we should really vet the music we’ll use from this point on.” Or hey, maybe they did and they just decided that Sugiyama laughing at the idea of gay kids committing suicide, and his constant racist nationalist rhetoric was just a-okay and what the Olympics stands for.

I feel it’s safe to assume that Ryuichi Sakamoto turned the Olympics down, or we would be hearing his music right now. But was Hosono busy too? How about Towa Tei? Shit, call the guy who makes music for Perfume. Fuck, I’d take SMAP at this point. Ridiculous.

Anyways, in happier news, I was banned from YouTube! Seriously. It’s not that big a deal. It’s kind of annoying because I have to make another YouTube account just to subscribe to channels, but my own YouTube channel wasn’t exactly a vital part of my online presence. I had less than 200 subscribers and my biggest videos were rips of Bleachers’ B-sides. Whatever.

I was banned because I made the mistake of sharing clips from the movie Urgh! A Music War, upscaled to 4K. I figured that it wouldn’t have been an issue, since you can literally watch every single scene from Urgh! on YouTube already. But maybe the 4K part irked someone. It was taken down less than an hour after I uploaded it.

I put a lot of work into that upsale. Bought a pretty expensive program to do it, worked really hard to edit it all together, and was really proud of it. I really want people to see it. Thankfully, Internet Archive. Go get it before you can’t anymore. I’m sorry it’s like 40GB, but 4K is big.

It looks REALLY REALLY GOOD though. Trust me. Holy shit. You can practically tell what Danny Elfman ate for dinner.

Now some angry music.

Be Your Own Pet
Blow Yr Mind (Battles Tapes Version)
The Beast Within (Battles Tapes Version)
Bummer Time (Battles Tapes Version)
What’s Your Damage? (Battles Tapes Version)
I know I’ve extolled the virtues of BYOP on this blog before. They were one of my favorite bands of the late 00s. I still mourn that breakup and secretly (or not so secretly) wish that they’ll somehow get back together and release a new album. It could happen, they were babies when they broke up. I bet the oldest person from that band is like, 35 years old, at most.

These alternate versions of tracks from their final album, Get Awkward, are bonus tracks on the Japanese version of that album, which I found used for next-to-nothing this week. It was a good day.

Don’t watch the Olympics, listen to punk rock.

(Photo, taken by me, is of Jemina Pearl of BYOP at Lollapalooza about five seconds after she vomited a mountain of watermelon on stage.)

Posted in Be Your Own Pet | 3 Comments »

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.

 

Posted in Complete Albums | 4 Comments »

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 »

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