EDITIONS is a collection of After Dinner's first album and a handful of live tracks. Essential listening for those interested in Japan's early 80's blend of baroque pop, prog, traditional Japanese music, and some electronic improv. This is highly regarded as being one of Japan's landmark new wave/experimental groups. The lead singer HACO, has lead a promising solo career since After Dinner's disbanding. I posted one of her solo records over yonder and the other After Dinner record was posted long time ago right here.
When my old band toured Japan back in 2002, we were told that one of the bands opening up for us was this really great group called 54-71 (in Japanese, Goju Yon Nanaju Ichi) and that we should be very happy with their live performance. Well, the singer came out with old school boxing headgear on and their drummer had a 3 piece drum set and was sporting a nice Hawaiian shirt so already they were great. Their sound is all rhythm; everything is wound tight. The bass and drums are fine-tuned in their precision and the guitar lines are skeletal...clean and clear. Now here comes their singer...what is this? He is rapping...I think he's rapping. He's kind of wheezing...is he okay? This is great, this is sad, this is even greater. A head-scratchingly excellent group that has apparently garnered some stateside recognition due to their opening slot for a Deerhoof tour (among others). This is a really interesting album (entitled UNTITLED) and showcases 54-71 as the minimalist adventurers that they are.
UNMEI NO TSUBASA, the 2001 album by Hong Kong mega-starlet remains as one of the standout sue in no small part to the first track "光之翼" which starts of with a simple, dreamy little riff and then explodes into a prickly, distorted, and ultra-catchy pop chorus. So good that you will be singing along in Cantonese in no time. The remainder of the album holds more sway in the typical Faye Wong sound, combing together strands of Chinese folk, French pop, and even a little bit of four-on-the-floor techno into one long musical braid.
I must have been around 15 years old when my friend Derek visited my house one day. I was in my room probably burning incense or trying to record some guitar music on one of my homemade multi boom-box recording systems I had set up. Derek was older than me and would come over once in a while to show me a few guitar techniques...blah blah blah. He shows me a cassette tape that he picked up for a quarter at a garage sale and tells me that I should check it out. The cover looks really wacky and distills a sci-fi 70's TRON kind of hokiness that's hard to fake. Intrigued, I played it in my headphones while going to sleep that night. Hence began the audio journey with TOMITA and his classic piece of electronic music, THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE.
Let me spray it out in the open: I love CHUMBAWAMBA! From every album that I have heard, I have been impressed. Hey, I can dig the pop bands with the occasional anarchist slant. I decided to drop this gem of an album, 1995's SWINGIN' WITH RAYMOND tonight because, well...first of all, I had it in the stack of stuff to eventually post anyway; and also, because the great song "Ugh! Your Ugly New Houses!" blurted into my headphones on my 1 & 1/2 hour commute to work this morning and I took it as a divine sign from Raymond, himself.
