Yoshida Minako - Tornado (1980) That synthetic bass hook sound so beloved in tunes previously posted like Yarbrough & Peoples Don't Stop The Music, SOS Band's Just Be Good To Me and Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobodyrears its funky head here.
This is disco slowed to such a crawl that it's barely even boogie. Whatever it is, it's one of the great R&B tracks of 1980. The amazing thing is, it has gone unheard outside of Japan for thirty years until probably the mid-2010s when ye olde funky Japanese disco started getting western attention.
The synthetic bass is slowed to a veritable creak, you can hear the tape's been manipulated and decelerated filling Tornado with eeriness and dread. This slow jam is also notable for its exquisite vibraphone usage....oh and not to forget Minako's impeccable vocal arrangement executed immaculately.
This vibe says freedom and being a 70s baby it matches my wrapped in an Hawaiian shirt forever soul.
Masayoshi Takanaka - Tokyo Reggie (1976)
Hang on this needs to be the theme tune for our daily battles against the poisonous nonsense they are selling. I will be demoralised no further because samba jazz funk fusion. Remember when the government and media didn't demonise you for having normal boring viewpoints.
Masayoshi Takanaka - サヨナラ…FUJIさん (1976)
Bless Masayoshi's soul.
Breeze-y with nonchalant cowbell goodness!
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
Fuck the humourless anti-human death cult, live life in abundance.
Anyway Masayoshi Takanaka's debut solo LP Seychelles (1976) which contains the above three tunes was reissued a couple of months ago. Once again however if you missed out it's already going for silly prices. Although unlike Tatsuro Yamashita you can find many Takanaka records on Spotify and youtube.
I first heard this guy seven or eight years ago on that Nippon Funk compilation. He's since become a bit of a cult figure on the internet because his tune An Insatiable High (1977) went viral.
All bets are off folks. Enjoy the devastating demoralised euphoria of the greatest apocalyptic post-punk jam of them all. What even is this? What are the band actually doing? These random, out of tune, clangorous, gunk ridden and grinding sounds are strikingly moved around creating a potent dark dissonance that is unexpected and rare. Avant rock noise in excelsis.
Since discovering this thirty three years ago the intensity of this aural obliteration never gets any less astounding. Flipper conjure absolute revelatory black magic on One By One. It's negative, defeatist, bleak yet exciting...invigorating. The most utterly exhilarating downbeat gloom ever put to record.
More intense thick slabs of bass in your face from the 80s. This one might just be the peak for me. Everything about this...
Demented Australian subterranean rock (feedtime, Salamander Jim, Lubricated Goat, Thug, Box The Jesuit, Fungus Brains, Venom P Stinger, Black Eye Records et al.) was at a supreme level at the time. Unfortunately for me I was still in high school in the middle of Woop Woop so I didn't get to experience this post-Birthday Party/post-hardcore noise-rock first hand during its scuzzy prime. Indeed King Snake Roost were done and dusted by 1990 before I'd reached the big smoke.
The menacing funky bass here is provided by Michael Raymond who's obviously indebted to J J Burnel and Tracy Pew. I don't really know that much about him. The debut King Snake Roost album From Barbarism To Christian Manhood seems to be the only record he ever worked on. While KSR recorded three LPs in their time and were somewhat renowned because ex-Grong Grong and Bloodloss legend Charles Tolnay was the guitarist, this first LP in particular, artistically belongs to Raymond. He wrote the music and lyrics for six of the album's eight songs including Dead All Over. Then he appears to disappear from the music scene entirely never to return. Did he die or just retire? Déjà vu.
KSR would go on to infamy and acclaim with their following two LPs and subsequent signing to Amphetamine Reptile Records after Michael Raymond's departure. For me though From Barbarism To Christian Manhood is their highlight.
The greatest rock'n'roll tune you never heard. I first heard this on a Dr Boogie compilation 20 years ago and assumed it must have been a golden oldie that I somehow missed well... my dad must have missed thus not passing it onto me. However a quick look on discogs reveals this 1962 one off 7" single from Bobby Verne only started popping up on compilations during the 90s. Where the hell was it for 30 years?
Anyway what an incredible slice of mysterious lost rockabilly, complete with an array of premium atmospheric twangery, a sublime sax solo and a menacing undercurrent. It does not get better than this! Pop culture perfection right here folks.
Haha haha ha bahahaha. This is still so fuckin funny. Ironically it's also absolutely thrilling rock and roll-wise: The drama, the performance poetry, the seething vitriol, the scathing denunciation, the unbridled wit - all instinctual and within a genius innate dark art rock jam worthy of the most insufferable turd. This is taken from the second record of the double Great Truckin' Songs Of The Renaissance LP which was the performance poetry, prankster collage, lo-fi tape art record as opposed to the first disc which was more on the commercial new wave pop genius tip.
I Hadn't heard this since the 80s when I was in high school. Fuck I thought The Doors were naff when I was a teenager. My older brother liked them. He even had a fucking Jim Morrison t-shirt and permed his fucking long straight brown hair to emulate him or was that Barnsey or Hutchence or was there even a fucking difference. This is the funniest! I was just writhing in my chair in pain with laughter causing asthma. I love how it had a go at all the rock stars we liked Nick Cave, Hugo Race, Mozza, Bob Smith and even hilariously Albert Camus. Even though we were all somewhat fans to varying degrees of these "private school depression idols" we also knew they were absolute tools. I didn't become a bona fide Doors fan until after the 90s. I actually got drunk with Hugo Race once during the 90s and he was so normal it was weird, top bloke he was.
In my year eleven class level in 1988 there were probably 80 to 100 students and there was just me and my best mate Nicole who were into this record. Then again I didn't take a poll of the other kids and really, I didn't know any of them from a bar of soap so maybe there were a hundred owners of Great Truckin' Songs Of The Renaissance LP. I mean surely most of us saw that insane live performance on Rock Arena so...
*I have to say I don't think I fully comprehended the genius of This Is Serious Mum as a band, as a musical entity. I mean as comedians, pranksters, satirists, conceptual artists, polemicists and shit-stirrers they were obviously supreme. BUT I didn't recognise their music melded with these other outstanding attributes as the fascinating beast that it actually is.
**Listening to this today has made me disappointed in myself. The fact that I understood and loved a track such as this should have, for one, shielded me against being seduced by retarded French theorists for more than a decade. I mean it is a pure Aussie instinct to smell the bullshit from a mile off. I was a pure sarcastic Australian kid and many said this was to my detriment but fuck me it was my best characteristic. Even my best friend said my sneering cynicism was too negative. The fact that I ever became enamoured by any nonsense, poisonous ideas and mind viruses over the years is a fucking embarrassment. And hey I'll take the shame but hey at least I admit it.
*** I didn't really fanatically follow This Is Serious Mum after this record. I think my rationale must have been: You can't be a good band musically if you're funny. So while I appreciated them on a clever, comedic and satirical level, I could not also see that they were just as interesting musically and in fact the two concepts needn't be separated. I realise this makes me look stupid and yeah what a twit I was. I guess I was trying to shake off the image of being the doyen of sardonicism...yep what a cunt! I can see parallels to 80s NZ renegades like Axemen and Headless Chickens as well as new wave mavericks like Mental As Anything, R Stevie Moore and They Might Be Giants. TISM though have their own internal logic causing an idiosyncratic classic pop sound.
****The only ever overseas review of Great Truckin Songs... I saw was in Melody Maker but it was actually written by an ex-pat. I've always wondered what people who have never lived in Australia must think of TISM and wether they actually get it. Then I realise why the fuck would I care about that!
When thick slabs of bass ruled. In the 80s groups like The Birthday Party, PIL, Hunters & Collectors, Flipper flung menacing bass in your face and we couldn't get enough.
Runaway is an outstanding moment in The Moodists funny little catalogue. Actually it might be even better heard in the context of the first side of their Thirsty's Calling LP. In that scenario it's even more startling because what had gone before in the previous four songs had been more dense, energetic and upbeat. But Runaway strips it all back and slows everything down to a menacing crawl. This restrained seething atmosphere becomes an incredibly intense mantra. I mean for the first one minute and fifty four seconds it's just unadorned bass and drums while Graney's vehement tone builds in fervour as his vocals start overlapping and responding back. Then when the mangled guitar enters, the song is engulfed in a fabulously ferocious cacophony.
So while other Moodists here Mick Turner, Clare Moore and Dave Graney went onto further fame and acclaim during the 90s and beyond in acts such as The Dirty Three, The Coral Snakes etc. the star of the show here is virtually an unknown these days. Veteran bass player Chris Walsh was however an integral character in the Melbourne punk and post-punk milieu. He was even around in the pre-punk proto-punk days.
Previous to joining The Moodists Walsh had been in groups Judas Iscariot And The Traitors, The Reals, The Negatives and The Fabulous Marquises etc. with various legendary Melbourne musicians including Garry Gray, Ollie Olsen, Mick Harvey and Edward Clayton Jones. If I have this correct I think Chris Walsh's best mate in high school was Tracey Pew. Anyway his last bass playing credit seems to be on Dave Graney & The White Buffalo's 1989 LP My Life On The Plains. Then he appears to disappear and never reappears. Did he die or just retire? Anyway what a legend.
Side A's hypnotic techno sans the beats innit. In the tradition of Ashra's New Age Of Earth & E2-E4.
Side B's a bit like if Neu went all insane hyper cosmic electro disco and hosted an all night psychedelic dance party. This shit really was conceptually pre-rave even if it doesn't quite exactly sound like how acid house or rave-y tech ended up sounding. You could def have your hands in the air like you just don't care and lose yourself in the continuous upbeat bliss while participating in the stimulating or psychedelic drug of choice.
More 80s in-between scenes electronic music. Scottish synthesist Trucknell did a handful of DIY tapes and one cassette on the MIXMUSIC tape label whose roster included Tim Stebbing, Paul Nagle and Nik Arkle. Trucknell also appeared on comps issued by INKEY$, Synthtrax and Auricle. So there was some kind of underground network for these guys.
The ace title track of the 1980 Syrinx LP reminds me of something like Illitch circa 10 Suicides but with added violin. Syrinx's one and only LP Meteora is a cosmic prog electro jam. This German group never get mentioned anywhere by anyone and this album has never been reissued.
Maximilian Marzinkowski's, the mastermind behind the Syrinx, only other synth performance and songwriting credits post Syrinx were for a couple of (pretty bad) singles for fledgling pop stars. The other band members never participated any further in the recording industry.
Surely these qualities are all worthy of making Syrinx a mythical group...
For the gear heads here's a list of stuff Marzinkowski played on Meteora: KLH computer-controlled loudspeakers model 1 + 2, ARP 2600, ARP-AXXE, ARP String, Roland Jupiter, rhythm computer, analog sequenzer, digital sequenzer, vocoder.
Then you realise sometimes the best records are the most popular. For You, despite being a number one LP in Japan in 1982 and one of the most revered Japanese city pop albums ever recorded, is still an elusive listen. It had a vinyl reissue a month ago but if you missed it, like me, you can now only pay an absurd fortune for a copy. The For You full album youtube uploads keep getting struck down and Yamashita refuses to put it up on spotify. So you gotta grab a piece of the fleeting phenomenon while you can. I mean is anybody really gonna pay over sixty Australian dollars plus shipping for the bloody reissue of the tape? Enjoyment for tonight only and maybe tomorrow night too... you never know your luck in the big city (pop)!
*For those who haven't been paying attention the boring mainstream rock-crit consensus cannons have become increasingly irrelevant since the internet. Lists by the likes of Rolling Stone, NME etc. were notoriously snobby particularly towards non American/English acts and heaven forbid genres like metal.
So now we get to see ratings of music by the music fan people. The two lists of best albums of any particular year as voted by the website's users seem to be Best Ever Albums and Rate Your Music. The Best Ever Albums lists appear to best accurately reflect the choices and rankings of people I know. I love how Europe sits next to The Feelies as 43 & 44 respectively in the list of best 1986 LPs. Rate Your Music is more uber fan-ish but no less populist and with a broader scope than just rock & pop radio LPs. That is to say their lists encompass a lot more classical, experimental and niché genres.
In recent years it has been noticeable and pretty embarrassing to see places like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone retroactively scrub their canonical lists and replace them with lists that don't accurately reflect the magazine's past identity, past music obsessions and past musical biases. They're probably doing this for retarded cultural revolutionary (DEI) points, definitely for broader market appeal but also because they might have realised that legacy rock critics thought they were better than the average popular music fan, were narrow minded and had petty grievances with certain genre music tribes.
What I'm getting at here is that Tatsuro Yamashita's For You LP has gained a lot of status in the last twenty years. The World Wide Web is exactly that: Worldwide. For You never dented a western country's pop chart back in the day but due to a change in popular music listening paradigms, 41 years later it is rated by Best Ever Albums as the 30th best record of 1982 trailing Michael Jackson, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Donald Fagan, Bad Brains and The Fall while coming out ahead of 1982 efforts by Toto, Talking Heads, The Dream Syndicate, Gun Club and Siouxsie & The Banshees.
In the Rate Your Music's best LPs of 1982 list For You comes in at an astonishing number sixteen behind The Cure, Philip Glass, Glenn Gould doing Bach, Judas Priest & Prince but just ahead of Alice Coltrane, Discharge, SPK, Pagan Altar and Faustos.
