POO: japanese album

broaden my knowledge

Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids

Les Rallizes Dénudés, '77 Live

what genres do you like?

august 1974 - taj mahal travellers

there's about a billion great japanese albums in a zillion different genres. reducing this to one record will not broaden your knowledge but blind you to that possibility.

http://www.qualitythread.com/images/Logo-QualityThread.jpg

"reducing this to one record will not broaden your knowledge"

i'll check everything posted here.

genres: anything with a guitar. specifically psych/acid/noise/garage/metal/hard rock/space rock/experimental

Denudes - know the record, appreciate it, but too much experimental to my taste

taj mahal - thanks but too drone-y

among my favorite japanese acts are: boredoms, shinki chen, acid mother temple, guitar wolf..

Cornelius - Point

i'll check.

used to listen to Fantasma back in the 90's, totally forgot about this dude

Ground Zero - Plays Standards

tough call between Live 77 and the first AMT album

john zorn style?
xpost

XXP...Consume Red too, and the four High Rise records.

Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/03/kiyohiko-senba-and-his-haniwa-all-stars.html

Shiina Ringo's Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana, Ground-zero's Revolutionary Pekinese Opera v1.28 & TMT's August 1974 close runner ups in terms of numbers of times played, only one record for an entire country, that's crazy talk

http://www.discogs.com/Kiyohiko-Senba-And-His-Haniwa-All-Stars-Haniwa-%E3%81%AF%E3%81%AB%E3%82%8F/release/2301362

...mmm, Fear...

high rise!
yes i know them! good stuff.

Shiina Ringo's Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana

(Though I was listening to Shouso Strip this morning and honestly I feel myself drifting away from it more and more. I don't know how much I like 90's style SR at this point, and that's a very 90's album, even if it came out in 2000.)

used to listen to Fantasma back in the 90's, totally forgot about this dude

― nostormo

Point is a very different beast, stripped-back and tranquil. I love it.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlsYqVEhf5w/TP98ZV20vYI/AAAAAAAAASM/2lsPYEJFg_Y/s400/takako+minekawa.jpg

^^ great one

Gore Beyond Necropsy ‎– Sounds Like Shit!!! EP
Label:
Blurred Records ‎– BLURRED-23
Format:
Vinyl, 7", EP, Limited Edition
Country:
Japan
Released:
Dec 1999
Genre:
Rock
Style:
Grindcore, Noise
Tracklist
Side Arsehole
A1 Intro～Drowned
A2 Sonic Depression
A3 Burns Blood Red
A4 Dual Vortex Of Rectal Discord
A5 Ignorance
A6 H.A.R.S.H.I.T.
A7 Fetching Noise Filth
Side Butthole
B1 Intro～Play Raw, Filthy & Harsh!
B2 Future Generation Genocide
B3 Shitty Shitty Shake
B4 Noise So Raw
B5 Keep Your Big Arsehole Shut!
B6 Hammer Dick Anal Bomb
B7 Anarchy In The P.C.
B8 Horrendous Stink Festering Sore

genres: anything with a guitar. specifically psych/acid/noise/garage/metal/hard rock/space rock/experimental

Have you heard 'My Girl Friday' by Salon Music? It's sort of 80s indiepop/power pop type stuff.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61XSDJBP2HL.jpg

Shibuya Kei, Nano Pop, City Pop, Pico Pop etc:

Plus Tech Squeeze Box - Cartoom!!
Buffalo Daughter - I
Macdonald Duck Eclair - The Genesis Songbook
Yukari Fresh - Yukari's Perfect
Clammbon - Imagination
Kahime Karie - Trapeziste

Space Streakings - 7-Toku

Excellent noisy band on Skin Graft

Are there any great J-pop albums; all killer, no filler?

YMO's first record pretty much imho.

so much great music out of this scene but i'd have to go with any of the japandroids albums, really

Are there any great J-pop albums; all killer, no filler?

― arctic mindbath (President of the People's Republic of Antarctica), Monday, September 30, 2013 3:30 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YMO's first record pretty much imho.

― many machines on ilx (MaresNest), Monday, September 30, 2013 3:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

+ Solid State Survivor, BGM, Technodelic, and Naughty Boys :)

(in fact that last one probably suits the definition of J-Pop you're most likely looking for)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c9shb_7sBpw/UATgBNLDg_I/AAAAAAAAIKg/meG9n3pfIGw/s1600/03_Boris_Flood.jpg

XP - Well yep, I was too reserved to lay out most of their catalog as 'all killer no filler' but it is a pretty redoubtable body of music

m-flo's astromantic is basically a perfect album

thanks, I'll check them all out (and any more that might be named in future)! :)

you should check out P-Model - Karkador as well :)

Capsule's More! More! More! is fucking enormous and great.

Big fan of Copter4016882's 2D2D, 800 Cherries' Romantico, and everything ever by Sugar Plant.

Lotsa good stuff recommended already.

I second the recomendation for Plus-tech Squeeze Box's Cartooom!
Their first album, Fakevox, is good as well.

Hartfield - True Color, True Lie
Pina - Ephemeral

Are there any great J-pop albums; all killer, no filler?

don't like one of the ballads but momoiro clover z's battle and romance is really close and super awesome. still hearing new things on some of the denser tracks on it.

also, mosaic.wav's ginyu planet akiba-pop. love it so much. has the big pop choruses for sure but I should mention that it's on an even more hyper/proggy tip than the last one. tread lightly!

Cartoom is awesome, but really insane. Imagine all of "Fantasma" crammed into one song, and an album full of these songs.

metalheads, especially my power metal friends, the ginyu planet recommendation goes double for you

j3ff t to thread for dodgy music from japan

7 toku is dope, I like Flood a lot too.

If you are in for a 90s sampledelic slightly surreal audio collage type of thing then track down Dthe Doopees - Doopee Time

It can be listened to here - http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/01/yann_tomitas_do.html

today my choice is tujiko noriko's "blurred in my mirror".

Childisc is a worthy rabbit-hole too - NobukazuTakemura/Childisc S&D

i'm forever spinning "10th", "animate" & "songbook", but he hasn't been as fecund recently and i think people don't remember him well. he has a wicked robert wyatty achey melodic sense & programs noodly fusionisms & moody non resolving morton feldman chord cycles better than most, but i think people only remember the (with hindsight) claustrophobically 90's steve reich-y toytown aspect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pivscwcduhY

wow, this plus-tech squeeze box album is really something. kinda like a mashup of Max Tundra and Cornelius

In college, I made an animated presentation about Takashi Murakami that was synched to "Cartoom TV" by Plus-Tech Squeezebox. One of my prouder moments (even if the idea was more awesome than the execution).

Doopee Time is definitely an awesome record!

And I once made a ridiculous video to a Plus Tech Squeeze Box remix involving Sailor Spoon defending a city from the province of Saskatchewan.

loving the YMO albums, listened to the self-titled debut and Naughty Boys today. Both are very, very good, but I prefer the latter atm.

Also listened to Momoiro's Battle & Romance and although I like it, the vox seem a little high-pitched and grating. Very hyper music too, but I have a feeling it's going to grow on me with repeat listens.

yeah Naughty Boys is really just a perfect pop album. the s/t is something totally different, kind of an electrified take on jazz or exotica with a technopop attitude. really wild for 1978.

I wasn't too impressed with Momoiro Clover Z at first listen - most of it irritated me greatly. But I'll probably give it another shot someday.

The s/t really is staggering considering it was recorded 35 years ago; it sounds so modern. I guess that's a given, considering how much of today's pop music derives from synthesizers, but it's such a fully-realized work at the same time. Very impressive.

On a second listen to MCZ, the vocals are less annoying, but the chorus vox are so high in the mix, it can be hard to make out the instrumentation sometimes.

it took me a while to warm up to battle and romance myself and I can totally get that it might not be somebody's aesthetic. this is the one I couldn't shake even if I wasn't even sure if I initially thought it was 'good':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVn3_qeIrBA

now, it's endlessly replayable to me. sure, there's that speed rush you're getting most of the album (those first few seconds!), but this one is just so detailed. it seems like the backing track is mutating every measure with new elements being introduced throughout the whole thing. love the ascending/descending percussion and keyboard fills and REALLY love that pre-chorus part around 2:35 with the gothic keyboard part, a choir, and those bells! got obsessed with this track and it all snowballed from there.

misora in a heartbeat
at least three recent tenniscoats records also eligible

have you guys listened to vocaloid producer PolyphonicBranch? this stuff should appeal to those of you looking for hyper adrenalinic maximalist j-pop, it sounds basically like the anime version of rush!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAnSptqAtck

this guy's music sounds insanely schizophrenic at times, almost makes bands like koenjihyakkei sound tame by comparison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e80aDsyEEZg

search: yoshiaki hagihara's hatsune miku "in c"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ97Vghfmqg

yesssssssssssss. now yer talkin.

I've been afraid of dipping into vocaloid but I knew I'd have to at some point. I'm glad somebody finally made a version of 'in c' I can really get with.

my choice today is denki groove's "orange"

This whole thread makes me wish that BookOff would open a store in London, Paris has one ffs

do we need one when we have de-luxe cleaning on brewer street?

I've never had the balls to walk in there, they sell CDs?

yeah, there's a small second-hand cd section near the counter.

still not cheap, but a darn sight better than buying new in e.g. jp-books in the mitsukoshi basement.

Ah interesting, thank you!

Yea, the prices are pretty shocking in mitsukoshi and the selection is not really to my liking either.

This week I noticed that HMV now has an end of rack K-POP section installed downstairs.

my choice today is denki groove's "orange"

― massaman gai, Wednesday, October 2, 2013 1:54 AM (8 hours ago)

I walk around the house a lot thinking "DAREDA...DAREDA...DAREDAAAAA!!!!!"

Imma go to Deluxe cleaners after work and check out what CDs they have.

They have a pretty decent selection (up near the till), plus karaoke boxes in the back if you're feeling brave.

I walk around the house a lot thinking "DAREDA...DAREDA...DAREDAAAAA!!!!!"

― frogbs, Wednesday, October 2, 2013 8:39 AM (37 minutes ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8XUkgMrpQ

haha, i got rickrolled by the video, I just meant to post the song lolll... oh japan.

I owned a few Salon Music records years ago. M*A*S*H (1995) was my favorite. At the time I thought they were early shoegaze revivalists but they had been doing that sound for probably a decade before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xLjq2aYnxw

There was a really great video from one of their early pop records on youtube but i can't seem to find it atm. I think in the 90s they were on Cornelius's label Trattoria, which is a great resource for lots of weird Japanese bands. Citrus was another group on that label that was pretty fun and unlike anything I'd ever heard (shoegaze/lo-fi/synth-based/homemade futuristic pop).

search: yoshiaki hagihara's hatsune miku "in c"

thanks so much jbr

haha, i got rickrolled by the video, I just meant to post the song lolll... oh japan.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, October 2, 2013 11:25 AM (1 hour ago)

oh man, this is the one you want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeLiUstn2jE

today i choose fushitsusha's "a little longer thus" which isn't the scorching free-rock we might usually expect from this bunch but very sparse unfunky herk and jerk tension/release betreffs "ma".
oh please do give ms noriko a listen too. lazy journoes always call her a björkalike but she doesn't endlessly rely on the same scale runs & steers clear of the etta james wookie belch. she's understated, more fragile. if you stole stina's helium tanks & wrote her some half decent tunes that'd be it.

friday's choice is tomoe shinohara's "super model"

haven't heard "a little longer thus", but I love fushitsusha's "live II", "purple trap", and "pathetique"

XP - Damn, I love Tomoe Shinohara, gonna revisit

There was mention of Citrus upthread, here is a Podcast from a while ago concerning - Japanese cultural commentator - W David Marx's obsession with the band, it's good listening.

http://www.neojaponisme.com/podcasts/neojaponisme-citrus.mp3

genres: anything with a guitar. specifically psych/acid/noise/garage/metal/hard rock/space rock/experimental

C.S.S.O. - Are You Excrements?

Covers at least two thirds of those genres.

I like Citrus a lot, but some of their music may be difficult for some people to get with because, for a stretch of time, they had maybe the worst drummer ever. To an extent that I find kinda charmingly inept but YMMV.

Apparently the drums were recorded one-at-a-time. As in, mic up the kick drum, play that, mic up the hi hat, play that, etc. They had access to a TV studio after hours or something.

Can you tell me about your off-kilter drum playing on the Citrus tracks?

The studio we used was mainly for announcers to do narration, so you couldn’t set up an entire drum set, because a set was too big for the space. So when we recorded the drums, we had to do it piecemeal. We’d set up the hi-hat and just record the hi-hat. (laughs) That helped create a very ragged rhythm. But I was never very good at drums anyway. Really, I’m an amateur, so it should not be a big surprise that I am bad.

http://neojaponisme.com/2008/05/26/interview-with-emori-takeaki/

Great interview!

The whole music section of NeoJapnism is great, the History of Shibuya-Kei and Fantasma Anniversary pieces especially.

NeoJaponisme, cuh

I've enjoyed all the recommendations I've been given so far, so thank you all for that. I have a slightly more specific request this time though; does anyone know any good albums which could be categorized as ambient j-pop? Something less manic and more dreamy.

I'm sure there are better examples but you may like the salyu x salyu album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICIP9gHP7F0

collaboration between salyu (who does pretty trad j-pop stuff) and cornelius.

and if you want straight ambient, haruomi hosono's mercuric dance is one of my favorite albums, period.

curious what others might recommend here too...

Seeing as this thread is actually turning into a relatively cool recommendation thread, I can't believe nobody's mentioned Jun Togawa yet (unless I just missed it?). I guess the album I'd go for would be Tamahime Sama, though if you like her at all it's worth trying to find more, as she is pretty great at traversing genres.

yeah, she's the best.

I find this album really calming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxklphb6_Ss

I can't think of anything I'd call ambient or dreamy, maybe parts of Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble "Dreams", I guess. Rovo's live "Tonic 2001" is also good, not too manic, kind of ambient.

For something totally manic, I recommend Koenjihyakkei, "100 Sights of Koenji" or "Angherr Shisspa".

uncool recommendation threads< relatively cool recommendation threads< cool recommendation threads

sorry, that came across as sneery, the phrase 'relatively cool recommendation thread' just amused me for some reason, also I'm drunk

it wasn't meant to criticise the phrase 'relatively cool recommendation thread' is the point I wanted to get across, I should probably stop posting

Also, Shizuka "Live" is kind of dreamy at times but with heavy guitar.

Ambient/Dreamy j-pop, Hmm..

A lot of things on the Noble Label (or maybe almost everything) - http://www.noble-label.net/ esp Kasumasa Hashimoto - Cinq - Midori Hirano

Asa Chang & Junray
Susumu Yokota
Lullatone
World's End Girlfriend

I like Togawa but her catalogue is relatively small. She didn't do many solo albums and the ones she did do were rather brief. The one you mentioned is good. Guernica - of course classic, but not much there. Yapoos kinda petered out after a couple of albums. Apparently she hasn't done much since 92. I think at one point she even tried to hang herself.

On a more manic tip, I really like 'Eel', they are like a less cross-genre Plus-Tech or Polysics minus Devo, I'm having trouble googling them though. Frogbs you know them?

Man, they are impossible to find without returning hits for Electric Eel Shock
Found this live thing with Tomoe Shinohara singing though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1djiMoodBfI

never heard of them but I am intrigued

Okay found some, I just dug out the one record I have, it is called People People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g21g9zRhiQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro2jRlD63Qs

For when you just want some random work listening this nice shoutcast plays a bunch of Shibuya Kei and it's progeny.

http://www.frnds4vr.com/

Something less manic and more dreamy.

Sugar Plant. They're like an aural narcotic in the best possible way.

This is the main song I know of by eel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OSvNnBP314

I like Togawa but her catalogue is relatively small. She didn't do many solo albums and the ones she did do were rather brief. The one you mentioned is good. Guernica - of course classic, but not much there. Yapoos kinda petered out after a couple of albums. Apparently she hasn't done much since 92. I think at one point she even tried to hang herself.

― frogbs, Friday, October 4, 2013 8:35 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, I was considering her work with groups as well as solo stuff, so I don't think of her catalogue as small at all, really. It's a pretty great body of work. Post-92 there's the covers album, which I don't have but the stuff I know is great (in fact it's the version of 'Casablanca Moon' on this that got me into her in the first place). Didn't know about the suicide attempt, very sad if true.

As for more dreamy, I mentioned up thread the album 'Ephermeral' by Piana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvT0km2mz8Y

xp - I guess it all really depends what exactly you count. Do you like those later Yapoos albums? (personally I think they're fine but they aren't as unique or colorful; she seems restrained on those)

yeah, that's true about togawa's suicide attempts. she's tried twice and her sister succeeded :-/

more info on that and her move away from music post-80s here:
http://www.generasia.com/wiki/Togawa_Jun

not to end on a downer note, here's a great one from the apogee & perigee album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpTCgD4TGeY

cosign asa-chang and junray, and susumu yokota.

p ambient japanese house: the works of kaito, esp his 'beatless' albums.

that Portable Rock track way up there is exactly what I'm looking for. It's great!

I've checked out the others and they're all very good too; will have to check the ones without links very soon. Thanks for those suggestions and please keep them coming if you have any more (doubly so for Portable Rock-type music!).

Arctic, there is probably some Akiko Yano that you would like, esp the early 80s records and have a listen to some Ippu Do too.

today i choose masami tsuchiya's "rice music" which is the main ippo du dude doing glossy 80's glam funk. percy jones at his most kev-hoppery. ebows & occidental pentatonic melodies. dreamy. trevor horn only wishes he ever got close.

hippo doo

ippu do

cross posting from the nishioka thread, but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0doNdT34L8

august 1974 - taj mahal travellers

― Ward Fowler, Monday, September 30, 2013 7:35 AM (5 days ago)

otm

on the 6th october i pick tatsuya yoshida & eiko ishibashi's "slip beneath the distant tree"

many x-posts to arctic - glad you dug portable rock! altho it's a modern release, felt like the last frenesi album was a nice take on that sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw9HnBvdgHQ

also really like this meg track; think it might be a good fit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozrUAZXR9AI

but she doesn't have too many others like that one, unfortunately. anyone know who produced?

According to wiki, these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Restoration_Project

well, duh, guess I should've looked there. thanks!

np, thanks for the rec, never heard of Meg before

Yasutaka Nakata (one half of Capsule) produced all of the Meg material I'm aware of (along with the more recent Perfume albums). Just check out his Wikipedia and sample any/everything he's had a hand in. It's pretty much all good-to-amazing.

I was under the impression that Yasutaka Nakata had produced all of MEG's stuff, but it looks like he was only the sole producer on a few of her albums.

thanks for the Eel rec MaresNest - this has been really good so far, kinda like Yukari Fresh but maybe a bit better

toru takemitsu's "film music vol.2" (JVC/ victor)

The four vols of Takemitsu's film music have great music, they sort of mesh in my mind. I'll try and play "2" on its own sometime.

Takayanagi/Abe - Mass and Gradual Projection, is my first thought.

Wait I just read the beginning of the thread. So Taj mahal Travellers are too droney and Boredoms are just experimental enough for you?!

this one splits modern, buzzy, digital j-pop and idm style ambient pretty much riiiight down the middle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffQxXj-tUg

very nice. prob my favorite of the tujiko noriko releases I've heard but I'm hardly a completist. released on mego, hah!

Does anybody here like Clammbon?

I found a song "Lightning Scarlet" by a band called The Willard accidentally and really like it, I've listened to a few others but none really struck me like this. I've seen them listed as punk but they sound more like hard rock to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QXDVQpQX2A

Thanks to C sharp major, I had a look in Deluxe Cleaners, they have a nice selection (probably nicer if I could read kanji)

http://i43.tinypic.com/9se5ix.jpg

Bottom one is Denki Groove

Found some "YMO" (US Multiplies LP) at a flea market in north GA this weekend. Looking forward to playing it!

nice one MaresNest, that's "Singles and Strikes" isn't it? the single edits of many of these tunes can be very different.

i recently got the 2-disc "Tour Panda" CD+DVD combo, excellent stuff, may upload that here sometime

yellow magic orchestra - bgm

XP - Hey frogbs, yes indeed, haven't listened to it yet, I don't know very much Denki Groove but I'm looking forward to digging in.

The Ulfuls best-of, well I listened to a couple of tracks and feel kinda meh, I was hoping for a Flipper's Guitar type of thing but it is pretty standard J Rock so far. Nay just sell it back to them.

Glad you are liking Eel btw.

Solid State Survivor is a great Autumnal record.

The bangers on it though are mixed differently from the more relaxed Sakamoto numbers, much bolder, they really jump out when you listen to the whole thing through.

Are there any great J-pop albums; all killer, no filler?

I think Ayumi Hamasaki's Rock 'n' Roll Circus is a really underrated album; I wrote about it here. Also second any/all recommendations of stuff produced by Nakata; the last couple of Perfume albums are amazing, as is Capsule's World of Fantasy.

Sambomaster - "Boku to Kimi no Subete o Rock n' Roll to Yobe." The music these guys make now is embarrassing, but I will rep for this album until I die.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P32IQm21af0

puzzle punks - puzzoo

man, "starship.6" off the plus-tech album is amazing. fidgety afx drum programming, big evil bassline, sweet jpop vocal melodies, and a steely dan sample! no way I'm not gonna like that.

thing is, rest of the album doesn't sound too much like that track. can anyone suggest anything that does??

Incase one anybody is interested I made a mixtape for a friend who was asking about Japanese music and Shibuya-Kei, so I knocked this together, there's more than just SK stuff and it goes back quite a ways here and there.

http://we.tl/DdECsHQbsD

Japanology Vol 1

1. Clammbon - Rock Climbing
2. Kahime Karie - Mike Alway's Diary
3. Comoesta Yaegashi - Bossa With Madam Rosa
4. Ikuko Harada - Kodama
5. Fantastic Plastic Machine - L'Aventure Fantastique
6. Akiko Yano - Ikanaide
7. Cubismo Grafico - Obrigado Obrigada
8. Hikashu - The Model
9. Our Hour - Panda Riot
10. Shione Yukawa - 風よ吹かないで
11. Mariah - そこから
12. Capsule - Sweet Time Replay (feat. Dahlia)
13. Midori Hirano - Ancient Story In The Room
14. Nagisa Cosmetic - Cosmetic Happy
15. Macdonald Duck Eclair - Many Many Sweets
16. Hazel Nuts Chocolate - Kaze Hiite Batankyuu
17. Buffalo Daughter - Ivory
18. Happy End - Ghosts Of Flying Squirrels At Kuriyamizaka
19. Harco - Winter Sports Rainbow
20. The Folk Crusaders - Harenchi

Incase one ?? thats what I get for typing with my rubbery ProTools shortcuts cover mat on me keyboard I suppose

Are there any great J-pop albums; all killer, no filler?

perfume's game

can someone tell me more about eiko ishibashi? imitation of life is fantastic.

I know nothing about Eiko other than I'm Armed and Imitation Of Life are totally kicking my butt right now.

Akiko Yano - Gohan Ga Dekitayo

been kinda obsessed with BiS "Idol Is Dead" for the last couple of weeks, weird mixture of their earlier JPop songs like Nerve http://youtu.be/mqONWOKFK90 and later on tracks which are full of staccato metal riffing, blast beats and ravey keyboard eg ASH http://youtu.be/PKue58e1A38 There's even a song that sounds v much like MBV! There should be a new album this year, although they are supposedly stopping at some point soon.

eiko's "works for everything" is super burmese-style piano meets home techno / toytown steve-reichism (without the po-faced coattailsing that usually brings to mind) but with some weird atonalist stuff going on, & what i would assume are love songs. "drifting devil" is more live-band-y, still kinda wayward toytown kitchen sink thing but less experimental / sketchy with a proggy intro & proper catchy songs.
she did a cd with "achiko" which is pretty vocal / piano ballads. kinda nice but i'm guessing i'm missing a lot not understanding a word of japanese apart from "watashi".
"carapace" was very grown up, proggy bacharach & keening ballads. o'rourke's shoehorned french horn production fits, remarkably (i know, how boreder-than-thou, exactly?)
haven't heard the new one, but i imagine it's a pretty spiffy soft shoe shuffle.

Thanks MG, I'm looking forward to tracking down the rest of her output.

Does anybody know anything about a band called Spank Happy? (terrible name I know) There's a couple of records on Spotify and they are kinda interesting, no info in Eigo anywhere and no CDs popping up on Ebay.

super burmese-style piano

what does this sound like?

also what does "toytown" mean?

traditional burmese piano music (theres' only a wee hint of it on that one of eiko's albums) i.e. piano music from Myanmar (sorry i'm old fashioned like that).
toytown - plinky plonky xylophones music boxes etc. children instruments. faux-naive, perhaps?

wakarimashita

I posted about this in the jpop thread last year and campaigned for it pre ilxor year/end poll, so in this most relevant of threads I'll do my final bit of promotion. tricot - THE, favorite album 2013. The most amazing debut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDwMxdFxe2o