P-Model/Susumu Hirasawa appriciation station

If you don't know who P-Model is:

P-Model was a Japanese techno-pop band started in 1979 by frontman Susumu Hirasawa. The band has included many lineup revisions over the years but Hirasawa was always at the helm of operations. P-Model officially disbanded in 1999 (20 years after its formation), although many of its members continue to release solo albums and collaborate with each other on different projects.

I discovered the guy several years ago (once Polysics covered one of their songs) and they quickly became one of my favorite technopop groups. Their first album is basically quirky New Wave in the vein of early XTC. However Hirasawa really stepped up his songwriting and vocal abilities since then and has gone into some pretty fascinating directions. He's done a number of anime soundtracks that have earned him a little bit of fame outside of Japan, but he's still largely unknown. But the music is so damn epic and melodic that I had to start a thread hoping others would discover the music. Not only is the music incredible, but his discography is a hell of a piece of work (P-Model has a 16-disc boxset out; Hirasawa has done 11 solo albums and a bunch of soundtracks)

His music doesn't really sound like anything else out there, but imagine a fusion of Cardiacs and YMO and I guess you're there.

To help you along, here's some of P-Model's music...I want to limit this to 5 for now

"No Room" (1992): I couldn't find a recording of "Art Mania" from their 1979 debut, which this song is more or less based on. Great technopop...can't help feeling a little jittery after listening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6as7e2-lB4

"Dance Subomp" (1985): A good example of one of his songs that is kind of minimal but very epic. Love the vocals here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFcpy3t5Uwc

"Cyborg" (1985, recorded 1992): One of SH's trademarks is the use of Turkish marching rhythms, here was one of the first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3MaVgFo0M

"Ashura Clock" (1997): Just because I posted this in another thread, this is techno at its most epic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qzfB7YEZY

"Logic Air Force" (1999): Can't really do this one justice...listen for yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MaYy2Spctg

Message Bookmarked

:)

oh yeah forgot this one:

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

'Logic Air Force' is a photon bomb to the neural cortex of my happyplace ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmtP7dpk4I&feature=related

whoa...definitely can shred

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkatzRzages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE9zvOSTCtU

I discovered Hirasawa, like a lot of people through Paprika, which is one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. I was delighted to discover P-Model but I dont actually own anything by them yet, not much is on amazon or ebay and what is there is too expensive so I think I'll have to do with CDJapan. Hirasawa and P-Model are poorly represented on Itunes too, I dont know why more japanese acts dont put themselves on our mp3 services.

Both these songs are from One Pattern, which is their own least favorite album but these are my favorite P-model songs. I'd love to see this concert on DVD someday.

The most widely available thing I have seen is the P-Model/Big Body comp, which takes off one track from the original P-Model album. I cant see any places to buy the individual albums.

The only real option for those of us in the US is the $300 box set with 16 discs that covers basically everything they ever recorded, obviously that's super expensive, but it works out to about $20 a disc which isnt bad (as every disc is about 70-80 minutes long). I picked it up because I'm crazy and had a lot of money to spend at the time, but it's out of print now, so really there aren't any real options that don't cost like $50-60 per album (besides the Paprika OST)

Check out this thread: Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

I've uploaded a few of his solo albums (plus the two disc P-Model/Big Body comp) in there. His soundtrack stuff is very good but they are usually based on his solo albums, which are incredible. I dig One Pattern; probably one of their worst albums but even still it's got a few awesome tracks on it (the other one is "Drums", which foreshadows the direction he'd go in over the next two decades). Luckily most of his work is available on youtube if you're into that, including this performance (which is a song from the final P-Model album), which is incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUhBOdgtB00

I couldnt find that box set anywhere, it is always sold out, I'm not sure I'd buy it at that price. CD Japan's prices seemed reasonable for me, I'll probably buy everything from there.

Have you heard any of his prog music he did in Mandrake? I'd really like to hear that stuff, I cant even find samples of it.

The price is indeed steep, but it works out to about $20 a disc, which is actually kind of cheap for an import. I don't blame you though. His label website: http://teslakite.com/e/index_cd.htm has a lot of this for cheaper, under $30 a pop, though it only covers the last 10 years or so. I'd love to pick up some of the DVDs (though they are pricey and probably won't play on my DVD player)

I have the Mandrake stuff; haven't really heard it enough to get a good feel for it, it is kinda lo-fi and distorted, but it's good. I do think this one is actually for sale on his own site. IIRC one of the tunes is based on the riff that became "The Great Brain" on In a Model Room which is pretty neat.

http://s14.directupload.net/images/120304/rspryqt5.png

I really want that so badly (not as bad as the Ashu-On set, but still). I have a lot of the scans that came with the CD-ROM Music Industrial Wastes disc and it's fascinating, there's like a 100-page history of Hirasawa in there, with notes on every song and live performance, but it's all in Japanese so I can only admire at the ridiculous amount of band photos that it comes with. If this Dome was translated into English I'd drop the cash without a second thought!

ditto!

Thirded!

I recently discovered his "Switched-on Lotus" album which is mostly a bunch of re-done Sim City/Siren era tracks with boosted up production and more vocals; you gotta give the man credit, he really seems to get what the best parts of his own songs are. The title track (which is new) is seriously one of the most gorgeous things he ever wrote, check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLQwE62_Q4

I wrote a long, sprawling article on this dude for PSF. Check it out!

http://www.furious.com/perfect/susumuhirasawa.html

nice one! didn't realize hirasawa does custom software/hardware. makes sense. he really has a pretty singular sound.

I made a 4-CD "best of" Hirasawa set which splits his output into four periods: the early P-Model years (79-86), the beginning of his solo career and the P-Model de-freeze (89-94), the period in the second half of the 90's where he was putting out awesome material both solo and with some form of P-Model (95-00), and his recent years of solo albums + remake projects and soundtracks (01-10). It combines for over 5 hours of listening but I can't cut anything, to me it still plays like a pretty awesome document of his entire career in fast forward. Anyone interested??

Hell yea!

Hey frogbs, can you help, where to start with this guy's soundtrack material? I just heard 'Parade' from the Paprika soundtrack and the militaristic sounding mid section gave me real 'Sing To God' vibes, I liked it's maximal sound. Thanks!

His soundtrack work draws mostly off the concurrent studio albums, sort of remixing the work or sometimes including it wholesale. Otherwise a lot of them are filled with shorter more pointed bits that aren't a lot like his other stuff, its nice but . I think the Milennium Actress one is my favorite, but again, that's essentially a remix album of Philosopher's Propeller. Have you checked out his 2006 album Byakkoya? I think that's maybe more what you're looking for, the track "Parade" is on it, and the title track is the other song from Paprika that everyone seems to remember. Check this tune out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzuQKDhm-ow#t=39

I never said thanks for that last post frogbs, how rude! Sorry man, Byakkoya is excellent.

So I'm making an hour long SH mix for our little internet radio show and was wondering what the absolute must have tracks are, from P Model to present day, suggestions welcome!

I didn't know you had a radio show! Where at?

I'd find that a little difficult, I couldn't even get it down to five hours when I was making the fake anthology (which I still haven't posted, but uh..I'm still working on it. He keeps releasing new stuff)

Is the idea to provide an introduction to the guy? Or show the way he's evolved over the years? Or just the best tracks full stop?

I didn't want to shill on ILX (although I might have mentioned it somewhere else), if you have a look here you can find the details, I think it might be congruent to your interests :)

https://www.facebook.com/JapanAlternativeSessions/

The Hirasawa thing, it's just a tip of the iceberg one hour mix, no context/curation. I did a YMO/Solo one the other day so I understand your pain with the format length.

very nice!! if it's just a tip of the iceberg thing with no context I think you could do a lot exploring how esoteric the guy is, while picking top-notch tunes all the way. here's a mix I tried out today that sounded really good:

1. Nice Nice Very Nice (ICE-9, 2005)
2. Venus (Water in Time and Space, 1989)
3. P-Model - Chevron (Big Body, 1993)
4. P-Model - Art Mania (In a Model Room, 1979)
5. Sekai Turbine 2 (Solar Ray, 2001)
6. P-Model - Ashura Clock (Ashura Clock single, 1997)
7. P-Model - Personal Pulse (One Pattern, 1983)
8. The Man From Narcissus Space (Technique of Relief, 1998)
9. The Man From Memories (Byakkoya, 2006)
10. Goes on Ghost (Totsu-Gen-Hen-I, 2010)
11. Ride the Blue Limbo (Blue Limbo, 2003)
12. P-Model - Different not equal Another (Potpurri, 1981)
13. Caravan (Sim City, 1995)
14. Ringing Bell (Aurora, 1994)

A lot of contrasts in sound from track to track but I think it flows well. The idea is to pick out some of the most ear-catching things he's done. First 2 tracks are very pretty, then it moves into his best technopop tunes - "Chevron" is also pretty, but then it gets more and more manic, hitting "Sekai Turbine 2" and "Ashura Clock" which are two of his fastest tracks. After that I figured I'd go with some more symphonic stuff, "Personal Pulse" I love because it foreshadowed this whole sound, going from more epic and grandiose to whimsical ("Ride the Blue Limbo" whose hook includes a big "boiiing!"). Last three tracks show him as his most insane, his most hooky, and his most achingly gorgeous, so yeah cool contrasts there. Hope this helps!

Great choices, I had a couple in mind from your picks but I knocked it together today and it sounds really good, how would you feel if I went with your order and credited you when it airs?

go ahead! and thanks! hope it manages to convert a few people!

I was under the false impression that Golden Best misses out a few tracks from P Model & Big Body, so I never bought it; but it's actually that two tracks aren't translated and one is a hidden track. I shall buy it tonight!

Heya Frogbs, I think your SH mix will be airing this Friday!

oh nice, I'll have to tune in for that

Finally listening to P-Model + Big Body.

"Nice mmm-hmmm
nice mmm-hmmm"

p model is so siqq they sound like a japanese oingo boingo

オインゴ ボインゴ

they had the most classic look during those years too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfbjxwHQ-Uk

those albums hold up remarkably well considering how pretty much everything else in the early 90's that sounded like that really hasn't

Taken me a while to realise in "Biiig Eye" he's singing "I'm screaming in the lens" like Singing In The Rain.
https://www.whosampled.com/sample/461050/P-Model-Biiig-Eye-Aphrodite%27s-Child-Loud%2C-Loud%2C-Loud/

I think I prefer Big Body to the selftitled album.

"2D Or Not 2D" and "Lab=01" are a lot of fun from P-Model. But Big Body has 5."Welcome to the House of 'Time's Leaking Through Equal Distance Curve' (時間等曲率漏斗館へようこそ Jikantō Kyokuritsu Rōtokan e Yōkoso, Welcome to the House of Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum)"
, "Binary Ghost" and "Homo Gestalt"

love the way they use the sample on that track. "shouting - AAAAAAAAH!!!" one of the few times he acknowledges one of his influences.

and yes, track 5 is quite great. love "Homo Gestalt" a lot too though I can't help but notice the similarity to "Wire Self"

you might like the stuff by Kaku P-Model, which is just Hirasawa under a different name. basically, he wanted to return to the P-Model sound, but didn't want to work with other people. the track "Big Brother" is maybe the most insane track he ever did - the only thing comparable is Dan Deacon.

I lucked out and found some dude who ripped a bunch of Hirasawa DVDs to MP3, so I'm currently going through those. The Vistoron Live show is very nice and contains a number of 92-93 era tracks. Kind of bummed out that live stuff from 81-86 exists - I have a boot from the Karkador era and it's incredible, but the sound quality is atrocious! I wish they hadn't stopped the Virtual Live series at Perspective...they were just getting interesting!!

Is there any place where the MP3 rips of DVDs are available? I haven't had the money to pick up any live DVDs yet (I have bought The Method of Live 2 however, which has a live version of Sim City and Gardener King which are both breathtaking), but some of the live versions of past songs are absolutely wonderful!

In particular, some of my personal favourites are,
This version of "Clear Mountain Top" from the PHONON2550 live shows, it's an absolute crime this wasn't featured in the PHONON2550 CD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfP1DEJe6b0

This version of "Rocket", which looks like it's also from the PHONON2550 live shows (yet it was also not included in the CD, what a shame).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK0wv5QpYh8

This version of Siren *SEIREN* from the Planet Roll Call live shows. The performances of the guests (particularly in the chorus) in this song are beautiful. Hirasawa's choice to overlay Delay Lama over bits of the song is a little suspect though haha, it doesn't quite work all that well in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOTTnNpxbcQ

This version of Lotus from PHONON2555. Unrelated to Lotus, but the Phonon 2555 Vision DVD includes a performance of Dune from Hirasawas first album, which I would love to hear, I've always been a sucker for Hirasawas early solo material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-95kK8D5M

I'm also very curious about the 9th Mandala memorial card, since apparently it includes a 2017 version of Archetype Engine and a bunch of other songs, like Adios and Byakkoya. Unfortunately you had to be present at the live show to get your hands on it, but I'm hoping it'll eventually go on sale for everyone like the WORLD CELL 2015 memorial card did.

hello WIRESELF :)

you on soulseek ?

I just created an user on it, the username is WIRESELF

search for a user called "Bonzalez". should be online now, if not it'll be later tonight

I've grabbed a lot of the stuff from his website in the past, even though the prices & method of delivery has been pretty odd. Had to jump through a lot of hoops just to spend $15 on some alternate versions of Blue Limbo tracks. Wish he'd just chuck everything up in some easily accessible place but Japanese musicians tend not to do things like that :)

Haha yeah I feel you, the sites can be a bit iffy and he has some weird things restricted from the international shop, like having only AURORA3 available for purchase off of the Live Byakkoya memorials package internationally.

Thank you for the leads, it's much appreciated! I'm also glad to find that I'm not the only one who enjoys Hirasawas works to a great degree.

I know I'm probably talking to a mirror here but if you haven't heard the latest KAKU P-Model album you really should...its one of his most bonkers, and I think one of his best (obviously I don't say that lightly)

every single track on it is good but this one is my favorite right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_or3uyB3CA

Cant see it on amazon uk or ebay.

Most original P-Model albums still cost a fortune but there's quite a bunch of solo stuff for £20-£30. I can do that but not too often. Happy to see Ash Crow is all the Berserk soundtracks in one.

Is it really true that Japanese music sellers are selling common stuff at scalper prices? If I went to big stores in japan, would all this stuff be so expensive?

One look at Hirasawa on CD Japan looks like an average of about $25 for a CD, not scalping but pretty high.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/person/700102636?s_ssid=e36c625cd73da8f416

you can get some of them on Japan iTunes but their selection is pretty spotty. ultimately you're going to have to pay $25-30 for the CDs. sadly the Ashu-on P-Model boxset is no longer available, because that was actually a pretty decent value (about $15 a disc I think, many of which had 2 albums on them)

What is this tribut album by Vidra

Actually, it's a single

pretty cool. I wonder how well the lyrics are translated.

here's an interesting cover - an 80's P-Model tune covered in the style of 90's P-Model, it works pretty well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s9tAmbTHIg

by the way, it's his birthday today. 66 years old

Happy birthday Mr Hirasawa

https://www.discogs.com/Susumu-Hirasawa-Town-0-Phase-5-%E5%BA%AD%E5%B8%ABKing/release/14342441

just alerted to the existence of this. even though $20 is kind of ridiculous to pay for a 7 inch I believe this is the only Hirasawa thing you can get on vinyl outside of the original P-Model LPs (which have never been repressed and are $60-$100 to import to the US, if you can find them at all)

checking in on his RYM page, it looks like Technique of Relief has been bolded which is pretty cool. seems like people are rallying around that one as a starting point, it's got 600 ratings which is pretty awesome. only a few years ago I think it was well below 100.

Even though that last KAKU P-Model album was nearly on my ballot in 2018 (too low!), it's somehow only just now that I've first listened to Susumu Hirasawa's solo(...ish) stuff. Technique of Relief is some densely-layered hypnotism! Needs more unpacking, but that opening track is pure gold.

last time I listened to it I was struck by how much it seemed to incorporate a lot of Mike Oldfield's ideas. it's kind of in the same subgenre as Ommadawn. obviously I prefer Hirasawa's stuff way more but I'd surprised if that wasn't a big influence on him back then

still think "The Man From Narcissus Space" is one of the prettiest songs ever written. still gives me the chills

Returning to Technique of Relief after a few weeks feels like emerging into an actual paradise. It's some of the best music I've ever heard.

Is that this one?
https://www.discogs.com/Susumu-Hirasawa-%E6%95%91%E6%B8%88%E3%81%AE%E6%8A%80%E6%B3%95/master/429724

It is! Just the best synthpop album of all time.

someone hearing it based on that description alone would be mighty confused, though. I've described it as "really great, powerful New Age music" but somehow that doesn't interest people (plus, I think that applies much more to Philosopher's Propellor)

in other news - a little birdy told me the Berserk soundtrack is getting repressed as a 2xLP set, just in case you were considering dropping $300 for one of the 2019 versions that sold out in ten seconds

look who keeps popping up over and over:

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/all-time/g:electropop/exc:live,archival/

has it happened? have they become aware?

new album today (on Bandcamp!) and it's really excellent. real proggy in spots, a bunch of these songs are mini-epics. vocals and guitars kinda remind me of Yes. also he covers Klaus Nomi's "Cold Song" in the most grandiose way possible.

God it’s so so good. The number of ideas he crams into every song is astounding. Landing is a real highlight. Possible AOTY.

yeah between this and the last Kaku P-Model album he seems to be at another creative high point

these clips from his 24th Mandala performance are great...apparently he's playing with a band again? way more interesting than the last 25 years of shows where 75% of it was just prerecorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRFvgpV6U3s

HAHAHAH yes put me in the poor house baby

https://columbia.jp/artist-info/hirasawa/info/76147.html

dude killed it at Fuji Rock. maybe the single best performance of his I've ever seen, even if the guitar pedal started wildly malfunctioning during "Solid Air"

just checked out Technique of Relief after seeing the very high rym rating and being familiar with Hirasawa's lovely Berserk OST already. I wouldn't say I love ToF but it has a charming, beautiful messiness and I want to check out more! I was also surprised that I already knew one of the ToF tracks from waayyy back in the Napster days, where someone had mistakenly labelled it as a Berserk song haha

that should be ToR in both places, obv

The guitar solo on Chevron sounds like Fripp guesting on a '70s Eno vocal record.

Like probably most people on the internet, I first heard of him because of the Satoshi Kon soundtracks, and began to wonder about exploring further because of Frogbs. I've been poking around here and there for a month or two, feeling more "okay this is interesting but..." than really won over. But this week something shifted and now everything is starting to sound angelic. Been listening a lot to selections from Beacon and Big Body, and Kakeari Pop on repeat. All that has been awesome enough, but last night I heard The Iron Cutting Song, and now there's clearly no going back.

in a DJ set I played "Nice Nice Very Nice" and some people thought that was Fripp as well. I do think he might be a lapsed progressive rock dork - P-Model did evolve out of a prog band, after all - if you look for them you can find all sorts of King Crimson/Mike Oldfield influences on his albums. parts of the latest one even sound like Yes to me.

it has been awesome seeing his actual albums start to get attention. always found it a bit frustrating how much praise there was for Paprika and the Berserk stuff...reading some of those reviews all I could think was "an actual Hirasawa LP would take your head off"

I'm on one of my triennial Fleetwood Mac benders. Tusk is an all-time favorite, and Lindsey's solo album Law and Order is up there too, and Mirage is a lot of fun. But Lindsey's work thereafter seems to lose its beautiful/manic edge. Feels tame somehow. I always go digging in the later stuff hoping I'll find something else to scratch the Tusk itch, but alas. In the end my be-all/end-all is still Tusk / Law and Order / Mirage, with honorable mentions for Tango in the Night and Say You Will.

This morning I realized that the place someone in my predicament should really go next is not later Lindsey at all, but Susumu Hirasawa.

never considered that connection before, but I'm all for it :)

Listening to In a Model Room. Hirasawa was an interesting songwriter from the word "go," wasn't he?

"Sophisticated foreign language song."