Geinoh Yamashirogumi

owe you one, killy

March Listless Listening and its Ides and Ideas

http://amarokprog.net/biographies_169_90372.html

interesting. i hate the use of synths on those albums though, they sound so cheesy

ok it really is mostly all about 'Osorezan' side 1. psyche / reggae / krautrock / what sounds like 50 to 200 people starting with classical asian choral music and ending in all out shrieking, just impossible

most of the next ten years of albums are just as impressive, painstaking recreations of various countries' folk & native choral music styles, bulgaria, africa, asia. very strange to hear a huge chorus singing bulgarian folk music harmonies in a staid, hi-fi concert hall -- they nail the intervals, but it's utterly clinical, completely respectful. and the record came out over 10 years before 4AD picked up the original 'Le Mystere des voix Bulgares recordings for international distribution. but the African chants are performed the same way -- completely lacking in passion, but at the same time often over-the-top histrionic as the nail the wailing high parts -- so weird to think about these tribal ritualistic chants being so faithfully performed in the concert hall, so Japanese

also interesting is a track where the leader meticulously dissects the Kecak Monkey Chant for a huge concert audience, describing the many different rhythmic parts and then having the chorus recreate each rhythm seperately before combining them all.

then they start the Ecophony / Akira trilogy of original compositions, where they buy the synthesizers and program them with eastern tunings. I agree with fezaffe this often gets into cheesy territory, especially the drum machines, sometimes the synths. but the vocals are still over the top and & there are parts of Symphonic Suite Akira that are just beautiful -- especially when the electronics give way back to the chorus. Still haven't seen the film, it must be a perfect soundtrack.

this revive sent me runnin t' soulseek... so thanks!

i just got into listening to the akira soundtrack this year, and after watching the anime last night for the first time since, i thought it could've been used better. there are some very frustrating fades, especially of the centrepiece "tetsuo" (which has made me cry at least twice over the past week or so). maybe this is not the case in the subtitled version (i was watching the cheesy us dub with the dude who did dogtanian/leonardo as kaneda). i wish i could give more examples of why i didn't so much enjoy the use of the soundtrack since hearing it as an album, the anime itself is one of my favourites and i find it so engrossing visually that maybe i just blanked the music out. also, i am a little too high right now. but the album has been my absolute delight recently. love the gamelan and the chants, and the songs with 80s gated rock drums and synths remind me of japan (the band) and ryuichi sakamoto. how fucking intense is "shohmmoh" (is that meant to be the kecak towards the end?) i will definitely check out the other two in the trilogy.

i think i liked it best in the anime where there would just be like a single gamelan bell chime coming out of nowhere.

how cool is the geinoh yamashirogumi logo:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/Geinoh_Yamashirogumi_Logo.jpg

sorry the kecak is in "mutation" not "shohmmoh". so what is the chanting in the latter? is it japanese or indonesian?

the songs with 80s gated rock drums and synths remind me of japan (the band) and ryuichi sakamoto

^^^ yes!! i got rid of this a long time ago, no idea why now -- i loved this piece. the one that soundtracks the escape from the facility on the air-bike thing, all these accellerating synth washes and this bendy, kind of wanky guitar solo leaping out of it. amazing.

what the hell was i talking about up there. soundtrack sounds even better with the film

i had two copies of the soundtrack; one with vocal accompaniment from Japanese film and one without.

some days akira symphonic suite is my favourite album ever. it's like my ultimate music, gamelan and noh effortlessly mixed with huge gated drums and lush roland d50 pads - state of the art mid 1980s production techniques combined with the visceral energy of traditional asian performance. like the film, it's intense, epic, and often beautiful

so much japanese music in the 80s is about reconciling tradition with modern technology and this is one of the records that succeeds the most imo

i lost the two ecophony's on a harddrive crash a few years ago so should try and track those down again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hnXD5GKhaE

this song is so profound it brings tears to my eyes. i dare to stand before the gods, as a mortal, as an insignificant speck of dust and ask for the keys to unlock the secrets of the universe, the formula, the alchemical blueprint for creation. no, i am not worthy, this knowledge, this power is too great for me to bear..

occultologist 2 days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly3LVDblBYw&NR=1

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/smoke/smiley-smoking-bong.gif

'proto-shackleton'

^ whole album (Ecophony Rinne) is a must if you rate the Akira soundtrack. The followup, Ecophony Gaia, more hit and miss - mostly miss tbh, the 17 minute noh-style piece in the middle really drags it all down. But check out 'Disco' for mad swings from nearly-disco to plastic bagpipes to SECRET UNDISCOVERED JOHN HUGHES 80s SYNTHPOP SMASH to oh noes pan pipes.