2024 July Challenge Thread - Welcome to Japan! (日本へようこそ!)
- Thread starter Rip_City
- Start date
Yer Ol' Uncle D
Well-Known Member
Day 22 / 2024.S7.E22 - Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win! (あなたたち二人は、勝ちたいように踊って!)
Play a high energy record (pop, techno, house, etc.).
Winx - Don't Laugh 2000
Play a high energy record (pop, techno, house, etc.).
Winx - Don't Laugh 2000
throwingthings
Active Member
Day 23 / 2024.S7.E23: Tradition and Honor (伝承と名誉)
Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
山本丈晴 - デラックス我が心ギターによせて〜 古賀メロディ特集
moody soundtrack-style instrumental music led by classical guitar. some lovely, subtle arrangements, very samey but good for late-night work sessions. purchased sound-unheard for $5, money well spent.
Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
山本丈晴 - デラックス我が心ギターによせて〜 古賀メロディ特集
moody soundtrack-style instrumental music led by classical guitar. some lovely, subtle arrangements, very samey but good for late-night work sessions. purchased sound-unheard for $5, money well spent.
Yer Ol' Uncle D
Well-Known Member
Day 23 / 2024.S7.E23 - Tradition and Honor (伝承と名誉)
Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
A 1982 Japanese promo kindly signed by Lou...
The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
A 1982 Japanese promo kindly signed by Lou...
The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
zomgbear
Well-Known Member
Day 24 / 2024.S7.E24 - Dessert for Breakfast (朝食にデザート)
Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Lush - Gala
Its a compilation of their early EPs but it's actually my favorite Lush album. I consider it top 10 Shoegaze or Dreampop, whatever you want to call this. I think others might say Split is considered top 10 which I won't argue but this is clearly top 10 for me.
Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Lush - Gala
Its a compilation of their early EPs but it's actually my favorite Lush album. I consider it top 10 Shoegaze or Dreampop, whatever you want to call this. I think others might say Split is considered top 10 which I won't argue but this is clearly top 10 for me.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
God I wished they had reissued this last year with the albums. Up there with Singles Going Steady as an almost perfect compilation.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
July 24 - Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Velvet Crush - In the Presence of Greatness
If someone asked what power pop is, this is the record I would hand them.
Velvet Crush - In the Presence of Greatness
If someone asked what power pop is, this is the record I would hand them.
zomgbear
Well-Known Member
Same, not sure why they didn't. TBH, if they did, i probably would have sold this boxset and bought this and their first 2 albums. I'm not that attached to Lovelife or Topolino
Turbo
Well-Known Member
Day 23 / 2024.S7.E23 - Tradition and Honor (伝承と名誉)
Another highlight of my Kanazawa stay was a trip to the Nagamachi District (長町). This area presents a historic atmosphere where the highly ranked samurai used to live. Many of the facilities are accessible to the public with museums, tea houses/restaurants, local handmade souvenir shops and small gardens. In the Nomura Samurai House (武家屋敷跡野村家), there were two floors of explorable floors covered with tatami mat with a full zen garden outside. Directly visible from the entrance is this display of samurai armor, with an obi (帯; sash) wrapped around the torso. Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
Paul McCartney "McCartney" (1970 Apple; 1975 Japanese reissue)
Another highlight of my Kanazawa stay was a trip to the Nagamachi District (長町). This area presents a historic atmosphere where the highly ranked samurai used to live. Many of the facilities are accessible to the public with museums, tea houses/restaurants, local handmade souvenir shops and small gardens. In the Nomura Samurai House (武家屋敷跡野村家), there were two floors of explorable floors covered with tatami mat with a full zen garden outside. Directly visible from the entrance is this display of samurai armor, with an obi (帯; sash) wrapped around the torso. Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
Paul McCartney "McCartney" (1970 Apple; 1975 Japanese reissue)
Turbo
Well-Known Member
Day 24 / 2024.S7.E24 - Dessert for Breakfast (朝食にデザート)
Eating at Cafe Aaliya was a fantastic decision. I was recommended to try their French Toast, the dish they are renowned for. This French Toast Mix set totaled just ¥1000; not even $7 USD. The presentation was lovely, with the spongy bread cooked to perfection. The toast had a slightly underdone inside, and laced with cinnamon on the edges. Served with an apricot marmalade, ice cream, and homemade caramel sauce as toppings, each of these complimented the velvety toast tastefully. It lived up to the hype that others have recommended and then some. The best French Toast I’ve had in my life that I can remember (or at worst top3). Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Stevie Wonder "Songs In The Key Of Life" (1976 Motown Japan)
This has to be up there among the greatest soul records of all time.
Eating at Cafe Aaliya was a fantastic decision. I was recommended to try their French Toast, the dish they are renowned for. This French Toast Mix set totaled just ¥1000; not even $7 USD. The presentation was lovely, with the spongy bread cooked to perfection. The toast had a slightly underdone inside, and laced with cinnamon on the edges. Served with an apricot marmalade, ice cream, and homemade caramel sauce as toppings, each of these complimented the velvety toast tastefully. It lived up to the hype that others have recommended and then some. The best French Toast I’ve had in my life that I can remember (or at worst top3). Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Stevie Wonder "Songs In The Key Of Life" (1976 Motown Japan)
This has to be up there among the greatest soul records of all time.
Wicked Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Day 24: Dessert for Breakfast
D’Angelo - Brown Sugar
One of the top 5 neo-soul albums of all time and one of my personal favourites of the entire 1990s. I’m probably alone on that first one, I know most other people prefer Voodoo.
D’Angelo - Brown Sugar
One of the top 5 neo-soul albums of all time and one of my personal favourites of the entire 1990s. I’m probably alone on that first one, I know most other people prefer Voodoo.
zomgbear
Well-Known Member
Nope I prefer Brown sugar as well
throwingthings
Active Member
Day 24 / 2024.S7.E24 - Dessert for Breakfast (朝食にデザート)
Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre of all time.
Day 21 / 2024.S7.E21 - I Will Leave it to You (お任せします)
Play a record that can be categorized by two or more genres/subgenres.
Doubling up as I'm trying to get caught up on this month's challenge, and this one stands as a top 10 record in both the "Utopian Virtual" and "Broken Transmission" genres for me
Both are subgenres of vaporwave. "Utopian Virtual" is a style of aggressively artificial, MIDI-generated muzak that evokes the late-90s moment of excitement and optimism about the possibilities of digital technology. Unlike the sample-heavy techniques of most vaporwave, this style is predominated by original compositions that often resemble generic hold music and background music for instructional videos. "Broken Transmission" (also known as "Signalwave") on the other hand is often constructed around fragments of grainy television broadcasts and short loops of hazy synth melodies gleaned from youtube compilations of Japanese TV commercials from the 1980s. (A third microgenre, "Climatewave," draws almost exclusively on weather channel musical clips).
猫 シ Corp's News at 11 adopted the Broken Transmission genre to reflect on the media landscape on the morning of 9/11 just before the WTC attack, interweaving elevator music with news broadcasts recorded before the towers were hit. It's a brilliant conceptual piece and about as good as the plunderphonic side of vaporwave gets, certainly paving the way for 9.0水面下Megathrust. But in its use of original composition, its narrative construction, and its emotional effect, 9.0水面下Megathrust exceeds its predecessor to be, in my mind, the pinnacle of both Utopian Virtual and Broken Transmission.
9.0水面下Megathrust similarly uses vaporwave aesthetics to examine the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The album begins in the Utopian Virtual register, with cheerful, energetic, and quite elegantly composed synth miniatures that might soundtrack a corporate promotional campaign, speaking to a moment of confidence in the future and security of nuclear power. Rather than the borrowed, decayed, ironic sounds of Broken Transmission, the artist's intentional replication of vintage 90s and 00s electronic textures uses the plastic sheen of the Utopian Virtual aesthetic to amplify the vibrant allure of nuclear positivity.
Gradually, the artist intersperses news broadcast clips that track the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and flooding; the artist judiciously draws on live testimonies of tsunami victims, a move that acknowledges the real tragedy of the event, as well as its existence within the mass media landscapes that define the Broken Transmission genre. This tragedy is underscored by the subtle compositional shifts over the course of the album, which grows more mournful as it incorporates more dissonant and unsettling textures. While never entirely breaking out of the sonic uncanny valley that defines the Utopian Virtual palette, the record uses Broken Transmission techniques to invest this disposable aesthetic with genuine pathos, suggesting that genres built around chintzy simulacra, holographic disappointments, and the everyday vocabulary of news broadcasts might be the best suited to address modern technological and environmental catastrophes.
Not for everyone, but I think it's a brilliant work, and one I'm really happy to own on vinyl, as the two-sided format intensifies the album's progression from exuberance to dread and finally elegy. It was limited to 100 copies available via the custom small-run record production service Qrates.
Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre of all time.
Day 21 / 2024.S7.E21 - I Will Leave it to You (お任せします)
Play a record that can be categorized by two or more genres/subgenres.
放射性Hi5 – 9.0水面下Megathrust
Doubling up as I'm trying to get caught up on this month's challenge, and this one stands as a top 10 record in both the "Utopian Virtual" and "Broken Transmission" genres for me
Both are subgenres of vaporwave. "Utopian Virtual" is a style of aggressively artificial, MIDI-generated muzak that evokes the late-90s moment of excitement and optimism about the possibilities of digital technology. Unlike the sample-heavy techniques of most vaporwave, this style is predominated by original compositions that often resemble generic hold music and background music for instructional videos. "Broken Transmission" (also known as "Signalwave") on the other hand is often constructed around fragments of grainy television broadcasts and short loops of hazy synth melodies gleaned from youtube compilations of Japanese TV commercials from the 1980s. (A third microgenre, "Climatewave," draws almost exclusively on weather channel musical clips).
猫 シ Corp's News at 11 adopted the Broken Transmission genre to reflect on the media landscape on the morning of 9/11 just before the WTC attack, interweaving elevator music with news broadcasts recorded before the towers were hit. It's a brilliant conceptual piece and about as good as the plunderphonic side of vaporwave gets, certainly paving the way for 9.0水面下Megathrust. But in its use of original composition, its narrative construction, and its emotional effect, 9.0水面下Megathrust exceeds its predecessor to be, in my mind, the pinnacle of both Utopian Virtual and Broken Transmission.
9.0水面下Megathrust similarly uses vaporwave aesthetics to examine the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The album begins in the Utopian Virtual register, with cheerful, energetic, and quite elegantly composed synth miniatures that might soundtrack a corporate promotional campaign, speaking to a moment of confidence in the future and security of nuclear power. Rather than the borrowed, decayed, ironic sounds of Broken Transmission, the artist's intentional replication of vintage 90s and 00s electronic textures uses the plastic sheen of the Utopian Virtual aesthetic to amplify the vibrant allure of nuclear positivity.
Gradually, the artist intersperses news broadcast clips that track the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and flooding; the artist judiciously draws on live testimonies of tsunami victims, a move that acknowledges the real tragedy of the event, as well as its existence within the mass media landscapes that define the Broken Transmission genre. This tragedy is underscored by the subtle compositional shifts over the course of the album, which grows more mournful as it incorporates more dissonant and unsettling textures. While never entirely breaking out of the sonic uncanny valley that defines the Utopian Virtual palette, the record uses Broken Transmission techniques to invest this disposable aesthetic with genuine pathos, suggesting that genres built around chintzy simulacra, holographic disappointments, and the everyday vocabulary of news broadcasts might be the best suited to address modern technological and environmental catastrophes.
Not for everyone, but I think it's a brilliant work, and one I'm really happy to own on vinyl, as the two-sided format intensifies the album's progression from exuberance to dread and finally elegy. It was limited to 100 copies available via the custom small-run record production service Qrates.
LeeVing
Well-Known Member
Day 24 / 2024.S7.E24 - Dessert for Breakfast (朝食にデザート)
Play a record that you view as top 10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
This was my top 1 album when thinking of the best prog album...
Discogs tells me I have 6 copies of this album...but I'm not sure if I haven't purged some of those over the years. A couple are a CD and CD/DVD combo release, too. (with the Steven Wilson 5.1 mix)
King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson)
Panegyric – KCLPX2019, 1969/2019
2 LP w/ bonus alternate takes/mixes
2019 Mix by Steven Wilson
Cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering
Play a record that you view as top 10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
This was my top 1 album when thinking of the best prog album...
Discogs tells me I have 6 copies of this album...but I'm not sure if I haven't purged some of those over the years. A couple are a CD and CD/DVD combo release, too. (with the Steven Wilson 5.1 mix)
King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson)
Panegyric – KCLPX2019, 1969/2019
2 LP w/ bonus alternate takes/mixes
2019 Mix by Steven Wilson
Cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering
Rip_City
Well-Known Member
Day 23 / 2024.S7.E23 - Tradition and Honor (伝承と名誉)
Another highlight of my Kanazawa stay was a trip to the Nagamachi District (長町). This area presents a historic atmosphere where the highly ranked samurai used to live. Many of the facilities are accessible to the public with museums, tea houses/restaurants, local handmade souvenir shops and small gardens. In the Nomura Samurai House (武家屋敷跡野村家), there were two floors of explorable floors covered with tatami mat with a full zen garden outside. Directly visible from the entrance is this display of samurai armor, with an obi (帯; sash) wrapped around the torso. Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
Masayoshi Takanaka (高中正義) - Jolly Jive
Haven't heard a Takanaka record that I didn't enjoy. Outside of his first five popular records and The Rainbow Goblins, all of them can be consistently found for sub ¥2000 in excellent shape. I got this one at MP for $15 two years ago. The song "BAMBOO VENDER" is on the first volume of the Pacific Breeze compilation series from LitA.
Missing 1st track "Blue Lagoon":
Another highlight of my Kanazawa stay was a trip to the Nagamachi District (長町). This area presents a historic atmosphere where the highly ranked samurai used to live. Many of the facilities are accessible to the public with museums, tea houses/restaurants, local handmade souvenir shops and small gardens. In the Nomura Samurai House (武家屋敷跡野村家), there were two floors of explorable floors covered with tatami mat with a full zen garden outside. Directly visible from the entrance is this display of samurai armor, with an obi (帯; sash) wrapped around the torso. Play a record with an OBI strip (“bookend” style are acceptable).
Masayoshi Takanaka (高中正義) - Jolly Jive
Haven't heard a Takanaka record that I didn't enjoy. Outside of his first five popular records and The Rainbow Goblins, all of them can be consistently found for sub ¥2000 in excellent shape. I got this one at MP for $15 two years ago. The song "BAMBOO VENDER" is on the first volume of the Pacific Breeze compilation series from LitA.
Missing 1st track "Blue Lagoon":
Rip_City
Well-Known Member
Day 24 / 2024.S7.E24 - Dessert for Breakfast (朝食にデザート)
Eating at Cafe Aaliya was a fantastic decision. I was recommended to try their French Toast, the dish they are renowned for. This French Toast Mix set totaled just ¥1000; not even $7 USD. The presentation was lovely, with the spongy bread cooked to perfection. The toast had a slightly underdone inside, and laced with cinnamon on the edges. Served with an apricot marmalade, ice cream, and homemade caramel sauce as toppings, each of these complimented the velvety toast tastefully. It lived up to the hype that others have recommended and then some. The best French Toast I’ve had in my life that I can remember (or at worst top3). Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) - For You
The king of city pop, as far as I'm concerned. His string of solo records from 1976's Circus Town to 1998's Cozy has been mostly exemplary. His involvement in a few between (Pacific, soundtrack to Big Wave) are also worth noting. But above all I still view For You as his magnum opus, even with "Hey Reporter!" and the bizarre vocal production. "Sparkle" is a city pop standard that has been sampled many times, especially in the vaporwave scene.
As for my current top10 in the genre, limiting to one selection per artist (top5 are rigid, bottom5 can move around/drop off):
Yamashita loathes streaming, but at least an official MV for opening track "Sparkle" is available:
Eating at Cafe Aaliya was a fantastic decision. I was recommended to try their French Toast, the dish they are renowned for. This French Toast Mix set totaled just ¥1000; not even $7 USD. The presentation was lovely, with the spongy bread cooked to perfection. The toast had a slightly underdone inside, and laced with cinnamon on the edges. Served with an apricot marmalade, ice cream, and homemade caramel sauce as toppings, each of these complimented the velvety toast tastefully. It lived up to the hype that others have recommended and then some. The best French Toast I’ve had in my life that I can remember (or at worst top3). Play a record that you view as top10 in a genre/subgenre all time.
Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) - For You
The king of city pop, as far as I'm concerned. His string of solo records from 1976's Circus Town to 1998's Cozy has been mostly exemplary. His involvement in a few between (Pacific, soundtrack to Big Wave) are also worth noting. But above all I still view For You as his magnum opus, even with "Hey Reporter!" and the bizarre vocal production. "Sparkle" is a city pop standard that has been sampled many times, especially in the vaporwave scene.
As for my current top10 in the genre, limiting to one selection per artist (top5 are rigid, bottom5 can move around/drop off):
Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) - For You
Anri (杏里) - Coool
Takako Mamiya (間宮貴子) - LOVE TRIP
Meiko Nakahara (中原めいこ) - 二時までのシンデレラ～Friday Magic～
Taeko Ohnuki (大貫妙子) - Sunshower
Tomoko Aran (亜蘭知子) - Fuyu-Kukan (浮遊空間)
Akina Nakamori (中森明菜) - Crimson
Noriyo Ikeda (池田典代) - Dream in the Street
Toshiki Kadomatsu (角松敏生) - Sea is a Lady
Hiroshi Sato (feat. Wendy Matthews) (佐藤博) - Awakening
Anri (杏里) - Coool
Takako Mamiya (間宮貴子) - LOVE TRIP
Meiko Nakahara (中原めいこ) - 二時までのシンデレラ～Friday Magic～
Taeko Ohnuki (大貫妙子) - Sunshower
Tomoko Aran (亜蘭知子) - Fuyu-Kukan (浮遊空間)
Akina Nakamori (中森明菜) - Crimson
Noriyo Ikeda (池田典代) - Dream in the Street
Toshiki Kadomatsu (角松敏生) - Sea is a Lady
Hiroshi Sato (feat. Wendy Matthews) (佐藤博) - Awakening
Yamashita loathes streaming, but at least an official MV for opening track "Sparkle" is available:
Wicked Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Day 25: A City That Never Sleeps
Bill Evans Trio - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Bill Evans Trio - Everybody Digs Bill Evans