2024 July Challenge Thread - Welcome to Japan! (日本へようこそ!)

Day 31 / 2024.S7.E31 - My Favorite Things (好きな物)
Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?
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Autechre - LP5

This album was released on my favorite label of all time - Warp Records. Its my favorite because it definitely shaped my taste in music for most of the early 2000s and through the next 2 decades almost. I rode with them as they shifted in genres - brought in more hip hop related acts, indie rock, folk and enjoyed mostly everything they've put out. They have iconic releases from all my favorite artists like Autechre / Boards of Canada / Broadcast / Clark / Squarepusher / Aphex Twin / Flying Lotus, need i go on?
 
Day 31 / 2024.S7.E31 - My Favorite Things (好きな物)
This picture taken in Toyama (富山) wasn’t from the end of my vacation, but is a microcosm of the sensation from this year’s visit. It is also arguably my favorite photo that I have taken in Japan across both trips. I took a sakura river tour on a boat for about 30min across this river and snapped a handful of photos with upward angles from the perspective of the boat, but I feel this one holds the most importance for me. I might frame it once I have my father touch it up. Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?

V/A - Heisei No Oto (平成の音) Japanese Left-Field Pop From The CD Age, 1989-1996

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Music From Memory is my favorite record label. MFM has been integral in resurrecting ambient, avant pop, fusion, electronic, new age, and world music that has been lost to the passage of time. It has opened my ears to the perspective of how other countries interpret the softer side of electronic music including (but certainly not limited to) Brazil, France, South Africa, Italy, and Japan. A commonality with every MFM release is that the music is very soft on the ears, which allows for any of their releases to be easily DJable when selecting individual tracks in the record labels catalogue.
This collection of leftfield Japanese pop music is not just abstract and strange, it also bends genres into jazz, ambient, and tropical.
Last year in October, label cofounder Jamie Tiller passed away from a tragic accident (drowned). The latest compilation 10 from last year was set to be the release chronicling the 10th year in the history of the label, but was then dedicated in memory to Jamie. His effort in digging through the crates to bring these nearly forgotten relics to a larger audience will never be forgotten, and I am grateful for his curation.

This isn't even the entire compilation (its close to 90min), but a good sampling nonetheless:
 
Day 29: To the Sea (海へ)
Play a record that depicts the ocean or somewhere underwater.

Piper - Summer Breeze
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Japanese pop culture in the 1980s romanticized California as much as anybody and the artwork on this exceptional City Pop album almost feels cliche with a surfer in a crop top strolling to the beach presumably to hang ten.
 
Rip_City said:
Day 31 / 2024.S7.E31 - My Favorite Things (好きな物)
This picture taken in Toyama (富山) wasn’t from the end of my vacation, but is a microcosm of the sensation from this year’s visit. It is also arguably my favorite photo that I have taken in Japan across both trips. I took a sakura river tour on a boat for about 30min across this river and snapped a handful of photos with upward angles from the perspective of the boat, but I feel this one holds the most importance for me. I might frame it once I have my father touch it up.
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I wish I had more than one day in Toyama.

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Going to the beach side midway through the day (but not knowing what to do once there) was a mistake in planning. It was still a beautiful day with clear skies, and the mountain range to the east was clearly visible.

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Same mountain range from a free lookout point.

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As expected, dinner was quite good that night. Went back to Kanazawa Station (金沢駅) to the same restaurant I ate at on my second day in Kanazawa and had a kaisendon (海鮮丼) with yellowtail, fatty tuna, blackthroat seaperch, seared lean tuna, conch, shrimp, and squid rings, with miso soup, and a Suntory highball. All for ¥3250.

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Thank you to those who have participated this month by posting at least one record.
A clean sweep of Japanese artists, outside of Day 2 and Day 17 even though Japan inspired artwork/album titles were used. Covered various genres across the spectrum, with an emphasis on Japanese city pop and ambient. Made it unintentionally hard mode on myself by not using Anri (杏里), Hiroshi Yoshimura (吉村弘), or any of the Yellow Magic Orchestra family (outside of a compilation).

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July 31 - Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?

Railroad Jerk - One Track Mind

In the 80s and 90s there were several labels in their heyday that you could trust to have interesting releases if you were into punk or indie rock. In the 80s for me that was SST and Homestead. Come the 90s that would include Touch & Go, Sub Pop and Flying Nun. But for me, the label that was head and shoulders above them was Matador Records. They put out so many great records in the 90s. I have about 65 records from the label. I could play one of the biggies, Pavement or GBV or Yo La Tengo but instead I wanted something more obscure. Bettie Serveert’s Palomine would be my first choice but I already played that so I went with Railroad Jerk’s 2nd album. When this came out in 1995 in was rarely far from my stereo.

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Gun Problem live in Tokyo
 
Day 31: My Favorite Things (好きな物)
Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?

Japandroid - Celebration Rock
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Like @jamieanderson1968 my overall favorite label is likely Matador (judging by the sheer number of Matador titles in my collection) but it is not a completely runaway. Sub Pop, Drag City, and the label based in the cornfields of Central IL, about 45 south on I-74 from where I grew up, Champaign’s own, Polyvinyl. They are one of cradles of indie/emo rock and have been releasing amazing albums for almost 30 years now. Plus when you order direct from the label they will hook ya up with some free Airheads and who doesn’t love some candy?
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
I did it! I referenced Japan in some way in each of the 31 titles selected this month! It was touch and go a few times but I pulled through.

Thanks a bunch @Rip_City This a was fun challenge. I love your travelogue with beautiful photos. I would love to make it to Japan some day.
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Now it’s on to August where @imtheocean will be taking charge of the fun!
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Probably the best possible GIF to use to bridge the two. See you all here tomorrow:

imtheocean

Thread 'Pop, Pop, Pop Culture - The SDCC August Spin Challenge!'

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(Header photo shamelessly stolen from the comic-con website)

Welcome to the August Daily Spin Challenge! This month we will take you to the capitol of all things pop culture, San Diego Comic Con. SDCC just finished up last weekend, and I’ve been fortunate to have been attending it for a number of years. To that end, prompts will come from memories that I have from the con – some descriptive, some from pictures.

Gonna try to run this in sub-themes focusing on different areas of the con that make it special for me: Comics / Artists, Movies / TV / Music and Attendees...
  • Like
  • On Fire
  • Rock On
 
Day 30 / 2024.S7.E30 - On Top of the World (世界の頂点で)
Play a record that you spent a (subjectively) hefty amount on.

I got this one off Ebay in 2022 after looking for a copy in the wild for years. It was $140 bucks which is more than I've spent on a single (non-box set) LP release. My personal "high" is about 80 bucks or so - maybe I'll go to $100 if I really need something that is hard to find...otherwise I'll wait for a reissue.

I am glad to see it wasn't reissued right after I made that purchase.

Various – The Shining (Original Sound Track)
Warner Bros. Records – HS 3449, 1980

Pressed at Wakefield Manufacturing

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Day 31 / 2024.S7.E31 - My Favorite Things (好きな物)
Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?

I can't say I have any real favorite or loyalty to any label or releasing label...most go too corporate eventually, alienating their most loyal customers. There are some that just do their own thing, which is what I think this label does. I only have 5 of their releases, one I got by mistake when I originally ordered this release.

Not many labels would release a fairly limited release of the audio of movie trailers to shitty (but the good kind) b-grade movies.

No Artist – Coming Soon From Empire Pictures International (Empire Movie Trailers 1983 - 1989)
We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records – WRWTFWW059, 2021

Limited to 100 copies worldwide.

Pressed at MPO

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LeeVing said:
Day 31 / 2024.S7.E31 - My Favorite Things (好きな物)
Play a record from your favorite record label. What makes it your favorite?

I can't say I have any real favorite or loyalty to any label or releasing label...most go too corporate eventually, alienating their most loyal customers. There are some that just do their own thing, which is what I think this label does. I only have 5 of their releases, one I got by mistake when I originally ordered this release.

Not many labels would release a fairly limited release of the audio of movie trailers to shitty (but the good kind) b-grade movies.

No Artist – Coming Soon From Empire Pictures International (Empire Movie Trailers 1983 - 1989)
We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records – WRWTFWW059, 2021

Limited to 100 copies worldwide.

Pressed at MPO

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XWQkNZH.jpg



Click to expand...

I like this label too. They released a cool Ghost in the Shell soundtrack which got me into them but they've since released some good stuff. I picked up the Ryo Fukui reissues from them and still need to pick up but i saw they released Hako Yamasaki - Tobimasu which I've also been looking for.
 
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