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

Day 6 / 2024.S7.E6 - In another season… (別な季節に)
Ichiko Hashimoto - Ichiko (Music Interior, 1984)

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Hashimoto is an interesting figure—her best known works are a handful of 80s art-pop records, and she also made some jazz fusion and anime soundtracks. But her solo career started with this lovely piano record on the ambient "Music Interior" label. Satie-worship done right, with some unobtrusive vocals and a few swerves into post-minimalism to liven things up a bit. Great for Fall, but not bad for a late summer night either.
 
Day 7 / 2024.S7.E7 - Everything, Everywhere All at Once (万事、随所同時に)
Play a record featuring over the top production or that doesn’t let up from start to finish.

Sometimes some really great musicians end up in the studio with some really good songs to record and the production mainlines it directly to the shitter...



Bob Dylan - Empire Burlesque

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Day 7 / 2024.S7.E7 - Everything, Everywhere All at Once (万事、随所同時に)
Logic System - VenusIMG_9692.jpeg
YMO/Tomita programmer Hideki Matsutake & co. going ham on the synths. back cover info gives a sense of the excess on display (including the indelible line, “IF YOU DON’T LISTEN THIS ALBUM, YOU CAN’T ENJOY THE ESSENCE OF COMPUTER MUSIC”)
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Day 7 / 2024.S7.E7 - Everything, Everywhere All at Once (万事、随所同時に)
Inside the chaos of the department store that is Don Quixote (ドン・キホーテ), you’ll find something that appeals to you. Cosmetics, highly discounted snacks at late hours, branded penguin mascot merch, backpacks/luggage, Japanese whiskey, stationery, full meals/bento, yeah…this place has it all. Overwhelming, and across multiple floors with some of the most colorful and garish price stickers/advertising you’ll see. Oftentimes the discount/blowout racks are so overstuffed that items fall to the ground. The penguin mascot even has a different appearance/costume for each location across Japan! Play a record featuring over the top production or that doesn’t let up from start to finish.

Haru Nemuri (春ねむり) - 春と修羅 (signed)

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Energy is everywhere to be found on this debut LP, with aggressive vocals scattered throughout. She crosses lines between post-hardcore, electropop, J-rock, spoken word poetry, and noise rock with ease. The musical intensity culminates with screaming her lungs out on "ロックンロールは死なない" [lit. "Rock and roll will not die].
Nemuri-san's live performances are kinetic with fervor; she was very engaging to see in a live setting from almost two years ago. She's going on a US tour again this autumn, but passing over Portland. 😭

 
Day 7 / 2024.S7.E7 - Everything, Everywhere All at Once (万事、随所同時に)
Play a record featuring over the top production or that doesn’t let up from start to finish.

It's not my favorite Tool album, but it's got the best production of them all and no real filler tracks, IMO.

Tool – Fear Inoculum
Tool Dissectional/RCA – 19439-95020-1, 2019/2022

3 LP version

Cut by Chris Bellman
Pressed by MRP/GZ

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Day 7 / 2024.S7.E7 - Everything, Everywhere All at Once (万事、随所同時に)
Play a record featuring over the top production or that doesn’t let up from start to finish.

Nails - You Will Never Be One Of Us

This album is an unrelenting 21 minutes of crushing riffs, pummeling drums and vocal cord shredding vocals. An all out assault on your ears.

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Day 8 / 2024.S7.E8 - No Music, No Life (音楽なし、生活なし)
Tower Records is a massive tourist spot in Shibuya, with seven floors for media (vinyl, CDs, cassettes, posters, etc.), a floor for a cafe, and an event space on the rooftop! Mostly new, sealed releases to be found here. Play a record that you recently purchased (within the last three months) from your local record store.

Boris - Heavy Rocks ['02]

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This is probably my favorite Boris album, even with many excellent choices to select from. I bought this at Music Millennium 🤢, about a week and a half after returning from Japan in mid-April. I was amazed copies were still available when I thought it was long out of print...especially since it was highly requested to be on vinyl in the years prior.
I have seen this band perform twice, and am very excited to see them for the Amplifier Worship tour in October.

 
Day 7: Everything, Everywhere All At Once

FKA twigs - M3LL155X

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The production on here is… a lot, tho I don’t consider that a bad thing at all.

Sidenote: for the longest time, I thought this EP was produced by Arca (since apparently idk how to look at credits) but it was actually produced by BOOTS.
 
Day 8
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Iron and Wine - Light Verse

I never go to my local enough. It moved to a spot that’s terribly inconvenient and, well, an almost three year old is a handful enough without taking them into a record store. I bought this two months ago, here:

Welcome to Bull City Records!

Independent record store in Durham, NC. New & used vinyl. Indie, Rock, Hip Hop, Psych, Garage, Electronic, Folk, Soul, Punk & more! Since 2005. BUY SELL TRADE!
www.bullcityrecords.com www.bullcityrecords.com

 
Day 8 / 2024.S7.E8 - No Music, No Life (音楽なし、生活なし)
Play a record that you recently purchased (within the last three months) from your local record store.

My local closed a few years back, so I don't really go out of town to other stores much - and not in the last 3 months anyway.

Discogs is pretty much my local store at the moment if I'm looking for something that isn't new...so here's my last purchase off of that.

One-man doom metal, at least for this debut album.

Spirit Adrift – Chained To Oblivion
War Crime Recordings – WCR013, 2016

Pressed at GZ

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Day 8 / 2024.S7.E8 - No Music, No Life (音楽なし、生活なし)
Play a record that you recently purchased (within the last three months) from your local record store.
Anna Domino - This Time
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Tricky one! I'm trying to stick with Japanese artists for this month's challenge; although I've picked up a good number of Japanese LPs from online sellers in the last three months (including one directly from Japan), absolutely none from any local brick-and-mortars. Thankfully I remembered that American indie-pop diva Anna Domino was at least born in Tokyo; I picked up a copy of this one at my local Half Price Books, which always has a few cheap gems amidst the dross. Not my favorite of her records (that would of course be the sublime East and West) but it's got plenty of charm.
 
Day 9 / 2024.S7.E9 - A Crowded Trek (混んでいた旅)
Play a record that is at least 90min long.


1:32:35

I don't have many that aren't a live performance or some sort of compilation, but of what I have, this is what I wanted to hear the most.

This pressing is my go-to...even over the mono in the box. I just like the stereo mix better for this album.

The Beatles – The Beatles
Apple Records – 1C 172-04 173/74, 1968/1985

German DMM cut

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Day 9 / 2024.S7.E9 - A Crowded Trek (混んでいた旅)
Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) is the most well-known shrine in Kyoto, with several thousand Toori gates (鳥居) leading to there. The journey takes roughly ~90min to hike up there, with plenty of rest stops and souvenir shops along the way. It is crowded at the start of the journey, but the majority of those on the path, particularly influencers and older tourists, stop after about 10min at the first rest stop or two and head back, making for a far more peaceful ascent. Play a record that is at least 90min long.

Yutaka Hirose (広瀬豊) - Nova+4

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Based on the artwork, it is probably a better listen for the winter season...and the atmosphere of the music only serves to support that conjecture. A comforting listen, especially if you are a Satoshi Ashikawa (芦川聡) or Takashi Kokubo (小久保隆) listener.
I made a Discogs edit last night seeing that the tracklisting had a track duration typo on B4, "Epilogue." Even with the corrected shorter track length, the runtime exceeds 95min. Those last four tracks (the "+4" in the release title) are bonus tracks lasting over 10.5min each.

This YouTube upload is the original album, the first seven tracks:
 
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