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mishkakagehishka · 8 months

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anyway. followup. rank the resi games from ur faves (for whatever reason, could be story, the characters, the game making u want to curl up in a ball and cry, ur metric is whatever u want it to be) to ur least faves..... i've never played any of them and only have minor knowledge of a few so like. im fascinated.

I'm soooooo biased anyway

1. Resident Evil 4 - my introduction to the series, which was good bc i was such a scaredy-cat as a kid, the whole "let's make it less survival and more action" was nice. Playing RE2make, i missed the freedom of being allowed to "clean up" an area. I love RE4 i love RE4 Leon, my first fictional crush, i love Ashley, i love Luis, i love the putas, and i love the lake monster named Lake from the lake named Lake. Mwah. Chef's kiss. Perfect game, in my esteemed opinion. The remake should have given us even gorier death scenes instead of cleaner, but I appreciate the fact that they made Luis and Leon's dynamic (even) gayer. So many iconic lines, I don't even know which one to quote. I didn't know your right hand is going to bingo.

2. Resident Evil 1 (this is actually n1 spot but RE4 is there bc you gave me that freedom). Like. I mean. Listen. We gotta respect our elders. And RE1 fucks so hard. She was the blueprint for everything. The dog corridor. The mansion level of all mansion levels. Jill sandwich. What more could you want from a video game. There is multiple endings though and I forgot how they went about that, but I assume there's a "true" ending for the lore. Also in 2002 they remastered it and put Jill on the cover of their "you can choose to play as a girl or a boy" game that revolutionised gaming and media in general? And some companies in 2018 acted as nobody wants to buy a game where the girl protag is the one primarily marketed and/or where you play as a girl. Looks at ubisoft.

3. Resident Evil 2. This might be bias, but it might not be. Because RE3 is more action-y and while I did say I appreciated that as a kid in RE4, i feel like it worked in RE4, but not so much in 3? I think i'm biased. Anyway RE2 was cool because heellooooooo Mr X? Iconic. The soundtrack? Divine. The way you had A and B sides ?!?!?!?!? Four different scenarios because depending on who you chose in A, you'd have a totally different story????? Iconic. 10/10 in my esteemed opinion. I love Resident Evil 2. Can Claire and Leon please just ba----

4. Code Veronica. I still have no idea what the fuck happened in this game. 8/10 at this point I went "what the hell is this lore" (/pos). Like i'm trying to come up with an example to give you but i can't. Love the gothic setting tho

5. Resident Evil 3. Lipbite. Clockwork level. Nemesis.

Horror game girl swag. I dunno, I don't have much to say. She was iconic, but by this point we're in "i'm not exactly a shooter for these games" territory.

Now. Much as I love RE4 it definitely was a sign of things to come. Scratches the back of my neck. I kinda don't care for RE5 and 6. I know Chris punches a boulder in one of them. I do appreciate that they turned it back to survival horror with 7 and Village, buuuut. They lost me. As I said, I don't care for the lore that much, it spans too long, there's a lotta new characters (and I'm not one for "legacy" characters anyway, ik you can only do so much with the originals, but :( i just prefer the smaller cast and our classics. But i get that Capcom wants to have the games set in the years they're releasing, so they kinda haaave to, but </3). 7 and Village definitely were cool, but they somehow felt~~~ a bit less Resident Evil-ly... if that makes sense. 7 was great, but Village's bosses... I dunno. I wasn't much of a fan of how it fit into the sci-fi world of RE.

Listen. I think RE was best when it had the static camera and the horrible dread and when it made you wonder if you should shoot or not. The camera in the original was good because it was part of the horror. No you may NOT have the freedom to see what's around you. Fuck you. The first person in 7 and Village are actually fine for it but😢 i'm a grandma as it goes. RE0 also sounds super cool, but I haven't played it nor seen anyone play it. Will have to get on that tbh

#um um um. hey did you guys know i really loved this series as a kid #asks

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hoagmaster · 4 months

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Truly New Horizons

We made it, folks. The end of 2023 is upon us. We have a new year upon us, a year that ideally will be full of new opportunities and new possibilities. A year where we can learn new things about ourselves and become better versions of ourselves.

Well, it's also an election year, so any hesitation or mounting dread is definitely understandable.

But as I think what may come next year, I realized a while back that a couple of constants from the past several years will no longer be there. The slate will be much cleaner than it has been in years past without these known quantities coming at some point.

In terms of shows I've followed, both Hilda and The Owl House ended this year to varying results (for me). I went on a while ago about how the former spurred me to watch more animation to see what I've been missing, which has mostly worked out. The latter is one of several shows I've warmed up with and have come to really appreciate from the past couple years.

We might possibly be coming down to the end of The Ghost and Molly McGee, which is another one I've come to really enjoy. Fans will surely keep these alive through fan art and writings, but their absence will be noted.

There was just one movie I was really following since we got the first snippets from years back, being my favorite of the year (shocking no one who knows me) The Super Mario Bros. Movie. You'd think they would have immediately told us about making another one but there is reportedly nothing yet.

Then there was also Nimona, a movie whose previous cancellation made everyone sad but then everyone happy when it turned out to be probably the comeback story of the year alongside Elemental (for me, anyway). I've really fallen off movie watching the past few years, so maybe I can get that back on track next year.

The biggest one: video games! The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass is over. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropped nearly four years after it was first announced. Pikmin 4 dropped after years of wondering whether it actually exists. We got the first 2D Mario in over a decade.

The only MIA from the past six or so years is Metroid Prime 4, which we're all assuming now is being saved for the next system. Aside from a couple of remasters and smaller scale games, it really feels like we're coming up on the end of the Switch's life. That's sure to be another bittersweet day where I'll probably spew a few paragraphs.

There are still several constants. My main show Big City Greens is still chugging along with most of its fourth season yet to air. I've gotten into recent fare like Kiff, Hamster & Gretel, Hailey's On It!, and have shows like the other half of Invincible and the much anticipated season two of Arcane on tap.

I'm sure to play all those Switch games like the remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Princess Peach: Showtime!. And sure, some of the other new things could provide some good times. I guess having become a fan of the series or something this year means I'll check out Persona 3 Reload. Maybe keeping some kind of blind eye to news feeds and being surprised by some new stuff is not a bad way to do things.

But maybe the biggest constant of all will be the company I keep. Sharing my experience with Persona 5 Royal with someone was perhaps the most exciting thing I did all year. I've begun to participate a bit more in some areas because maybe it could pay off with new connections. Then while nothing is set yet, I'd like to think it's a strong possibility that going to visit someone may be in the cards...

I've shared a bit of myself every day since July with my daily reports, and I'm happy to say those will not be going anywhere. It's interesting to look back at them months later and see what I was doing and wonder how I've changed since then. Another year of doing those is sure to provide more enriching opportunities and guide me with anything I want to do.

Thank you all for reading this year. Here's to 2024!

#cody writes stuff

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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FEATURE: The Fantastic True Story of How Project A-ko Was Lost and Found

Disclosure: The author of this article personally contributed to the MADOX-01 Kickstarter project described later in the piece.

Thirty-five years ago, when Project A-ko debuted in Japanese movie theaters, no one thought they were witnessing the birth of an anime classic. Director Katsuhiko Nishijima jokingly claimed in the behind-the-scenes documentary Project A-ko Secret File that he helped create the film because he needed some cash to buy new teeth.

The film, which is named after an unrelated Jackie Chan movie and which began production as an adults-only entry in the Cream Lemon series before transforming into a general audience science fiction action-comedy film we know now, would prove popular enough to spawn three sequels and a spin-off series.

If you've seen the film, it's no mystery why Project A-ko earned its reputation as a milestone of modern anime with adoring fans both in Japan and overseas. And yet, the film itself was shrouded in mystery, because sometime after its video masters were struck from the original 35mm film elements, the reels containing Project A-ko vanished without a trace.

This is the story of that discovery.

School Girls Head West

In the United States, Project A-ko was originally licensed by the now-defunct Central Park Media, a New York-based film company run by John O'Donnell. CPM first published the film on VHS in 1991, and Project A-ko proved to be an evergreen title all the way up until its final CPM release on DVD in 2002. After CPM went out of business in 2009, Discotek Media announced the rescue of the license of Project A-ko in 2010, releasing the film and its sequels on DVD later in 2011.

Project A-ko still has a huge fan following overseas, but for all its success as an anime classic, it has never received a high-definition Blu-ray release in the United States. Even Central Park Media’s final “Special Edition” DVD release was recorded off the laserdisc because the original film elements were presumed to be lost. When it came time to create an HD remastered release, the original 35mm prints of Project A-ko were nowhere to be found.

As a result, when Discotek Media announced that they were bringing Project A-ko to Blu-ray in September 2020, they also revealed that they were using technologies called the Domesday Duplicator and AstroRes to try to capture the best video possible from the available sources.

According to Justin Sevakis, CEO of MediaOCD, Discotek’s Production Contractor, the Domesday Duplicator captures and digitizes RF signals from multiple laserdisc sources, which results in a cleaner image overall.

“[Domesday] is a cool concept and very intriguing, but I think people got the wrong idea that this was some sort of game-changer in terms of restoring A-ko,” said Sevakis. “It definitely would’ve helped, but it only got us part of the way back to the condition of the original master tape it came from. Even if we had THAT tape, it was a video master from 1986, and still would’ve required a lot more restoration work from that point onward.”

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The initial plan was to take the Domesday Duplicator transfer to an engineer who then used AstroRes, a process that uses machine learning to estimate the original linework to create an HD signal of the original. “When it comes off the disc, it’s still a video transfer,” said Sevakis. “Even for an SD master, it’s blurry because it was made in 1986. If anything was the miracle process, it was AstroRes.”

When it comes to older anime, Sevakis says that missing film elements are the biggest challenges when it comes to preserving and archiving. “If we’re stuck with decades-old video masters, often they’re made in such a way that makes restoring them very difficult or impossible ... Sometimes there are also old analog video problems that make the image completely unacceptable on a modern 4K display. At that point, the best you can really do is release it in standard definition.”

The Domesday Duplicator and AstroRes processes certainly made the most sense for the Project A-ko restoration Discotek was producing at the time. But soon enough, a simple investigation into an unrelated Shinji Aramaki title would prove otherwise.

The MADOX-01 Connection

While Discotek Media began the Herculean task of reconstructing Project A-ko, a plucky little North Carolina-based distributor known as AnimEigo was breaking ground on their next Kickstarter-financed release: a Blu-ray version of Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01, an original animation video from 1987 directed by Shinji Aramaki.

A one-shot story about a young man who dons a highly advanced prototype suit of mechanical powered armor in a quest to say goodbye to his girlfriend, MADOX-01 is a goofy story with a lot of humor and some exquisite technical animation.

In fact, Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 was the first anime title licensed and distributed by AnimEigo. In an interview included as a special feature on the DVD release, Robert Woodhead, the founder and CEO of the AnimEigo, recalled that originally he was given the option to license Project A-ko or MADOX-01, but he decided to go with MADOX-01 because he felt it had more “mainstream appeal,” a choice which he jokingly referred to as “the first of many terrible business decisions.”

Flash forward to December of 2020, when Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo and Ollie Barder of Sola Digital Arts discussed securing the materials for a high definition Blu-ray release of Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01. This plan hit a snag: Woodhead had previously inquired about obtaining the film elements needed to make a MADOX-01 Blu-ray but was informed at the time that the original materials were not available.

It seems the black hole of “lost films” Project A-ko fell into claimed another victim, but Woodhead was undaunted. In January of 2021, Woodhead made new inquiries with AMG, the company that acquired the rights to MADOX-01 from Pony Canyon. An AMG representative acquired a list of films being stored at the Tokyo Genzōsho film archives — “information that the previous contact person at Pony Canyon apparently didn’t have,” according to Woodhead — and the missing MADOX-01 materials were located.

Tokyo Genzōsho, also known as Tokyo Laboratory and usually shortened to Togen, hosts a wide range of original materials from Japanese film producers in climate-controlled environments. As one of Japan’s major labs, they offer a wide range of professional media services to the film industry.

Found Footage

During a meeting with the AMG licensors, Woodhead was shown the list of films stored at Togen. Much to his surprise, not only was Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 listed but right next to it on the list was another title: Project A-ko.

The long-missing film 35mm print of Project A-ko wasn't actually lost. The film had simply been misfiled and couldn't be located for decades as a result of a clerical error. “It wasn’t hard to find,” said Woodhead. “The problem was that there was a break in the chain of knowledge about the film’s location.”

“We’ve been looking for Project A-ko for 20 years,” Sevakis explained. “Most professional film, anime included, is locked away in a giant climate-controlled warehouse, in this case, run by the film lab that developed it. According to their records, it wasn’t there."

Due to Woodhead’s discovery, Discotek Media was able to request the archivists to make a physical search of the vault. When they did, they learned that Project A-ko “was there the whole time,” in Woodhead’s words.

Happy Endings

After Woodhead got permission to inform Discotek of his discovery and the missing film reels were found, Discotek announced on a Twitch stream in March 2021 that they were canceling their initial plans for the AstroRes remastered Project A-ko release and instead were producing a remastered Blu-ray using the newly rediscovered original 35mm print.

And that's the story of how Project A-ko was lost and found: lost by accident due to a simple filing error, found through happenstance and serendipity, an anime classic rescued from obscurity for future generations of fans to enjoy.

At the time of this writing, the restoration process for the Blu-ray release is well underway, with Discotek eliminating anomalies “ranging from dust and small scratches to flickering and jitter caused by the photography of the era,” according to Sevakis. While there is no release date currently set, if the sample footage above is anything to go by, Project A-ko is going to look and sound better than ever.

As for AnimeEigo's efforts on MADOX-01, the company's Kickstarter for the OVA reached its $50,000 goal in 42 minutes after it launched on April 30, now sitting at over $130,000 as of May 4, 2021.

“The film lab vaults are out-of-sight, out-of-mind for most of the companies in Japan, especially because at this point not many people deal with film on a regular basis,” said Sevakis. “The people dealing with the rights often don’t even have a clear idea of what’s in there, even if the records are correct! Who knows what else might be found?”

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Paul Chapman

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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futuresandpasts · 6 years

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Futures & Pasts | MRR #414

My column from Maximum Rocknroll #414 (November 2017), one of the rare months this year when I mostly wrote about demos from new bands, as opposed to reissues of records from thirty-plus years ago.

The time that I’ve spent writing this month’s column has been marked by all sorts of strange happenings and general flux. The skies in Portland have been smoke-streaked and raining ash for days because a couple of jackass kids tossed firecrackers into the evergreen forests of the Columbia River Gorge to the east of the city, setting tens of thousands of acres of trees ablaze in the process. My hometown of Houston is still largely underwater after catastrophic hurricane-triggered flooding, and even though it’s been twelve years since I left the city, this might be the first time that I’ve felt so genuinely separated from it, helplessly watching from the opposite side of the country as the places and things that defined my formative years (for better or worse) are completely upended. I quit the radio show that I’d been doing for the last year and a half because the pressure of coming up with a two-hour program week after week without repeating myself was making me lose my mind just a little bit, so I’m back to doing a podcast from my apartment whenever inspiration strikes and I can already tell that it’ll be a better change for me. And I started a new band called COLLATE with two friends a few months back that finally recorded this week, just in time to make some tapes for a short tour down to California in mid-October—come hang out if you’re in Chico, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Oakland and you want talk about oddball ‘70s and ‘80s post-punk records with us.

Five years after Dark Entries’ remastered vinyl reissue of UK minimal wave duo LIVES OF ANGELS’ 1983 cassette Elevator to Eden, they’re back with a brand new LP collection called Hole in the Sky drawn from the group’s unreleased odds and ends and archival tracks sourced from hyper-obscure tape compilations. In contrast to some of their aesthetically similar contemporaries like SOLID SPACE or SECOND LAYER, LIVES OF ANGELS didn’t splinter off from the fertile early ‘80s UK post-punk scene, and in fact vocally rejected it—multi-instrumentalist Gerald O’Connell apparently dismissed everything from the era with the exception of COCTEAU TWINS, DEPECHE MODE, and NEW ORDER. The influence of the latter is especially apparent, and when O’Connell’s wife Catherine takes her turn at the mic (see “I Know About You” or “After Dark”), the result is a sort of striking bedroom synth-pop driven by the mechanical heartbeat of a vintage drum machine, suggesting slightly ragged takes on “Ceremony” or “Age of Consent” as sung with the detached warmth of Alison Statton of YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS. The Gerald-sung songs “Call Moscow” and “Somebody Else” also point to some shared wavelengths with jangly home-taping pop freaks CLEANERS FROM VENUS, who appeared on more than one mid-’80s small-run cassette comp alongside LIVES OF ANGELS, but best of all might be the dark electro-punk minimalism of “Look Out Kid,” spun almost entirely from reverbed drum machine clatter and retro-futuristic synthesizer that connects the dots between KRAFTWERK and the NORMAL. (Dark Entries, livesofangels.bandcamp.com)

From an obscurity dug out of the archives of the 1980s cassette underground to something more contemporary that could convincingly pass for the same: Imagery is the debut four-song tape from MIDNIGHT GARDEN, which appears to be one person armed with a four-track machine in modern-day Toronto crafting fever dream post-punk that sounds like the half-decayed remnants of a demo originally sent to Rough Trade in 1981. The driving, melodic bassline running through the opening and standout track “Structures” immediately had me thinking of early FOR AGAINST (clearly going after my own heart here, as I’ve been trying to rip off the same for years), cutting through the cavernous echo of some tom-heavy drumming and deadpan vocals buried under a thick fog of tape hiss. Then there’s “What Moves You?,” with an insistent back-and-forth of scalpel-edged single-note guitar and pulsing bass that occupies the liminal space between the stark, rhythm-minded approach of Factory Records’ early ‘80s post-punk faction (think pre-electronic SECTION 25) and the desperate and moody atmosphere of goth-adjacent bands like the CHAMELEONS. When you’re this reverent of your source material, it’s all too easy to come off as overly forced and derivative, but the roughed-up and off-kilter aesthetic of these recordings gives MIDNIGHT GARDEN the homespun spark that made the first wave of fiercely DIY post-punks so provocative in the first place. (whatmovesyou.bandcamp.com)

TABLE SUGAR have been making the minimalist art-punk of my dreams in Olympia since at least late 2016 when their demo Introductory Material first surfaced, but it took a tip this summer (from my friend Jay over at Dynamite Hemorrhage) for the band to actually be brought to my attention, and despite all of this brilliant racket happening less than two hours north up I-5 from me in Portland. For any of y’all who rightfully flipped your lid for LITHICS, take note: TABLE SUGAR are truly the next great post-punk weirdos of the Pacific Northwest. Sparse, taut guitar lines stretch out between throbbing bass and choppy drumbeats like the string connecting a pair of tin can telephones, while twin vocalists intone their parts over one another in cool monotones and ecstatic shrieks, sometimes within the span of the same song. “M.e.” even throws some violin into the equation which will undoubtedly evoke some references to the feral femme spirit of the RAINCOATS, but much like their freewheeling Australian counterparts in BENT, TABLE SUGAR are guided less by any rigid adherence to the scratchy groundwork laid down by the RAINCOATS (or DELTA 5, or the AU PAIRS, or…) and more by their foremothers’ general gleeful refusal to color inside the lines. (tablesugarband.bandcamp.com)

Blown-out basement punk newcomers STRANGE FATE hail from the woods of Western Massachusetts, where I spent most of my twenties enduring way too many shows dominated by mysterious guy hardcore bands who were in various phases of moving on from fawning ORCHID worship. I was so desperate for something like this during my time there—frantic, no frills femme-led DIY racket, with dual yelped vocals from guitarists Callie and Lindsey that bring to mind those first two NOTS singles when they were still inviting endless “KLEENEX meets the URINALS” comparisons. STRANGE FATE have the same penchant for whiplash choruses consisting primarily of shouted chants, with most of the songs careening to their end in just barely over a minute. For sheer econo-punk brilliance in 2017, look no further than “I Don’t Wanna Know,” whose lyrics are little more than the title delivered over and over in a snotty sneer over slashing guitars and urgently bashed drums for exactly 60 seconds, although the breathless repetition of “don’t tell me! / don’t tell me nothing!” on “Round Up” is pretty great, too. (strangefate.bandcamp.com)

Oakland’s MINERALS are the latest offshoot of the GRASS WIDOW family tree (the shared DNA is from bassist Raven Mahon), and the new trio’s EP One demo builds upon the same melodic but slightly gnarled framework that made GRASS WIDOW such a revelation in the early twenty-tens. All three MINERALS sing, sometimes with one voice in isolation and sometimes with multiple intersecting parts that briefly overlap in quietly unassuming harmonies, backed by guitar lines twisted into complex shapes and rhythms that subtly shift between tension and sprawl. “First/Firth” and “Third/Therm” are the EP’s gauzy, slowburning pop visions, while the loopier, bass-driven lilt of “Second/Second” and “Fourth/Forth” nods to all of the coolest women of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s post-punk universe. Someone please do a vinyl release of this as soon as possible! (minerals2.bandcamp.com)

#lives of angels #midnight garden #table sugar #strange fate #minerals #futures & pasts #maximum rocknroll

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fluidsf · 5 years

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Eastern Delivery 1

Hijokaidan: [Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION (1984 / 2014) (Japanese Import)

Reviewed format: CD Album reissue on réveil / Alchemy RECORDS

Additional release identifiers: ALCHEMY RECORDS SPECIAL EDITION SERIES (20) / Hijokaidan 03

Welcome to the first review in my new series Eastern Delivery. In this new review series I will give you a personal view on underground and extreme music from Asia and the Middle East through reviews of historical / archival reissues and recent releases. This review series also features specially imported releases I order from the original countries in Asia and the Middle East that these were released in, so you will also be able to get an idea of both local editions of Eastern underground music as well as releases that were on released in Asia or the Middle East. Plenty of cool stuff coming up definitely and I will provide links to the store you can buy every release from, for convenience.

This first review is on the third part in ALCHEMY RECORDS SPECIAL EDITION Hijokaidan series, through which the label (owned by JOJO of Hijokaidan) reissued the old albums from the legendary Noise group. This third part of the album series is the album Viva Angel, which I have here reissued as [Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION, with the +1 pointing to the bonus track added to every REMASTERED release of the original albums in this series. This is a 2014 remaster by JOJO released through the reissue imprint of Alchemy, réveil. The CD comes in a white jewelcase featuring an obi strip covering the spine as well as the short side on the front and the long side on the back of the jewelcase featuring release identifiers, price, release date and assorted (promotional) information on the release. It's mostly just info for retailers, but that strip definitely looks classy to keep. The Japanese definitely got a great style of packaging music. The spine of this obi strip obviously features just the artist name, album title and catalogue number + label logos. The stream of info contained on the packaging continues on the back of the jewelcase which features the tracklist of Viva Angel, also pointing out the BONUS TRACK. There is the original release date of Viva Angel as well as the same label logos again as well as very detailed info on the CD specifications and copyright info. Included with the CD is a simple two page booklet with again, the tracklist, but also original release credits, credits of the REMASTERED EDITION and more info in Japanese. On the front you have the album cover (with additional text pointing out the reissue) and on the back a sweet abstract black and white photo featuring Hijokaidan in fancy designed Japanese characters and label logos and the like. The booklet is well printed on nice matte paper and the CD feels quality as well. A pretty thick heavy CD pressing this is and besides featuring the usual artist, album name, logos and copyright message, the CD also got a nice silvery translucent design to it which looks pretty classy.

Now onto the Noise music on this album itself. Hijokaidan's band members have joined or left over the many years this band's been active, but back in 1984 on this album the band consisted of only three members. Jojo Hiroshige, T.Mikawa and Naoto Hayashi. Viva Angel begins with Seeds Rock'n'Roll, a short track of Noise Rock, featured repetive screamed Japanese vocals and screechy AM radio manipulations like Noise as well as repetitive but pretty clean drums. It's a nice track that introduces the album's rather varied Noise / Noise Rock hybrid style. Seeds Rock'n'Roll is pretty sparse in nature but definitely a fun, wild and energetic opening track and the screechy Noise is definitely powerful and effective. Then we have track 02 Hellthy Girl which features a lot of wild squelchy and feedback laden Guitar Noise, as well as what sounds like heavily distorted screamed vocals. Again, very sparse in instrumentation but the many variations and fluctuations in the Noise combined with the nice roomy ambience to the recording give this quite a unique sound. The Noise is both powerful and energetic but the wild manipulations also create plenty of enjoyable details and directions the Noise moves into. As I've noticed from the beginning of Viva Angel already, Hijokaidan's Noise is rather progressive on this album and more than just straight on blasts or walls of fuzzy crunch, Hijokaidan has a great way of performing their screeching clouds of sound. It definitely feels more "live" like this and the excellent remaster by JOJO helps too, with all tracks on this CD sounding very clear without clipping as well as still having plenty of headroom (for you to turn up to your preferred level). And the bassier pieces on this album have got a very nice clean bass sound to them, very powerful but undistorted, great sound quality as I expected from a Japanese CD. Track 03 is Secret Desire, which features a heavily free improv styled electric guitar performance that also sometimes moves into more melodic territory in the background of a noisescape filled with screeches, Glitch like high frequency synth effects and Noise as well as what sounds like the amplified sounds of mice, wildly moving and squeaking. While descibed like this this might seem like chaos in sound, the piece in fact has a very clear sound, a great mix in which all layers are audible and not overshadowing eachother in any way. Like an alien organism Secret Desire keeps evolving, changing, communicating in strange ways and it's definitely an enjoyable if also a bit frightening track. Then we have track 04 Twilight Guitar which is a guitar driven Noise Drone piece that features a lot of wah wah effect squelching and alien like sucking effects as well as another layer of free improv guitar. It feels a bit like some muddy sonic images of a flowing river, though the two note guitar drone does also add some melodic element to it, which is rather nice. Then we have the title track Viva Angel, which features a rather odd but definitely fun combination of a calm Rock & Roll instrumental with simple drums and goofy high pitched vocals with quick Guitar noise. It sounds a bit like a guitar depicting two casts rolling on the floor fighting while a sweet Rock band plays a fun tune. It's the kind of strange musical juxtaposition that actually works, in a strange way. Then we move to track 06 Broken Young Bud which is where the Noise moves into Harsh territory. A screechy manipulated feedback like tone buzzes over multiple layers of mad delayed and distorted vocal screams and various other vocal sounds. It sounds both tense and ghostly in a way, a very expressive piece that's also nicely piercing but never sounding random or exagerrated. Sounds great. Then we have the last track from the original Viva Angel album, Bad Character, But Great Sounds, a lengthy Harsh Noise piece that progresses subtly but surely overtime. The 24:18 long piece features a lot of screechy heavily distorted Noise sometimes bright, sometimes darker mixed with much cleaner electric guitar improvisations. The great thing about this track is that even with all the harshness of the Noise, the other elements of the piece are still pretty clearly audible in the mix. Check out for example, the stuttery distorted effects created in the piece or the feedback tones of which the sonic texture is still clearly discernible as sounding cleaner than the Noise itself. There are plenty of elements and details to discover in this piece, so I recommend you to listen to this album multiple times to focus on them all overtime (though maybe over a few days, as indeed the harshness can give your ears a weird feeling). Afterwards where onto the BONUS TRACK, Δ8000 (A side of the joint cassette release with Incapacitants, 1985). This track is even longer than Bad Character, But Great Sounds at 26:56 but features a relatively cleaner though more feedback driven sound. As the track title indicates, this track is taken from a split tape release together with (Hijokaidan related) Harsh Noise band Incapacitants released a year after Viva Angel. The track has a more boxy sound to it, less high end in the recording but also sounds more raw as well, which adds a great additional harsh finale to the album. The piece is full with earpiercing feedback laden Noise and distorted screams. It's high energy all the way through with a much more metallic pure Noise sound to it than the original album tracks but the amount of variation and different Noise textures created makes the piece very enjoyable. And while being Harsh Noise, the track has some nice sensible headroom in the remastering by JOJO, great Noise, great remastering. This brings us to the end of the remastered edition of Viva Angel.

[Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION by Hijokaidan is one of the first albums by the Japanese Noise band and already showcases their varied sound rather well over these 7 (+1) tracks with Noise tracks that sometimes move into a harsher direction, sometimes are more Rock driven. The energy and excellent performances by Hijokaidan, combined with the well edited combination of short with longer pieces in the tracklist and finished with JOJO careful high quality remastering work make this an essential release and a great introduction to the history of Japanese (Harsh) Noise music.

I've imported this Japanese edition through the cdjapan store, please refer to the site for pricing and payment options for your country. You can find the release here: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TECH-25393

#cd #album #reissue #réveil #alchemy records #1984 #2014 #noise #harsh noise #hijokaidan #非常階段 #viva angel #+1 #remastered edition #Eastern Delivery #underground music #experimental music #album review #japan

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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reissue Review: Déjà Vu [50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]

(Reprise)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Sometimes, an album’s anniversary reissue, even with unreleased bonus material, just serves to remind you just how good the original was. Such is the case with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s new Deluxe Edition celebrating 50 years of their stone-cold classic sophomore album Déjà Vu. The album’s history is well-known: It was their first as a quartet with Neil Young, produced by each band member, with them recording their tracks individually (save for their rollicking cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”) over 800 combined studio hours. It’s still the highest selling album each member’s been involved in. And of course, there was lots of friction between band members, due to everything from creative differences to each one getting over a broken relationship, or in David Crosby’s case, the death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton. Déjà Vu would precede some of the most successful and acclaimed solo albums of each member’s career, and the simple remaster of the record presents it as a key moment in both the history of the band and rock n’ roll in general.

You can hear the warmth in Déjà Vu. Its first four tracks are perfectly sequenced, one per singer-songwriter, starting with Stephen Stills’ free love anthem “Carry On”, which pans from ear to ear in blissful harmony. Graham Nash’s plea for idealism and empathy, “Teach Your Children”, is bolstered by pedal steel from none other than Jerry Garcia, while Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” is perhaps the band’s best example of Neil Young’s quintessential slow-burning guitar playing in combination with Crosby’s wonderfully boorish vocals. And “Helpless” is one of two Young offerings, along with “Country Girl”, played for Crosby after a chance meeting in Mitchell’s driveway. Mitchell herself was in a relationship with Nash during the writing and recording of “Our House”, his ode to domestic life with her, and you can hear the influence of her singing style on his delivery. And tracks like the journeying, warbling title track, complete with Crosby’s scatting, and the gorgeously picked "4 + 20″ could find a home on releases by today’s guitar masters, a testament to their prescience and ultimate timelessness.

The rest of the reissue consists of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions of both songs from Déjà Vu and ones that didn’t make it, whether they’d be shelved or rerecorded by the songwriter for a solo album. (Stills especially dominates the third disc.) A few individual tracks, or even individual aspects of individual songs, improve upon the original recorded versions. Stills’ vocal performance on the hissy demo of “4 + 20″ is powerhouse. Both of the “Our House” demos are gentle acoustic piano affairs, but the one with Mitchell’s harmonies herself is almost mythic, the type of thing you can’t believe is documented as she cackles when Nash exclaims, “Shit!” after flubbing a line. Elsewhere, an almost 10-minute version of “Almost Cut My Hair” sports a cleaner vocal performance from Crosby and a guitar war between Young and Stills, transferring the grit from the singing to the instrumentation; it might not be better, but it’s different enough to warrant inclusion in essential CSNY lore. The alternate vocal take of “Woodstock” features a clearer sense of urgency from Stills, bouncy barroom piano and limber drums embedded within the melodies. And the gorgeous “Laughing”, a Crosby song he would later record on If Only I Could Remember My Name, is presented in dark acoustic guitar-laden and moody, complex piano versions, achieving a level of eeriness only hinted at on original album songs like the title track.

A disappointing number of tracks here, however, make you miss your favorite parts of the original or make you glad the outtake didn’t make it on to the final record. On the “Teach Your Children” demo, the group’s vocal harmonies flatten out on, “If they told you, you would cry,” a moment on the original where they change key for maximum emotional heft that’s totally absent on the demo. Nash and Terry Reid’s “Horses Through A Rainstorm” is similarly unvarying and vacant, sounding like something a bad Jeff Mangum impersonator would sing. You’re thankful Stills trimmed the bloated “So Begins The Task/Hold On Tight” for Manassas. Crosby’s threesome offer “Triad”, recorded but unreleased for years by The Byrds, and later recorded by Jefferson Airplane, doesn’t quite capture the same sense of self-doubt and hazy melancholy the previous versions so exemplify. And freewheeling jam “30 Dollar Fine” is certainly more fitting as the Stills-Jimi Hendrix collaboration “$20 Fine” it ended up being, the CSNY version (along with “Right On Rock ‘N’ Roll”) sounding like the type of song you’d hear at a karaoke bar where the singer knows few of the words.

Yes, at just over 3 hours, the deluxe edition of Déjà Vu isn’t an enormous commitment, and the pristine remaster is one of the best pieces of music to be released this year. Still, I’d recommend it mostly for CSNY completists. For every interesting autobiographical Motown-inspired jam like Stills’ “Same Old Song”, there’s an early version of “Bluebird Revisited”, a clear, somewhat unnecessary middle ground between the Buffalo Springfield track and the one that would later appear on Stephen Stills 2. Overall, the unreleased tracks act as filler more than the highlights on the album. Maybe we’re spoiled by the constant pace and high quality of Young’s archival material, or the number of recent earth-shattering, conversation-changing reissues, but at this point, I’m just looking forward to the inevitable half-century celebration of Harvest.

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itsworn · 5 years

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Vincent Troncoso’s 1966 Chevy C10

I love writing about old cars and trucks, especially when there’s an interesting story about the owner and/or the vehicle itself attached. It’s the life stories that truly make it all the more worthwhile sitting behind the computer punching keys rather than throttle pedals. But occasionally, getting those stories out of people is like pulling teeth—and even when the old chunk of enamel’s been successfully pulled, so to speak, the information provided is less than helpful. Or, it’s the exact opposite and I get a novel’s worth of info, which I can deal with. This time, well, let’s just say I got more than I bargained for … and not from the owner, Vincent Troncoso.

About a year ago, Jimmy Ruiz had just finished up this cleaner-than-most daily hauler for his customer, Vincent Troncoso. After arranging to have it shot in the studio for a feature, Ruiz supplied the requisite tech sheet … which I inadvertently threw away at some point. When asked to fill out another, he un-begrudgingly obliged—but instead, Ruiz sat down one evening and wrote a feature! While I’d normally transpose something as such into my own verbiage, the story wasn’t half bad, so minus a few grammatical edits, here you go!

“Vincent grew up around his uncle who was a collector and early American automotive enthusiast. He spent a lot of time with his uncle going to car shows and events, all the while soaking in the different and unique styles of yesteryear—both stock and custom. But one vehicle in particular always stuck in his mind, a first-generation C10 shortbed pickup truck.

“Fast-forward a couple decades and Vincent was now at a place and time in his life where he wanted to get an early American truck, a 1966 Chevrolet shortbed big-window to be exact. He initially just wanted a truck to be used as intended—able to haul house project supplies and such in the back—but still wanted that vintage feel and smell that us early iron junkies chase! So after months of searching the Internet, he finally found his project to be: a small-window cab, and not the big-window shorty he wanted, but it was close enough to satisfy his hunger at the time.

“Vincent took his uncle in-law ‘Tio Steve’ along with him to co-ride in the truck’s journey back to its new house. Well, as it would end up turning out, the ride home was a little more exciting than they expected. Once they made the deal, signed the pink slip, and took off down the road, things got flavorful! The two jumped on the freeway and headed back home to Riverside, shortly thereafter realizing that when the truck needed to stop, it didn’t! So began the panic of pumping the brakes while nervously driving down the road. At this point, the exhaust is getting louder, as pipes are cracked and broken, lights aren’t working, and the ‘dream’ 1966 shorty is now starting to look like it might have been a real bad and potentially dangerous acquisition.

“Nevertheless, Vincent tried to attack the items that he could fix, then took the truck to a local muffler shop—you know the old type with the car rack outside right on the corner, with a couple of Tin Man looking statues out front made of old mufflers, exhaust pipes, and catalytic converters, with the old guy still welding exhaust with a gas torch? So the 1966 shorty gets some new twin pipes and mufflers, and they got it to stop without having to panic pump! Most might be satisfied with that alone, but not Vincent. He is now stepping back and looking at his dream truck saying, “What if I did this or that … what if it was lowered … what if it had new rims … what color would look cool?” Without realizing, he’s now crossing over and getting ready to join the club of the Unchosen Many, and all old-iron junkies know exactly what this is! It’s an incurable disease that we car guys get, to where there is a point of no return once you lay your sights on an idea of ‘what it could be.’ So, this where my shop, Sledsville Hot Rod & Kustom Co., comes into this story.

“I recall a text message I received one day from an unknown phone number, the sender saying he’d been recommended by his brother in-law, who grew up and went to school with my son, Jesse. Putting two and two together, when it came time for Vincent to pursue getting the custom makeover started, his brother-in-law said, ‘I know just the guy for the job!’ I reached out and contacted Vincent to see just what he was after. The conversation initially started out with the usual type suspension and brake upgrades, but before we hung up, Sledsville would be building him a full frame-off, high-performance, custom 1966 shorty!

“Once we had the truck torn completely apart, all the sheetmetal was sent out to R&R Coatings for media blasting to see just what was underneath the suspect paint on the old Chevy. To no surprise, when all the dust settled, the truck was covered in an inch of old bondo, mostly hiding the huge dents in the bed that, sadly, were beyond repairing. The rest of the cab, doors, and fenders were in desperate need of some metal magic, and so my Sledsville team began to resurrect the old, decrepit steel.

“At the time, 1964-1966 shortbed replacement sides were not being reproduced yet, and it was near impossible to find a good, straight, rust-free shortbed for sale for a reasonable price, if at all. So, I contacted a friend who just might have what I needed—but a set of perfectly straight and rust-free ‘long’ bed sides were not exactly it. Since we’re a fabrication shop, however, we made them work. As the amount of hours in metalwork stacked up, Vincent asked if we could make the small-window cab into a big-window cab—so yet another not-so minor job was added to the build list. While the huge undertaking of doing bodywork on a long, flat-paneled vehicle was being executed by Sledsville’s very own understudy and bodywork-oligist, J-Mo Reveles, the rest of the boys went to town on the chassis, suspension, and powerplant.

“After blowing the entire rolling chassis apart and fixing some cancer and cracks in the frame that are inherit with these years of trucks, the rear section got a C-notch for better axle clearance at a lowered stance. The frame was then sent out to R&R for some gloss black powdercoat. Meanwhile, the Shortys 12-bolt GM rearend was sent to DiffWorks to have new billet axles and posi gearset installed. Once those were done, the suspensions were set up with CPP’s tubular arms front and rear—and with the ultra-low stance Vincent desired, the only way to achieve that was by adding airbags on all four corners. He also wanted something traditional looking when it came to the wheels and tires, yet in a larger and more performance-type package. Ultimately, the truck ended up getting a set of custom-offset 20-inch American Racing aluminum Rallyes wrapped with Pirelli rubber. Now with the new wheels and tires, this new girl needed some braking components to help stop this truck on a dime—before, it couldn’t stop on a dollar. Now, behind the new rollers is a full set of Baer brakes with a matched ReMaster-machined aluminum master cylinder.

“When the time came to choose the heartbeat of the matter—well, Vincent likes high performance, likes power, and wanted the truck to make a statement not only when being driven but more so when the hood’s open. So the choice clearly seemed to a be simple one, and that’s why the truck got a 383 stroker with aluminum heads, Lunati crank and rods, 9:1 compression pistons, all matched to handle a Weiand 144 supercharger topped with a performance worked Holley 750 double-pumper. The engine was all dressed up with some nostalgic finned aluminum valve covers and air cleaner. The transmission that was chosen was a GM 700-R4 built by ‘Tranny John’ Salsman to match and handle that supercharged heartbeat.

“With any and all customs—and even not-so-custom builds—choosing the color is important, as that’s the first thing anyone sees. Vincent had his eye on a dark Brandywine paintjob I’d done on a chopped 1949 Mercury (something of which I’m more accustomed to building). The tasteful warmth of that Brandywine spoke to him and he had to have it on his Fleetside! I mixed up a couple gallons of House of Kolor’s Brandywine Kandy Koncentrate and sprayed it over the top of a PPG Mercedes red metallic basecoat, followed by many coats of PPG’s Glamour clear.

“The inside of the cab got a split bench seat from Glide engineering, while Craig Hopkins of Kiwi Kustom Interiors topped it, the door panels, and the rest of the interior in black diamond-stitched leather. A set of black Classic Instruments gauges dressed the dash, and a Vintage Air SureFit system kept the shorty’s cab cool, while an ididit steering column and restored Impala steering wheel gave Vincent what he needed to steer the old gal straight. Sledsville’s Kenny Hollenbeck installed an American Autowire harness, as well as all the Alpine Audio components. With the final touches being completed, Vincent wanted a little more flare out of the truck’s bed floor. So a custom bird’s eye maple was chosen for the 1966, stained in a smooth honey tone and joined with boltless stainless bed strips.

“And that, in no short order, is Shorty’s ‘new’ life story!”

Facts & Figures Vincent Troncoso 1966 Chevy C10

CHASSIS Frame: Modified-stock by Sledsville, Riverside, CA Rearend: GM 12-bolt by DiffWorks, Mira Loma, CA Rear Suspension: CPP Totally Tubular with airbags Rear Brakes: Baer 13-inch rotors with four-piston calipers Front Suspension: CPP Totally Tubular with airbags Front Brakes: Baer 14-inch rotors with six-piston calipers Steering Box: CPP Wheels: 20-inch American Racing Rallyes Tires: Pirellis Gas Tank: CPP aluminum

DRIVETRAIN Engine: GM 383 Heads: Edelbrock Valve Covers: Cal Custom Manifold / Induction: Weiand / 144 Pro-Street supercharger Ignition: MSD Headers: Doug’s Headers ceramic-coated Exhaust / Mufflers: Custom / Porter Transmission: 700-R4 by John Salsman Shifter: ididit

BODY Style: Custom Cab Fleetside Hood: Stock Grille: Stock Bodywork and Paint by: Sledsville Paint type / Color: House of Kolor, PPG base / Kandy Brandywine, Mercedes Red Headlights / Taillights: Stock Bumpers: Stock

INTERIOR Dashboard: Modified-stock Gauges: Classic Instruments Air Conditioning: Vintage Air SureFit Stereo: Alpine Steering Wheel: Retro 1959 Impala Steering Column: ididit Seat: Glide Engineering split bench Upholstery by: Kiwi Kustom Interiors, Mead Valley, CA Material / Color: Black / Leather Carpet: Wool

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