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c-40 · 1 year

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A-T-3 105 Algorithm & Blues Pt.3

いち、に、さん、し

Image by Walter Velez from when Japanese cars were entering the American market

'According to DJ Chintam—the co-author of Wamono A To Z records guide, and co-curator of last year’s Japanese jazz funk and rare groove comp—the concept of wamono didn’t exist before the mid-’90s: “Playing Japanese music in DJ sets was almost taboo,” he once told Resident Advisor. But the UK rare groove scene, which sent evangelists hunting after obscure funk, soul, and disco, prompted him to start scouring for domestic records at the turn of the century' - Pitchfork. These are the same diggers that went out hunting for Northern Soul records, they same that compiled the compilations of the late 1980s and 1990s (A-T-3 079 A-T-3 080 A-T-3 081)

My Truth

My personal interest in Japan is, I assume, similar to many people growing up in the UK in the 1980s. Japanese cartoons on TV like Battle Of The Planets and Ulysses 31 (I bought a bootleg of the soundtrack it in the early 2000s), sci-fi characters like Godzilla and Ultraman, and arcade games from Space Invaders to Out Run to Street Fighter II (Red Bull’s excellent Diggin The Carts web series is worth a shout). Japanese arcade games were a massive influence on me, not just the graphics but the cabinet artwork, the sound and gameplay too like BurgerTime, Bomberman, or Bubble Bobble. They felt like a small window into Japan

My experience of Japan and music when I was young, like many others in the UK, suffers from multiple personality disorder. I was born when Biddu/Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting reached number 1 on the UK singles chart. Growing up there was the music in anime (although we just called them cartoons) and video games, period dramas that often use oriental folk music or a pastiche of (as I've said I became aware of Ryuichi Sakamoto through his film music), then their was the imitation of Japanese culture by western pop acts like Turning Japanese by The Vapours and Japanese Boy by Aneka, this was when advertising and the presence of Japanese imports on shop shelves and in showrooms began calling for attention to Japan. By the time I was a teenager I was listening to John Peel who would play bands like Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five

Throughout the 80s there was a fashion for ‘Japanisme’ on record sleeves. Sheffield design studio Designers Republic began incorporation elements of Japanese graphics into their artwork for the group Pop Will Eat Itself, this developed into one of the styles tDR are known for, in the 1990 tDR created an imaginary Japanese corporation called Pho-Ku. In their way tDR were trying to subvert marketing slogans, Japanese iconography and characters were incorporated into the designs not only for their own charm but as symbols of what is sometimes called hyper-capitalism. From the late 1980s I'd pick up bits of Japanese artwork wherever I could, this might be reproductions of high art or ephemera. In 1991 Akira got a theatrical release in the UK, as an art student I was watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man and it's sequel. I enjoyed Anime and manga (I think Ranma ½ was the first series I got into) and I'm a fan of Superflat

The video for Madonna' released's single Rain (written with Shep Pettibone) was released in 1993, and appeared to have sleek and minimal contemporary Japanese aesthetic to it which I loved. Ryuichi Sakamoto plays the video director in it. This aesthetic is made explicit in Chris Cunningham's 1997 techno orientalist Ghost In The Shell inspired video for the Bjork single All Is Full Of Love

I remember seeing all the CDs on display in Japanese shops and knowing there was gold hidden in there. I will buy anything that looks interesting. YMO, Ryo Kawasaki, Logic System were probably the first older Japanese artists I went looking for

Interest in 'City Pop' and Japanese ambient music in America is written about as if it has happened over night but, it's nothing new, it goes all the way back Ue o Muite Arukō (or Sukiyaki) a Japanese record sung by Kyu Sakamoto that American veterans took to number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Slick Rick takes the melody and incorporates it into the Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew classic La Di Da Di

Tracks like YMO's Firecracker was popular with Black American audiences, Bboys were into Riot In Lagos, and in Planet Rock G.L.O.B.E, Pow Wow, and Mr Biggs get the house to repeat "ich me sun chi" [ichi ni san shi]. Bambaataa's love of Kraftwerk is well documented so this is probably definitely lifted from Numbers by Kraftwerk

My attraction to Japanese culture was the science fiction and fantasy. Wu-Tang: An American Saga tells the story of RZA and Ghostface Killah's love of martial arts movies and RZA's genius move to sample those films and their sound effects, and boo-yaa the rest as they say is history with Japanese samples and references cropping up in hip hop, R&B, jungle and all their derivatives until the end of time. Wu-Tang were the first hip hop act to go all in, it wasn't subtle was it, in many ways you could compare Wu-Tang to UK synth pop like Japan, Wang Chung, the rock group Asia and other 1980s groups that referenced elements of Japanese culture. Over the last decade or so anime and manga have become mainstream in the US and rock and pop acts are also paying attention to Japanese culture

Tamao Koike - Automne Dans Un Miroir produced by YMO, slower and translated into French b side of Kagami No Naka No Jugatsu which is also great

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Go Misawa- Jigoku Kara no Shisma and some nice anime soundtrack popular with hip hop producers. It's from the anime Devilman

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Go Misawa - 悪魔人間 (デビルマン) - 不動明

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#1983 #tamao koike #yellow magic orchestra #ryuichi sakamoto #haruomi hosono #yukihiro takahashi #go misawa #synth pop #soundtrack #tokyo #japan #80s music #Youtube

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passionate-reply · 3 years

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In this installment of Great Albums, we’re back to talking about albums nobody’s ever heard of! You might not know who Zaine Griff is, but you’ve probably heard of a guy called Hans Zimmer, and Zimmer is the real mastermind of this record: a masterpiece of New Romantic synth-pop made long before he made his name composing for the big screen! Not to mention contributions from Ultravox’s Warren Cann, YMO’s Yukihiro Takahashi, and even Kate Bush. Find out all about it by watching this video, or reading the full transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today’s installment is going to feature an album that is most definitely towards the obscure side--but, like most of the more obscure artists and albums I’ve talked about, I think this one is every bit as good as the classics. Zaine Griff’s Figures is not only a forgotten album that I think deserves more acclaim, but also an album that, in many ways, feels like it could have been a huge success in its own time.

Zaine Griff grew up in New Zealand, and moved to Great Britain in the 1970s in the hopes of pursuing a career in music. His debut LP, 1980’s Ashes & Diamonds, would mark him as one of the many artists straddling the musical landscape in the aftermath of glam, in the long shadow of David Bowie. With keen visual panache, a suave way of slurring when he sang, and the requisite killer cheekbones, Griff fit in perfectly with the so-called “New Romantics,” as stylish and sophisticated as Visage, Ultravox, or Japan.

Music: “Ashes & Diamonds”

The real turning point in Griff’s career was his being “discovered,” so to speak, by Hans Zimmer and Warren Cann. Cann had already become a figure of some renown, as the percussionist for the aforementioned Ultravox. Despite his tremendous fame today, Zimmer actually had much less to show for himself at this point, aside from a somewhat dodgy stint in the Buggles. While geniuses in their own ways, neither of them were necessarily natural frontmen, and Zaine Griff seemed like the perfect missing piece to fit into their pop ambitions.

Even setting aside Zimmer and Cann, Figures is actually full of recognizable talent, and I think it may have the single most stacked list of album credits I’ve ever seen in my life! You’ll also hear contributions from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi, backing vocals from Linda Jardim, who was also the soprano on the Buggles’ famous “Video Killed the Radio Star,” and a guest appearance by none other than Kate Bush. That’s really a lot of clout going around, which is one of the reasons I’m so surprised this album went nowhere. Anyway, that aside, the most dominant sonic footprint on display here is certainly that of Hans Zimmer. Zimmer is credited with producing the album, and his dynamic, expressive, perhaps “cinematic” work with digital synthesisers is surely the driving force behind Figures’s sound.

Music: “Fahrenheit 451”

It’s easy to imagine “Fahrenheit 451” is the thumping theme to some delightfully 80s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel. Its theme of lustful but dangerous romance is a constant throughout the album, most notably on tracks like “Hot” and the haunting closer, “The Beating of Wings.” The song’s tense and dramatic mood is well bolstered by those soaring synths, courtesy of the Fairlight CMI. One of the most distinctive sounds of mid-80s synth-pop, the soft, breathy tones of the Fairlight hadn’t yet reached full saturation when Figures was made--Zimmer was an early adopter of this particular musical revolution. You might be surprised to learn that “Fahrenheit 451” only saw minor distribution as a single, exclusively for the French and Belgian markets. I think that sort of mismanagement on behalf of Polydor really shafted this album. Its lead single was actually its title track.

Music: “Figures”

The title track of Figures isn’t the worst song I’ve ever heard, but I do think it just might be the worst song on this album. With a strident, stabbing synth riff and a somewhat sparse and anemic soundstage, the title track is not particularly exciting, and also not particularly representative of what the rest of the album sounds like, with no indication of the lush and vibrant textures that dominate tracks like “Fahrenheit 451.” It also has less lyrics than the other tracks, and offers Griff little opportunity to demonstrate his pipes. Thematically, though, its imagery of wispy and mysterious personas, flitting in and out of substance in a world where appearance and identity are trifling and ephemeral, is something that resonates strongly with the album as a whole, as one might surmise from its title also being used for the album. “The Vanishing Men,” another song that easily feels like a better single than “Figures,” handles the same sort of subject in a more playful and upbeat manner.

Music: “The Vanishing Men”

The titular “vanishing men” are quite clearly the life of the party here, and in the world of this track, the insignificance of true identity is portrayed as an invitation to experiment and have fun with it--though not without a slight hint of danger as well. Perhaps it’s a good metaphor for the curated aestheticism of the New Romantic movement, decried by some as “style over substance.” New Romanticism really didn’t have much time left by the time *Figures* came out, being so strongly associated with trends in fashion that were on their way out by this point. Even Ultravox would find themselves pivoting towards more of a pop rock-oriented sound for their final classic lineup LP, 1984’s Lament. I can’t help but think that the changing landscape of musical trends is part of the poor reception of Figures, which is such a consummate New Romantic album, which basks in the full flush of the movement’s prior penetration into the mainstream. As stated above, “The Vanishing Men” is all about the glamour of mutable identity, but other tracks on the album seem to assign this theme a bit more weight, as in “The Stranger.”

Music: “The Stranger”

The titular character of “The Stranger” is described as “a stranger to himself,” but also “no stranger to anyone else.” This track seems to be more focused on the negative aspects of fashionable persona-play: losing the dignity and security of a true form, the people around you seeing through your charades, and becoming trapped in an existence defined by arbitrariness and artificiality. I’d also be remiss not to mention this track’s winsome pentatonic synth riff, which helps create a mercurial and ambiguous mood. It might be interpreted as a nod towards the rampant Orientalism of New Romantic music, which ran with the early 80s verve for all things Asian, and wasn’t shy about appropriating “Asiatic” musical motives like pentatonic scales to evoke mystery and wonder. Griff and friends’ use of such here is relatively subtle, though, and perhaps a bit more tactful than how many of their contemporaries approached other musical ideas associated with the East.

The unforgettable cover of Figures is as dramatic and infused with capital-R Romantic sentiment as the music contained within. Above the text relating the artist and title, which uses a V for a U for a touch of the classical, we see Griff splayed dramatically in a pond of lilies. With sharp makeup that emphasizes his lips, and a diaphanous, blousy top that turns translucent in the water, he seems to be the perfect tragic hero of some lost work of Shakespeare’s--complete with another flower stylishly pinned to his chest. As I mentioned before, Figures is an album that rides the wave of New Romanticism particularly hard, and I think its cover is yet another symptom of those sensibilities.

Speaking of Shakespeare, I can’t help but want to compare this image with a famous painting of one of Shakespeare’s best-known characters: Ophelia, by Sir John Everett Millais. Painted in the early 1850s, Millais’s Ophelia depicts the moment where Ophelia, driven mad by Hamlet’s romantic rejection of her, drowns herself in a river. It’s exactly the kind of story of wild, passionate, and doomed love portrayed on tracks like “Fahrenheit 451.” Ophelia is also associated strongly with flowers in the text, and features in a particularly memorable scene where she doles out various symbolic blossoms to members of the royal court. Besides the affinity of subject matter, even the composition of Millais’s work resembles the cover of Figures, contrasting its subject’s pale skin with the dark and murky natural surrounds, and emphasizing the drapery of their wettened attire. Ophelia is often considered the definitive masterpiece of the short-lived art movement, the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,” who, as their name implies, sought to recapture the intuitive, colourful, and emotive power of art created prior to the High Renaissance. Not unlike New Romanticism, the Pre-Raphaelite movement would crumble after only a few years, but not without leaving behind a trail of masterpieces that would continue to inspire future artists and admirers, far removed from their own time.

After the release of Figures, Zaine Griff remained involved with Hans Zimmer and Warren Cann, and, as the supergroup “Helden,” they embarked on an even more ambitious musical opus together: Spies, a sort of synth-pop oratorio about immortal Nazi super-spies falling in love in a futuristic dystopia. Spies is about as out-there as it sounds, and brings the flamboyant musical excess of Figures into a suitably theatrical setting. It’s also got nearly as star-studded of a cast as Figures, featuring not only Zimmer, Cann, and Jardim again, but also Eddie Maelov of Eddie & Sunshine as a mad scientist, and the enigmatic French electro-cabaret chanteuse Ronny, in the role of a super-computer with a sultry female voice. Griff portrays one of the titular immortal spies, known only as “The Stranger”--which, of course, begs comparison to the track of the same name on Figures, and prompts the question, to what extent was Spies already in the works when *Figures* was being written and recorded?

Music: “The Ball”

We all know the rest of the story for Hans Zimmer, who began working with music for film in the mid-1980s, such as the queer cult classic My Beautiful Laundrette. But Zaine Griff obviously never became a household name. Despite being finished in 1983, Spies never got to see an official release, as it was a bit too out there for a label to take a chance on at the time, and it would probably be lost media today if it weren’t for a vinyl bootleg that’s thankfully fairly easy to find online. Griff decided to retire from music shortly after this, and recounts a story of having walked past an extremely talented street musician, and having a sort of epiphany about just how hard it was to make it in music. After all, if a true virtuoso could end up busking on the street, how fair and rewarding could the industry possibly be? Disillusioned with the world of pop, Griff returned to his native New Zealand and got a day job as a golf instructor. More recently, though, he’s also released several new solo albums in the 2010s, surprisingly enough, and attempted to push forward into some very contemporary-sounding pop rock. The world is, of course, a very different place nowadays than it was in the 20th Century, and particularly in the world of music distribution, so perhaps it makes sense that our brave new world has room in it for someone like Zaine Griff to return.

My overall favourite track on Figures is probably “Time Stands Still,” which I think is perhaps the most accessible, pop-friendly track to be had on the album, and the one I would’ve released as the lead single had I worked for Polydor. With a big hook and simple, repetitive lyrics, it’s a true pop song through and through--though, if an artist releases a commercial-sounding album in the woods, and nobody is around to buy it, is it still really “pop?” Anyway, I also love this track’s delightful outro, imitating a skipping record to represent a freeze in the flow of time...though I admit it’s a lot less harrowing to hear when listening digitally! That’s all I have for today--thanks for listening.

Music: “Time Stands Still”

#music #great albums #album review #album reviews #zaine griff #new romantic #ultravox #warren cann #hans zimmer

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usgunn · 5 years

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September 15, 2019

CLICK HERE for the September 15, 2019 playlist

1. The Girls - “Jeffrey I Hear You” (1979)

Soul Jazz Records just put out a compilation of music that was important and influential to artist Keith Haring. Lots of great early-80′s downtown New York punk/funk/new wave/etc. This was the first I had heard this song, by a group led by visual artist and Haring pal George Condo. I’m a sucker for a one-chord song.

2. The Wake - “Of The Matter” (1985)

This was a Glasgow-based group that put out music on Factory Records, running in the same scene as New Order and the Durutti Column. Emotional and urgent, with some amazing synth and bass work.

3. Canyons - “When I See You Again” (2011)

Canyons were a “production duo” from Perth, Australia--about as close as one can get to the edge of the world. They put out one album, Keep Your Dreams, which this song comes from, that veered wildly from clattering electronic productions to more pop-inflected songs like this one, sung by former Sniff ‘n’ The Tears (a band I had never heard of previously) frontman Paul Roberts.

4. Mood Rings - “Pathos Y Lagrimas” (2013)

Mood Rings were a dreamy Atlanta rock band that signed to Mexican Summer records, put out a really interesting album, VPI Harmony (from which this song comes), and then appears to have fizzled out.

5. Seely - “Soft City” (1997)

Another Atlanta band, from much earlier than Mood Rings. Started by two former Georgia Tech architecture students--Steven Satterfield (now chef-owner of Miller Union restaurant in Atlanta) and Lori Scacco (now a multi-disciplinary artist in New York). They were the first American band to sign to legendary UK post-rock label Too Pure, and recorded their second album with John McEntire from Tortoise and the Sea and Cake. This song comes from their third album, Seconds, which was produced by Scott Herren from Prefuse 73.

6. Super Numeri - “When The Sun Dials” (2003)

Weirdo Liverpudlians making music that exists somewhere between Miles Davis’s 70′s jazz fusion experiments and krautrock. They put out a couple of albums on Ninja Tune and then disappeared, with main-man Pop Levi going to make some kind of annoying solo albums and play bass for Ladytron.

7. Rosinha de Valença - “Asa Branca” (1971)

Just stumbled across this this past week. A Brazilian guitarist and composer from the 70′s. Don’t know much else, but was captivated by the guitar playing here and the sort of surprise horns in the middle of the song.

8. Brittany Howard - “History Repeats” (2019)

So, I don’t know much about the Alabama Shakes, although I did like a few things I heard from their last album, Sound & Color, that made me think they are probably a much different band than I think they are. But singer Brittany Howard has been putting out a few singles in advance of a solo album coming out soon, and I’ve been really into them. This song in particular has a weirdo groove to it and doesn’t really go anywhere in the best way possible.

9. Dutch Uncles - “Combo Box” (2017)

Dutch Uncles are a Manchester band that’s been one of my faves of the past few years. Their music is REALLY nerdy, which makes sense since it’s supposedly all composed by their bass player, a musical composition student, using computer musical notation software, which the band then learns how to translate to rock band instruments.

10. Yellow Magic Orchestra - “Taiso” (1981)

Legendary Japanese supergroup, composed of Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. All three members were well-known in Japan before the band formed, although only Sakamoto is really well-known in the US due to his film-scoring work. They made eclectic synth-pop, always with an eye towards the pop world. This song comes from my favorite overall YMO album, Technodelic.

11. Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - “Penthouse Serenade” (2002)

For a few years in the early 2000′s, French duo Alan Braxe & Fred Falke treated the world to several wonderful dance singles and several more top-tier remixes for other artists. And then there must’ve been some bad blood, cause it all just stopped. Unfortunately their true masterpiece, “Rubicon,” is not on Spotify, but I’d put this song up as one of the best of the rest. Before teaming with Falke, Braxe was briefly part of a group with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter called Stardust.

12. Lindstrøm & Christabelle - “Baby Can’t Stop” (2009)

I go back and forth on Swedish electronic music guru Hans-Peter Lindstrøm. But I love the album he made with Swedish vocalist Christabelle, Real Life Is No Cool. Unfortunately Christabelle has never shown up anywhere else.

13. Alexander Robotnick - “C’est La Vie (7″ Version)” (1987)

Robotnick is an Italian dance-music producer who’s been kicking around for almost four decades. I don’t know much about him, and honestly don’t remember how I stumbled upon this song, but I love it and now you are hearing it.

14. Hintermass - “While Away” (2016)

Hintermass is a collaboration between Tim Felton (former guitar player for Broadcast and Seeland) and Jon Brooks, aka The Advisory Circle--one of Ghost Box Records’ primary artists. Their music is a winning combo of Felton’s meditative, baritone pop songs and Brooks’s electronic production.

15. Dennis Wilson - “Time” (1977)

Yes, that Dennis Wilson--Beach Boys Dennis Wilson. He made one really deep solo record in 1977, Pacific Ocean Blue. This emotional tune kicks off side two, showcasing Dennis’s ragged vocals over soft rock piano balladry, before kicking into something else entirely...

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