Akevonoiz - Untitled (1982)

Before posting Sally May album today, I want to post Akevonoiz's (Discogs says Untitled but) self titled album, since I'm recovering from slump and in music, this album made me thought about when I started to collect Japanese independent band's albums (when the Japanese City Pop albums was cheaper) and made me think straight.

So, this album was recorded from Our House Studio, studio which some my favorite 80s band has pass through like P.T.A's, Gastunk and Sagittarian etc... and studio is still up to these days. I lost my chance to visit Modern Music (Rest in Peace, Hideo Ikeezumi) before, but if I have a got a another chance to visit Japan, I'll visit Our House Studio with some albums. If the budget is enough, I'll record some Drum / Shamisen in there lol.

But this album is not released by Cragale not HG Fact like bit-well-known label, and it's from Dakimyouga Records, Discogs says this is only released album by Dakimyouga, but catalog number (DAKI-2200) and style of album packaging and release on Flexi Disc, I think there's more albums from this label in Japan somewhere, or if I super lucky in Korea (Since I found Hiroshi Yoshimura's album, and private pressing albums, only promo released album from CBS/Sony and Vacant World by Jacks in Daejeon).

So, as you think, this album is one of 80s Post Punk album from Japanese Indie band. Guitar and Drums made think about Para-Phrase mixed with Idiot O'Clock, and Vocals are... bit reminding me of Jun Togawa with lower tone.

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Farmer's Favorite ‎– Rural Work Clothes (New) (1983)

Sorry for late posting, but anyways here the album Rural Work Clothes (New) by Farmer's Favorite. It's from the underground label Skating Pears, but the album/band's style is quite unique than my expectation which Skating Pears label albums had in common. Because of that, I can't surely tell the style of the album (because of my lacking knowledge, and each tracks have different tones.) but, this album is like combination of Junk Jungle Genre's S/T album (Skating Pears; SP-008) and Perfect Product by Fetus Productions (B-Sellers; ISBN4-938198-06-1).

I'm not very into Fetus Productions' Perfect Product and No Wave genre, but the drum is really reminding me of Primitive Community album by Toshiaki Yokota & Primitive Community, which is one of my favorite albums.

*While I'm editing the audio file, there is gap between the tracks, but since album jacket and tracklisting in Discogs are telling only one tracks for each side. And it's hard to hear, but there's some background live noise in those gaps, so I didn't separate the tracks.

And I want to give a shout-out to Costanzo who running such a wonderful blogs like Music x 5 and Various Recorded Detritus for suggesting to post this album. :)

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Unrelated photo; Korean poster from 1964 of À bout de souffle (Breathless; 1960)

(Translation of Korean title is "Do Whatever You Want")

Various Artists - Baa! Hakata, Another Beat (1984)

I love the band The Goonzees (or Goónzees) since I heard their self titled album, but Show Kai Volume One (Fanzine with Cassettes) was disappointing, I liked other artist's track and The Goonzees one as well, but it doesn't have obscurity which this album and self titled album has.

Besides The Goonzees, other artist's track was great too, for me especially Cue's tracks. Ten-No's track was also great, it was reminding me Tetsuo The Iron Man film. lol

Discogs · D/L*

*Repaired track title error (8/23)

The Goonzees

Various Artists - Toshi Tsushin (1980)

One of the great new wave compilation album, only flaw in my opinion is packaging. Which is very annoying.

It's similar to Aburadako's "Blue Jacket" album, but at least that came with two hard paper with fitting outer cover. But this came with one normal green paper in stamped outer plastic cover which is large to use other normal plastic cover to protect stamp mark.

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Sympathy Nervous - Polaroid (1980)

I think there's no need to explain some information about this gem, since other great blogs (Mutant Sounds and Atlantis Audio Archive is one of them.) already uploaded it with background of this album.

But this album gave me some feelings apart how much I liked this album/tracks, since this was my first Vanity Record's album I bought, and as you can see in Discogs and catalog number, it was Vanity Record's first 7 inch album. I'm not sure it's Yoshifumi Niinuma's first album/single too.

But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed it and if you liked it, support by (maybe not supporting directly) buying recent Yoshifumi's compilation albums. According to Automaticism release note, Yoshifumi lost everything he got during the tsunami disaster in 2011.

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Neo Museum - Moonlight (1984)

This synthpop record was produced by Kaoru Satou (EP-4) and released on the record label Theatpolis --which is allegedly Telegraph-related. The band consists of Tomiko, Toshihiro, and Ki-Ichiro.
Who are these three people? Good question; I've no idea. One of them, however, does have a YouTube channel (linked below) with some of his non-Neo Museum work.
There are only 4 tracks on this record for a total play-time of less than 18 minutes.

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The Ventures - Chameleon (1980)

The Ventures —not a Japanese group, but the American surf-rock group. Why am I posting this? Well, because it's an honorary Japanese album.
Fans of Hikashu may already be aware that the song Pike, which is the final track of this album and was written by Hikashu member Yasushi Yamashita, was originally written for this group. You can read more here.
This record was produced by Kazuhiko Katoh, its synthesisers were 'manipulated' by Hideki Matsutake, and it includes songs written by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, Keiichi Suzuki, Yuu Imai (Imitations), Shigeru Umebayashi (EX), Kazuo Takeda (Blues Creation), and various people who aren't Japanese —a cover of John Barry's Gold Finger, a cover of Bob Goldstein's Washington Square, and The Ventures' own Ginza Ska.
The music is a hybrid of instrumental surf-rock and new wave; as one might expect from an album which includes all three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra and their synthesiser programmer Hideki Matsutake, a gratuitous amount of synths are used.
Highly recommended to everyone who wishes to increase the size of their surf-rock or synthpop collection, their Japanese music collection or American music collection, and everyone else.

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*The album art featured in this blog post is of a much higher quality than the one included in the zip file (I scanned the high-quality image myself whereas the low-quality image was obtained from the internet).

Various Artists - Miyako Ni Ame No Furu Gotoku II (1985)

Wonderful album, produced by Makigami Koichi, and featuring many artists.
The first track is performed by the band Chiwawa, but it also includes contributions from the likes of Koji Ueno, Tomorrow Taguchi (Bachikaburi), and Kenji Otsuki (Karate Bakabon, and Kinniku Shoujo-Tai).
The second and third tracks are performed by Hitsuji. I don't know a thing about Hitsuji, but their brooding post-punk music is a pleasant juxtaposition to the upbeat first song.
The fourth track is a new wave song by Ranmaru, and it also features Papaya Paranoia.
The fifth and sixth tracks are by Masumi Hara. They're also included in his 'Singles & Collections' compilation which I first uploaded in 2012. You'll find Masumi's contributions very upbeat and cheerful —this record can't quite decide on a consistent mood.
The seventh track is by Picky Picnic, and the eight and ninth tracks are by Kaoru Todoroki (of Picky Picnic). Picky Picnic is a fun synthpop group, while Kaoru Todoroki's solo-work borders on minimal synth.

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password: aghwee

Very sorry —the password is usually monster!

*Edit: the cover attached to this blogpost is of a much higher quality than the one included with the download. The packaging of the LP consists of the record jacket and a piece of translucent paper, so I was required to take eight total scans (four of the record jacket, four of the paper), stitch each set together with Microsoft ICE, and then perform some Photoshop editing. The digital result looks almost exactly like the real record.

Various Artists - HIGH ON LIFE (1992)

An original album by seven different credited artists: Koji Shishido (vocalist of Katsurei), Yuushitsutai, Kokushinere, Cock C'nell, HEAVEN & EARTH, Mito Yoshi, Tetsuo Tanaka and MOTHERS.
Rather than being a piece of disjointed tracks, everything on this album is done in a similar style. If you've listened to Cock C'nell before then you'll find this entire album a similar listen; if not, listen to the track 'Yoru no Uta' (linked below) from their 1986 album Boy's Tree.

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Hirono Mio - Fruits of the Moon (1988)

Originally I only wanted to post my own rips but someone requested this and it's too good to not listen to. This is Hirono Mio's debut-solo EP. The second track is one of my all-time favourite songs.
I was actually going to buy her first LP, IIRC it's called Chloe, from Yahoo Auctions but completely forgot about it and bought some other stuff instead. Maybe next time!

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Mio Fou - Mio Fou (1984)

Mio Fou are a musical duo consisting of violinist Mio Hirono and Hirofumi Suzuki. These two were/are in some of my favourite bands: Moonriders, Shi-Shonen, Real Fish and have been involved with many other artists I enjoy.
Highly recommended. This is the 25th Anniversary Edition and features seven bonus tracks.
Tracks nine and ten are originally from the album 'Bright Young Aquarium Workers'; a synthpop record which includes the efforts of five artists, each having one song on either side.
Tracks eleven to fifteen were all recorded during the years 2006 through 2009.

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