V/A Ongaku 80: Alternative Waves From Japan (Hiruko) lp 25.00
We've been trying to list this for ages now (we listed its predecessor, the Ongaku 70 comp, late last year), but our distributor kept running out, and then eventually it sold out totally and went out of print. Well, it's finally repressed and available again, but who knows for how long, so grab a copy before they're gone, cuz this stuff is so good, and so crazy, some of the coolest and weirdest minimal electronic and no wave music we've ever heard, and most of the groups were totally unknown to us. Sure there's Phew and Riuchi Sakamoto and Tako, but then there's also Daisuck & Prostitute, Gunjogacrayon, Lizard and so many more. For those of you who remember that awesome So Young So Cold compilation of seventies and eighties cold/new wave music from France, well, imagine an even more warped and whatthefuck Japanese version and you've got Ongaku 80.
The sounds here are so varied and so all over the map, there's no way to really describe it as a whole, so might as well go track by track. EP-4 starts things off with "Robothood Process", which is in fact quite robotic, sounding a little like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" at 16rpm, a funky bassline, little flurries of percussion, a weird machinelike voice, streaks of feedback, tolling bells, all wrapped into ramshackle groove. Sakamoto's "Riot In Lagos" takes the new wavey prog of Yellow Magic Orchestra (Sakamoto's group), and pulls it apart into something more robotic, unwinding long streaks of dubby rhythms, and a stuttery almost hip-hop groove, wreathed in all manner of beeps and bloops and synth blurts. "Modern Beat" by Lizard might be one of our favorites, a militaristic beat, some spidery guitar melodies, buried crooned vocals, lilting melodies, but over the top super loud dubbed out drums and a thick super distorted low end buzz, that erupts every once in a while like a squelchy rib cage rattling pppppthhhh, not to mention some squiggly Bollywood melodies. Portray Heads offer up "Elaborate Dummy", which is a killer slab of futuristic electro-punk with sweet crooned girl vox over the top, pulsing and pulsating synthscapes that should have fans of Zombi, Umberto and all the rest flipping their lids. Gunjogacrayon channel early P.I.L. and the Slits for a noisy chunk of super rhythmic punkfunk, wreathed in all sorts of effects and guitar scrabble and garbled wild vox.
Flip the record over, and things start off with "Urahara" by Phew, a weird bit of stiff robotic funk, with cold sung/spoken female vox over theremin like melodies and an almost Kraftwerk like arrangement. Tako's "Funk Of The Hostage" is indeed funky, bit a sort of sinister soundtracky funk that slithers and swaggers, a creepy bit of stuttery broody psychedelic spacefunk, with processed vocal garble and shards of squealing feedback and fractured melodies, as well as flurries of atonal piano, and bursts of distorted yelps and swirling FX. The awesomely named Daisuck & Prostitute almost sound like they could be some sort of proto-Ruins project, progged out scrabbly lurching grooviness, peppered with horn bleats and strangled guitar squiggles, all beneath dramatic vox, the song slipping from frenetic skitter, to grooving post punk. Shinobu's "Earth" is another track that sounds like a mutated version of HH's "Rockit", this time pelted with all manner of spaced out swirl and stuttering swoosh, a collage of sliced and diced sonic fragments raining down on a mesmerizing sci-fi synth groove, with some bizarre bellowed vox. And finally, PTA's finish things off with their epic "Woo-Guy After Dark", which weds post punk guitar jangle to tribal percussion, swoonsome synth swells to sweetly crooned female vocals, a slow build to something that more resembles a lost Bollywood soundtrack or some strange Southeast Asian cassette reissued on Sublime Frequencies, the song slipping from dense and percussive to swirly and ethereal and back again, all the while super rhythmic and hypnotic.
Phew! So good, and so awesomely crazy and over the top! So totally recommended. We definitely can't say how long these copies will last, or if we can get more once they're gone, so better probably to not risk it. You have been warned!
MPEG Stream: EP-4 "Robothood Process"
MPEG Stream: RIUCHI SAKAMOTO "Riot In Lagos"
MPEG Stream: LIZARD "Modern Beat"
MPEG Stream: PORTRAY HEADS "Elaborate Dummy"
MPEG Stream: DAISUCK & PROSTITUTE "Ziggurat Witch-Hunt"

V/A Overboard (YoYo) cd 12.98
Seventeen tracks including stuff by The Lookers, Cannanes, Some Velvet Sidewalk and others, notably the much-raved-about Japanese contingent of Kirohito, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her and Loud Machine 0.5.

V/A PopShopping Mixed Up (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another edition from this playful series. Warning: there are some painful easy listenin' tracks (for instance, track 3) that seem to have somehow escaped the quality control and the remix knife, and that are not even tolerable on the kitsch level. Nonetheless, many others kick some groovy ass butt, and are perfect for gettin' down and doin' the funky slide through the racks of your chosen chi-chi boutique. Frivolous Euro-fun. Like a revved-up, house-y Charles Wilp. Fans of Arling and Cameron... ahoy!

V/A Sushi 4004 (Bungalow) cd 16.98
Subtitled, "The Return of Spectacular Japanese Clubpop".

V/A Sushi 4004 (Bungalow) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled, "The Return of Spectacular Japanese Clubpop".

YOSHIMI AND YUKA Flower With No Color (Ipecac) cd 17.98
Anticipation was high for this collaboration between Yoshimi (Boredoms, OOIOO, Flaming Lips guest) and Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto)... But unfortunately this turned out to be pretty much a total throwaway of a record, this sounds like Yuka and Yoshimi got set loose in an instrument store and just futzed around with the toys, like, y'know, playing the piano with two fingers and trying out the mikes, etc. With absolutely no actual songs to speak of, it's sometimes atmospheric and pretty, at times reaching towards Miles Davis style quiet cool, but no amount of sampled bird calls can make up for how tossed-off this album sounds. A complete disappointment, especially considering how much we like and respect their other work with their other projects, and a little insulting that they expect us to pay money for this album because it doesn't sound like they put any actual work into it.
MPEG Stream: "La Donna Ni Demo Des Kinna"