The Music of Japan.

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J. PUPSTER said:
OK, just found this on YouTube, I'll have to see if I can find that Netflix show -"Cowboy Bebop: Unlocked | Netflix Geeked" 😋

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Damn that was cool! Great find thanks for posting. And it seems it went on YT about a year ago, certainly flying below my radar. also:



I had planned on listening to the Netflix Bebop OST up mix last night. But then someone informed me that Cornelius did the music for Ghost in the Shell: Arise OVA's. And well, there went the evening watching the 1st volume of Arise. A large part of the music is the usual good dramatic action movie stuff but then some slower lighter tunes, boy you can sure tell it's Cornelius in charge.
 
Last night I had the pleasure of viewing a Studio Ghibli film, yes, in a real movie theater. This still seems rather special to me after the pandemic. Thanks mainly to Fathom Events there is that possibility 2>3 times a month to do something special like this. I had to go, with a few friends, because not only had I not seen this film, I had never even heard of it. And I thought I was pretty up on Ghibli productions.

The American title is Only Yesterday. Subbed, not dubbed, thank you. It is told from the female lead POV at both young and older ages. Sorry, no fan service or giant robots. It really is a great movie with a strong female protagonist as is always the case with films from this studio. It's got a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes & I liked it enough I am eager to watch it again with my granddaughters.

Anyway this thread is about music, hai? Fathom Events almost always presents bonus material after the ending credits so it's best not to quickly leave. As the credits rolled I heard something that sounded quite familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. Did I really know this song? WTF, I do!



It is called Ai wa Hana, Kimi wa sono Tane / Love is a flower, you are the seed. In America we know this song as The Rose. Most anyone familiar with this will consider it a Bette Midler song. But I just learned lyrics & music are by none other than Amanda McBroom & Lincoln Mayorga!
In general it's one of those ballads that are a little slow for me. But it was perfect fit for the end of the movie & I confess I think it gave us aging otaku watery eyes.

Here's the original by the real Divine Miss M, McBroom that is.

 
Lute said:
Speaking of animation, here are a couple of blasts from the past.



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Back in, oh,'66>'67 I saved my allowance & I was the only one in our family with a color TV in my bedroom. Penncrest 21" round tube! I mention this because Speed Racer was one of the few prime time (what? Prime time anime in America?) TV shows in color. The opening had the same visuals but of course the language was English:



Because of the circumstances I remember this series vividly. Thanks for the vid. It's the first time I've seen the original!!
 
Sonik Wiz said:
Back in, oh,'66>'67 I saved my allowance & I was the only one in our family with a color TV in my bedroom. Penncrest 21" round tube! I mention this because Speed Racer was …

Because of the circumstances I remember this series vividly. Thanks for the vid. It's the first time I've seen the original!!
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Yeah, I remember those bygone days. The English version was the one I first heard, too. When I came over here, it was fun listening to the original Japanese versions of this and other Japanese cartoons and movies that I had known in the US. And amusingly, I got a lot of blank stares when I said the English title of these here. 😉
 
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And amusingly, I got a lot of blank stares when I said the English title of these here.
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Heheh... that reminds me of an amusing incident with a local friend living in Japan teaching English on the JET program. While he was there he got to see the premiere of one of the Evangelion Rebuild movies in a theater. I *think* it was Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. In the opening sequences there is extensive English dialogue as the events take place outside of Japan. At first it was kind of a WTF moment for the audience. But their patience wore thin pretty fast. Everybody stated grumbling and looking around at each other. Then they noticed the only white Western looking guy in the theater...

He said he continued to get dirty looks because somehow, someway they all knew it was HIS fault this Evangelion movie was in English. After about 15 mins the action returns to Japan & & so does the dialogue. God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world.

Hey anyway did you know the Evangelion OST was done in DVD-Audio 5.1 way back in 2015?

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KIAW-21
I'm sure no new discs are available. Second hand somewhere or also lurking around the Net. I should go sailing.
 
Sonik Wiz said:
Heheh... that reminds me of an amusing incident with a local friend living in Japan teaching English on the JET program. While he was there he got to see the premiere of one of the Evangelion Rebuild movies in a theater. I *think* it was Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. In the opening sequences there is extensive English dialogue as the events take place outside of Japan. At first it was kind of a WTF moment for the audience. But their patience wore thin pretty fast. Everybody stated grumbling and looking around at each other. Then they noticed the only white Western looking guy in the theater...

He said he continued to get dirty looks because somehow, someway they all knew it was HIS fault this Evangelion movie was in English. After about 15 mins the action returns to Japan & & so does the dialogue. God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world.

Hey anyway did you know the Evangelion OST was done in DVD-Audio 5.1 way back in 2015?

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KIAW-21
I'm sure no new discs are available. Second hand somewhere or also lurking around the Net. I should go sailing.
Click to expand...
The final part of Evangelion was a long time in the waiting for fans. I didn’t know about that DVD-A, though. I’ll keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the link. That’s the kind of stuff I occasionally run across in record stores. It’s good to be aware of it. Sometimes I just skim over stuff in store bins when I am in a bit of a hurry.
 
Surprisingly, Universal Music Japan have just added a bunch of J-POP compilation albums for release as Hybrid Stereo SACDs on November 16th, 2022. Apparently, they are all "Best of" compilations which were released on CD from the 90s through the 2010s, but all have been given new 2022 DSD remasters, though every listing does seem to say "excluding some songs", presumably for digitally-recorded songs.

SACDベスト・オブ・ベスト - 邦楽 ｜ Japanese Music

There are 21 titles in all and I've never even heard of most of the artists. Most of the titles are single-disc, but six of them are two-disc sets, and since they are all the same price (¥3,300 (single-disc) / ¥4,400 (two-disc)), I checked to find which of the two-disc sets has the most music. As it turns out, that is the "Teresa Teng 40/40 Best Selection" release here, which was released on CD in 2015 and contains an absurd 157 (!) minutes of Teresa singing what I understand are all Japanese songs. Since I like her voice and it offers the most music for the money, I will probably pick that one up, especially since most of Teresa's tracks should be remastered from analog tapes, anyway.

Here are links to the Teresa Teng 40/40 Best Selection SACD. The listing isn't up at CD Japan right now, but it should be soon.
Amazon.co.jp: テレサ・テン 40/40 ～ベスト・セレクション: Music
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UPGY-6007
 
As I mentioned earlier I am a big fan of Chisato Moritaka. Compared to other J Idols she does more than just sing and dance. She plays several instruments ( I think drums are her favorite) and tho she has done some cover tunes most of her output she & Hideo Saito composed together. Usually she would do the lyrics & they would both compose & arrange the music.

So over time I've been very curious about this Hideo Saito. A quick google will only return another Hideo Saito, a cellist, composer, conductor, who also happens to be dead. Then for some random reason this weekend I typed his name into the Discogs data base & there he was:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1505886-Hideo-Saito
Still not much info but that's the guy! He has one self titled album out but used it's too pricey for me to take a chance on. The Discogs page also shows he was in a band called YOU (24). The album is curiously named Picky Slicker TA-DAH! The whole thing is on YT:



I'm perplexed by the album cover but I love the music. In some ways it reminds me of Masayoshi Takanaka - Rainbow Goblins. But Takanaka is more jazzy & guitar oriented while Saito is more keyboard synth & pop. I dunno, maybe they both just give off the 80's vibe.

I hope someone here bothers to listen to all of Picky Slicker. I'd love to hear someone else's opinion. Good for background music or sit down. Sounded pretty darn good thru the Surround Master. There are some near mint LP's at a reasonable price on Discogs I might consider cuz I really enjoyed this.

Of course looking forward to any info the always knowledgeable @Lute has to add!
 
Sonik Wiz said:
As I mentioned earlier I am a big fan of Chisato Moritaka. Compared to other J Idols she does more than just sing and dance. She plays several instruments ( I think drums are her favorite) and tho she has done some cover tunes most of her output she & Hideo Saito composed together. Usually she would do the lyrics & they would both compose & arrange the music.

So over time I've been very curious about this Hideo Saito. A quick google will only return another Hideo Saito, a cellist, composer, conductor, who also happens to be dead. Then for some random reason this weekend I typed his name into the Discogs data base & there he was:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1505886-Hideo-Saito
Still not much info but that's the guy! He has one self titled album out but used it's too pricey for me to take a chance on. The Discogs page also shows he was in a band called YOU (24). The album is curiously named Picky Slicker TA-DAH! The whole thing is on YT:



I'm perplexed by the album cover but I love the music. In some ways it reminds me of Masayoshi Takanaka - Rainbow Goblins. But Takanaka is more jazzy & guitar oriented while Saito is more keyboard synth & pop. I dunno, maybe they both just give off the 80's vibe.

I hope someone here bothers to listen to all of Picky Slicker. I'd love to hear someone else's opinion. Good for background music or sit down. Sounded pretty darn good thru the Surround Master. There are some near mint LP's at a reasonable price on Discogs I might consider cuz I really enjoyed this.

Of course looking forward to any info the always knowledgeable @Lute has to add!
Click to expand...

I found that Wikipedia does have a page for Hideo Saitō, the guitarist and songwriter who collaborated with Chisato Moritaka. He also has written songs and played as a studio musician for many other famous singers and groups, including Kinki Kids, TOKIO, Miho Nakayama, Momoiro Clover Z, and Hibari Misora, etc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Saitō_(musician,_born_1958)
He isn’t as famous with the general public here as Chisato Moritaka. I suppose fans and some folk in the music scene know him well. I read a discussion of him and the band YOU. It seems the band was working on a second album in 1982 but they encountered some trouble during the recording with the director (or producer), who didn’t organize things very well and walked out before it was finished. Some tracks for the album were made and it seems Hideo Saito put them together for a soundtrack to the 1983 Hong Kong documentary ”Moe yo! Kung Fu” (This is Kung Fu), which briefly features a young Jet Li. This is Kung Fu (1983)
The soundtrack is available at Discogs. By the way, the drummer on YOU - Picky Slicker is Hideo’s younger brother Ryo.

There are only a few videos of him on YouTube. Here is a fairly recent one with him giving a review (in English) of a Fostex mixer.

Here’s another with Hideo Saito playing guitar on “Twilight Stream” with Minoru Mukaiya and Keizo Nakanishi.

 
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Lute said:
I found that Wikipedia does have a page for Hideo Saitō, the guitarist and songwriter who collaborated with Chisato Moritaka. He also has written songs and played as a studio musician for many other famous singers and groups, including Kinki Kids, TOKIO, Miho Nakayama, Momoiro Clover Z, and Hibari Misora, etc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Saitō_(musician,_born_1958)
He isn’t as famous with the general public here as Chisato Moritaka. I suppose fans and some folk in the music scene know him well. I read a discussion of him and the band YOU. It seems the band was working on a second album in 1982 but they encountered some trouble during the recording with the director (or producer), who didn’t organize things very well and walked out before it was finished. Some tracks for the album were made and it seems Hideo Saito put them together for a soundtrack to the 1983 Hong Kong documentary ”Moe yo! Kung Fu” (This is Kung Fu), which briefly features a young Jet Li. This is Kung Fu (1983)
The soundtrack is available at Discogs. By the way, the drummer on YOU - Picky Slicker is Hideo’s younger brother Ryo.

There are only a few videos of him on YouTube. Here is a fairly recent one with him giving a review (in English) of a Fostex mixer.

Here’s another with Hideo Saito playing guitar on “Twilight Stream” with Minoru Mukaiya and Keizo Nakanishi.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much @Lute ! I knew you would be a treasure chest of info on this guy. I am more interested rather than obsessed about him, every few years I do the usual searching to see what I could find as I figured him to be a low profile hero of J pop. I don't remember seeing that entry on wiki... mainly searching all I kept turning up was the classical musician. Now about five years ago I ran across a interview with his name in regard to a singing cat group. Really? Is this the same Saito I was looking for? Yes as referenced your wiki link, indeed it was:

The Musashi's.

His list of collaborations was impressive indeed. I have sampled the video links & will watch them all the way through in the Bassment tonight. I'm not a big martial arts fan but I will try seek out this is Kung Fu at some point.

Thanks again for the research & info!
 
Sonik Wiz said:
Thank you so much @Lute ! I knew you would be a treasure chest of info on this guy. I am more interested rather than obsessed about him, every few years I do the usual searching to see what I could find as I figured him to be a low profile hero of J pop. I don't remember seeing that entry on wiki... mainly searching all I kept turning up was the classical musician. Now about five years ago I ran across a interview with his name in regard to a singing cat group. Really? Is this the same Saito I was looking for? Yes as referenced your wiki link, indeed it was:

The Musashi's.

His list of collaborations was impressive indeed. I have sampled the video links & will watch them all the way through in the Bassment tonight. I'm not a big martial arts fan but I will try seek out this is Kung Fu at some point.

Thanks again for the research & info!
Click to expand...
I enjoyed looking into the background and music of Hideo Saitō, and Chisato Moritaka. I am once again reminded of all the people (songwriters, studio musicians, recording engineers, etc…) that we rarely see but have helped fill our lives with wonderful music.

That cat band is funny. Actually, I am not surprised to hear about Hideo and those cats. I checked out his twitter and instagram posts. They are mostly short, home videos of his pet dogs. Well, no one ever said going to the dogs couldn’t be fun. LOL!!

And what about that other Hideo Saitō? It turns out he was quite a big thing in the world of classical music in Japan... a kind of godfather of classical music in Japan. As well as being a talented musician and conductor, he founded one of the premiere music schools in Japan. He was also the teacher of Seiji Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, etc…
https://interlude.hk/forgotten-cellists-ix-hideo-saito/
 
J. PUPSTER said:
The President of Sony bestowed on Kenny (of South Park) the title of Japanese Princess for Black Friday console wars- kind of catchy

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Good find, Jeff! It is a catchy tune & the concept of Kenny the Princess is hilarious. Sony has had some very clever ads over the years. Remember this one:



Japanese TV commercials should be classified as their own life form. At anime cons it's SRO when there's a 2 hour presentation of nothing but J commercials. One of my favorites I still get a kick out is for windows 7:



Jeez, I mean even their friggin' computer commercials are more fun than ours.
 
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