The Music of Japan.

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That's probably because it's in Japanese :)
Google translation...

"T-SQUARE alpha" started its activities as a unit form of Takeshi Itoh and Satoshi Bandoh 44 years after his professional debut in 1978. The name T-SQUARE alpha has the meaning of plus alpha that something is added freely to the next. This album has wonderful support members and guests who deserve such a name. Japan's world-class top jazz guitarist Kazumi Watanabe (Gt), ally Hirokuni Korekata (Gt), Masato Honda (Sax), who will participate in T-SQUARE for the first time in more than 20 years, and Keiji Matsumoto ( Key). Furthermore, as Japan's top horn section, Eric Miyashiro (Tp), Koji Nishimura (Tp), Eijiro Nakagawa (Tb), Nobuhide Handa (Tb) who lead the Blue Note Tokyo Jazz Orchestra. Rock-solid support members indispensable for T-SQUARE Shingo Tanaka (Ba), Akito Shirai (Key), Yudai Sato (Key). In addition, there are already a lot of great young musicians in attendance. There is no doubt that this album, in which the top musicians in Japan are participating, is suitable for the new T-SQUARE! Comes with a Blu-ray (contents undecided).

With all that translating, JP, I was referring to the contents of the included BD~V ..... which at the end clearly states "Contents Undecided" .... Is it a concert video or a BD~A containing the album in 5.1....or both?
 
Japanese music is great! It's also profoundly expensive thanks to Japan's music industry pricing physical media as a luxury product (which ensures artists get paid well). I'll second the Harry Hosono/YMO recommendation, but also add the INCREDIBLE Japanese ambient scene from 1980-90.

One of... the weirdest things about social media these days is a lot of platforms have entrusted a Neural Network AI to come up with video recommendations to keep people on the platform. A few years back Youtube's started to recommend obscure Japanese ambient and jazz albums to people, which has caused a small mini boom for reissue labels like Light in the Attic, and (the label with the greatest name of all time) We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want.

There's even a good primer box set by Light in the Attic called Kankyō Ongaku (Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990) (worth noting, the vinyl version has the most tracks, the CD version with the second most tracks, and the streaming version having the least. See note about Japan's music industry).

I'd like to call out in particular:
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Green (or really any of his albums, they're all great)
Inoyamaland - Danzindan-Pojidon
The works of Joe Hisaishi, best known for composing the soundtracks to nearly every Studio Ghibli movie (and there's quite a bit of his music in Atmos on AM)
Kenji Kawai - Ghost in the Shell OST
Osamu Sato (this one's a rabbit hole. Visual/computer artist that branched out into games, making one of the weirdest, and secretly most influentual PS1 games LSD: Dream Emulator. There's like 5-6 albums of material from that game, all worth checking out, and a few other albums that are unrelated. He's kinda a Japanese Aphex Twin)
Ryo Fukui - Scenery
Miharu Koshi & Harry Hosono Jr. as the band "Swing Slow" - s/t (has a new 2022 mix recently released. A bit divisive as it axes one song, and adds 3 others, as well as adding new effects. I like both versions and have paid the princely sum to preorder the vinyl for the 2022 mix)

Outside of the Jazz and ambient scene, I wanna highlight two more artists:

Nujabes, the pseudonym of Jun Seba, who was like the Japanese J Dilla, making mellow Jazz influenced hip hop beats. The similarities don't end there: they were both born on the same day, and both died tragically young.

and Fishmans (not to be confused with Phish or their drummer Jon Fishman), a genre bending dub/rock/ambient/electronic group I discovered through RateYourMusic.com. In a similar situation, Fishmans is no more, as the lead Shinji Sato died about 3 months after their last show in a farewell tour for their drummer. That show, 98.12.28 男達の別れ (98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare) [rough translation: A Man's Farewell] is ranked as the 18th best album of all time on RYM. Also great are their studio albums, in which I'd recommend Uchu Nippon Setagaya and the mind blowing Long Season (which they play in full as the last song in that live album)
I second that emotion for Long Season by Fishmans . . . one of my desert island selections
https://www.allmusic.com/album/long-season-mw0002857649
 
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I second that emotion for Long Season by Fishmans . . . one of my desert island selections
https://www.allmusic.com/album/long-season-mw0002857649

The latter link you shared is available in 5.1, btw.

Not… very spectacular 5.1, mind you, but on the FIRST run of DVD releases of the video of that performance (and only the first, the rest cut the second disc), a second disc with a DTS 5.1 mix of the whole show (including stage banter not included in the audio release (and which I do not understand)).

Paid like $50-odd the other month for it from eBay.
 
With all that translating, JP, I was referring to the contents of the included BD~V ..... which at the end clearly states "Contents Undecided" .... Is it a concert video or a BD~A containing the album in 5.1....or both?

I found an image of the back cover online here. Translated, it seems to be a BD-25 that runs 20 (if I can read that number correctly) minutes, and be an album recording video and band interviews. Audio is 48/24 LPCM 2.0 only.

It also seems that the band uploaded the same content as a YouTube video:

 
I find this one pretty damn fun - and in Quad no less (CDX-14) :rocks

木田林松栄ドラムス 石川晶とカウント・バッファローズ
Tsugaru-Jamisen Vs Drums




1654716303308.png
 


aiko- 『カブトムシ』(Kabutomushi)


Thanks! That was a beautiful ballad with a beautiful voice. Yet another artist mentioned here that I wasn't aware & I wonder: how did I miss this?

I checked out CD Japan & found Doshitatte Tsutaerarenaikara CD with a Blu-ray disc of her live performance. It looks like the deluxe edition with sticker & poster or what ever is sold out but the 2 disc combo is till in stock. At a reasonable price. I will most likely order that in a few minutes. Oh & who knows how much ,ore $$ will be spent as I shop around.

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/PCCA-15003?s_ssid=e360d562a89f86d8a1
 
Thanks! That was a beautiful ballad with a beautiful voice. Yet another artist mentioned here that I wasn't aware & I wonder: how did I miss this?

I checked out CD Japan & found Doshitatte Tsutaerarenaikara CD with a Blu-ray disc of her live performance. It looks like the deluxe edition with sticker & poster or what ever is sold out but the 2 disc combo is till in stock. At a reasonable price. I will most likely order that in a few minutes. Oh & who knows how much ,ore $$ will be spent as I shop around.

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/PCCA-15003?s_ssid=e360d562a89f86d8a1
That Bluray has gotten a lot of positive reviews. It should be a good one. And I hadn‘t realized all those albums of Aiko were available on SACD, albeit only stereo. Lots of tempting stuff. :love:
 
COWBOY
BEBOP

- NETFLIX SOUNDTRACK 48X24
Just finished a nice 5.1 up-mix from Qobuz files via Penteo and RX 8 stem extraction (y) 😂

From Yoko Kanno and her ensemble comprising both a stable lineup of musicians and various collaborators named Seatbelts.
A spectacular mix of Techno Jazz/Funk music that up-mixes very nicely.

I am really bummed out that this show got cancelled after only one season; I guess the production costs may have been too much against what the ratings were or something similar 🤷‍♂️

folder.jpg
 
COWBOY
BEBOP

- NETFLIX SOUNDTRACK 48X24
Just finished a nice 5.1 up-mix from Qobuz files via Penteo and RX 8 stem extraction (y) 😂

From Yoko Kanno and her ensemble comprising both a stable lineup of musicians and various collaborators named Seatbelts.
A spectacular mix of Techno Jazz/Funk music that up-mixes very nicely.

I am really bummed out that this show got cancelled after only one season; I guess the production costs may have been too much against what the ratings were or something similar 🤷‍♂️

View attachment 82121
I really like it as well, annoyed when they canned it.
 
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