9/23/2019 Singles And Strikes Denki Groove RARE
Welcome Plastics, the title song was. All the YEN label material including rare singles were reissued on a pair of massive and now out of. Sex Symbol Strikes.
My neck is killing me and my brain is broken but if I don’t write about stupid Japanese synthpop that literally no one on earth cares about, WHO WILL? Shohjo-Tai I’ve been working here in Japan for nearly five years now, time flies. But in that time, I’ve rarely had any of my students recommend any music worth a damn to me. Very early on, someone suggested Capsule, and I got way into them. But most of the time, in the rare cases that students do want to talk about Japanese music, they only bother recommending acts like Mr. Children or Yellow Monkey, who are both fine bands I guess, but just sound like bland rock to me: Japanese Coldplays.
But I was teaching an adorable housewife a few weeks ago who knew that I dig older music, and she was all excited to recommend to me this band. She explained to me that her friends who like “techno-pop” all like this group, even though they never registered any major hits.
She assumed I would like them too. And she was very much correct. Shohjo-Tai somehow released eight albums/EPs in just five years. The general consensus seems to be that their best release is From S, a mini-album that features an assist from Haruomi Hosono and Koshi Miharu. Of course, that one’s a bit harder to find so I haven’t picked it up yet. I did find some good stuff though, especially the tracks from this single, which originally came out in 1985. Both “Forever 2001” and “Flamingo Island” are hella fun, bouncy tracks that probably weren’t hits only for the fact that the Japanese singles market was absolutely flooded with tracks like them at the time.
The instrumentation is fantastic on both of those tracks, synthesizer saturation all the way, but with some depth as well. “Forever 2001” features some pretty solid guitar, and “Flamingo Island” is booming with dope bass. This single was produced by Akihiro Shigematsu, a person whose name I had not heard before. According to Discogs, he didn’t do much, but that might just be because his page lacks his full production discography. Hell, he’s not even credited on Discogs with this release. One fairly notable artist he did work with was Junko Ohashi, another lesser-known idol of the 80s whose work has vaulted back into the spotlight thanks to that strange “City Pop” resurgence. The final track of the three, “Space Magic” is a bit different than the first two.
It’s a dance track first and foremost, with the vocals almost secondary. When I first heard it, I was reminded of Koshi Miharu, so I wasn’t surprised to find that she did, in fact, write and arrange the track. It’s a fantastic tune, and could be mistaken for a YMO b-side thanks to its excellent production and electronic arrangements. The girls of Shohjo-Tai are actually barely present on it, just showing up for a smidge of vocals halfway through and then again at the end. It almost sounds like an instrumental remix of another track, but I can’t find one with more vocals anywhere, so I guess this is it. If you dig this music and want more Shohjo-Tai, check out YouTube, people have uploaded a lot of their best stuff there.
And if I can ever get my hand on From S, you bet your butt I’ll be sharing it here. Gimme that Hosono. Seona Dancing I can’t believe I found this in a used records bin for 300 yen. This thing goes for close to a $100 online these days.
That’s of course, not because of the song’s quality (which I’ll get to in a bit) but because of the new romantic looking dude on the right. That would be Rick Gervais.
As I’m sure many of you know, Seona Dancing was Gervais’ early attempt at stardom, but they only managed to release less than a handful of failed singles before fading into obscurity (save for the Philippines, where they are legendary one-hit-wonders). Do a YouTube search of the group and you’ll uncover countless uploads of their few songs, as well as bits from various talk shows where the hosts drudge out clips from the group in an effort to embarrass Gervais, who has no doubt long gotten sick of the joke by now. I wonder if any of the talk show hosts who play these clips realize that the few songs that Seona Dancing put out were, actually not that bad? Sure, they’re very dated and not entirely original, but that goes for a lot of fantastic music from that era.
You’re going to tell me that “More To Lose” is somehow an embarrassing relic while songs of similar quality by B-tier acts like General Public, Spandau Ballet, or any other act featured on a John Hughes soundtrack are any better? “More To Lose” should’ve been a hit. It has a fantastic feel of melancholy, the opening piano melody is a hell of a hook, and Gervais’ early-80s Bowie impersonation is spot on. For me, it’s evocative of “Don’t You Forget About Me,” only slightly less epic and far less annoying. (The only people who are more sick of that song than me are Simple Minds.) “You’re On My Side” isn’t as good, and a far more obvious Bowie knock-off.
It’s way too minimal, with zero hooks. It’s just some drum beats, two keys on a keyboard, and Gervais’ howling, which is where the faults in his voice become a bit more glaring. Still though, is it any worse than any other mid-level synthpop song of the time? There are dozens of rips of these tracks online, but most are: A) On YouTube and B) sound overly compressed or scratchy. I’m sure I’m not the first person to provide high-quality rips of these online, but I must be the first person in a while, as I can’t find any right now. I doubt that it’s going to get re-released anytime soon. Someone I was talking to on Twitter suggested that Gervais’ is crazy for keeping this out-of-print.
But I highly doubt that he owns these tracks. London Records (now part of Universal I believe) probably has better things to do than pull this one out of the cellar, even if they could find the masters, which I doubt.
And maybe with Gervais’ recent move to “I’m going to offend you AAAAAH” style of comedy, maybe they just don’t want to deal with any baggage a re-release might entail. Shame, it’s one of the best things that edgelord asshole ever did. Update: Okay I know yinz mean well by pointing out the other blog that has these songs. And I’m not mad at anyone who did that.
But that other blog posts often posts (not so good) rips of legally available music. Additionally, that other blog routinely PLAGIARIZES written content without proper attribution. I refuse to link to them, or name. I hope it burns to the ground. I’m still waist-deep in my synthesizer/prog kick, and I expect I’ll be swimming in sequencers for quite a long time if I keep discovering lost masterpieces like this.
Zygoat As I’ve no doubt mentioned before on this blog, most early synthesizer work was very simplistic because of the limitations of the technology. Early synthesizers were monophonic, they could only create one sound at a time. That means complex, well-arranged releases like Wendy Carlos’ legendary Switched-On Bach were comprised of seemingly endless dubs and layers, a terrifyingly complex process. While Carlos rose above these rather strict limitations, most others did not, leading to some two-dimensional, if still fun, recordings. This is definitely not the case with Zygoat, a record filled with so many over-the-top and complex arrangements that it’s downright manic. It’s a good example of just how quickly synthesizer technology progressed in the six years between the 1968 release of Switched-On Bach and this record, which came out in 1974.
The sound here is just so unique that it’s hard to describe. There are definitely multiple synths at work here, some providing a fuzzy, distorted sound, while other give a cleaner, more symphonic, presentation.
Most of the sounds themselves don’t sound entirely unique, I’m sure I’ve heard other records from the era using most of these settings and configurations. What makes Zygoat really stand out is just the tone of it all. It starts out rather basic, not too far removed from something you might hear from Tomita or even Carlos’ early work, but things escalate quickly, the pace picks up, and the record just explodes. Solos reminiscent of violin concertos (or classical guitar riffs) take dominance, as a barrage of out-of-this-world rhythms and backing harmonies accompany them. Fans of Stardrive might make a comparison with those legendary albums, but while Stardrive was funk, and while this certainly has funk elements, there’s a lot more going on here.
I guess what really gets me about this album is the pace. It has its slow spots, including an extended section where the tones are distorted and drawn out in a way that almost makes the synthesizers sound drunk (it’s pretty odd) the most memorable pieces of this album are the sections that work at a breakneck pace.
When this album is firing on all cylinders, it’s just beyond words. Zygoat is the brainchild of one man, a Burt Alcantara, but it’s nearly impossible to find out anything about him. According to Discogs this is the man’s only real release.
The only mentions I find of him online are brief, and there appears to be no interview of him proper. What the hell became of this dude? One of the few mentions I can find of Burt is in this interview with Brian Hodgson, who also worked on this album to some extent. Hodgson is a name that some of you might recognize, especially if you’re a Dr. He was the man behind many of that show’s electronic sounds, including the iconic Daleks.
After leaving the BBC, he went on to work on a few pioneering electronic albums, including fantastic works by White Noise and Wavemaker. He’s not credited by name here, but the album was recorded at his Electrophon Studios, so I imagine he was involved somewhat, if only tangentially.
I really wanted to pin down exactly what synthesizers were used in the making of this record, but that proved to be a bit tricky too. The back cover simply states that album was made using “ARP and RSE Synthesizers,” but it doesn’t go into any detail about make or model numbers. And, despite my interest in synthesizers from the era, I’m not very good at identifying them by ear.
I would imagine that the ARPs that were used here were some variation of the 2500 though, as that was the big gun in the ARP line-up at the time. There might be an ARP String Ensemble at use here as well, which was one of the first polyphonic synths they produced. What interests me more is the “RSE synthesizer” part of that credit, as I’ve never heard of that line of synths before.
A quick scour through Google doesn’t turn up much either. All I could find was a brief mention in the book Analog Synthesizers, by one Mark Jenkins, where he says that the RSE model was a custom build by someone named Ken Gale, who worked at Electrophon. Other than that, I got zilch on that dude. I wonder what other albums feature these custom units, and if they sound anything like Zygoat. So we got an unknown by unknown artists featuring unknown technology.
I live for this shit and I hope you do too. In a year where I’ve uncovered so many fantastic obscure records (at least, to me they’re fantastic), this one might stand out as the absolute best of the bunch. Damn essential work for any synth fanatic out there.
I really did try to break this one up into individual tracks, but, even the track times of this record are unknown. And since most of the tracks segue together pretty flawlessly, I couldn’t even begin to tell when most of them ended and began.
I thought it would be best just to leave them as is. Hope that doesn’t bother anyone. And, as is always the case with this bafflingly obtuse obscurities, if you know anything about anyone at all who even had a remote connection to it, please let me know! I’m dying to find out more about this one! Last week I covered half of the 1988 Japanese alt-rock compilation The Brain Solution by focusing on the songs from the album by the groups Joy and Bardo Thodol. While not pop acts by any stretch of the imagination, both of them had a sound that was at least partially rooted in the commercial. Joy’s tracks had a groovy psychedelic bent that would’ve fit in totally fine in the British 60s-revival scene of the time, or possibly in the Paisley Underground.
And Bardo Thodol was just doing a damn good Cocteau Twins impersonation, and the Cocteau Twins are good so there you go. These groups are decidedly less commercial in every sense of the word. While I’m bummed that Joy and Bardo Thodol never broke through into any mainstream success or got enough exposure to even warrant a full-length album release, I can get why these bands didn’t make it big. They sound odd, noncommercial and jarring now. I can only imagine how they came across in 1988. Also, one of them has the worst band name I’ve ever heard, but I’ll get that in a minute.
Gakidou I don’t know what to call this type of music. As out-of-my-element that I was when talking about Bardo Thodol, I’m doubly so here.
I’m going to go with industrial/goth. These dudes dug Skinny Puppy no doubt. This is electronic rock music, focusing primarily on loops, drum machines and scary noises. “Voice Of Psychoprogram” has a groove to it. I could imagine myself dancing to that at a club’s goth night. But the second track is just a slog of a slog. The vocalizations literally sound like someone vomiting repeatedly.
I don’t know what they were going for. But hey, it’s unique so I’ll give them that much. According to Discogs, this group has released several independent albums, but I don’t know if I trust that page entirely. It says all their albums came out in 2014 and 2015, nearly 30 years after their first single release. I suspect that this might be a case of there being two bands with the same name accidentally getting lumped into one page.
That, or the band never broke up and discovered the joys of independent distribution 30+ years into their career. Stranger things have happened. Regardless, it’s kind of hard for me to dig into more information into this band, thanks to their incredibly generic name. (Gakidou is a Japanese word for a type of supernatural being.) Katsurei Gakidou’s name is generic (especially for a goth band) but at least they didn’t go Katsurei’s route. Katsurei is Japanese for “circumcision.” Why the fuck would you name your band “circumcision?” Imagine the horrible sentences that band name generated: “Hey, you guys wanna go see Circumcision tonight?” “Yo, you should really check out Circumcision!” “That Circumcision show was amazing!” And would you want to buy a t-shirt that had “CIRCUMCISION” in a bold typeface? Shockingly enough, out of all the bands on The Brain Solution, they’re the ones who have seemingly found the greatest success. They released five albums throughout the later half of the 80s and into the 90s.
They’re 2010 reunion LP was released by the relatively big Japanese album P-Vine. They apparently are continuing to tour and make new music to this day. Say what you will about Circumcision, they certainly have staying power.
They’re actually not bad (kind of acoustic college rock), but unfortunately I am never going to hear any of their other songs ever. Because there’s no way in hell I’m walking into my local record store and asking for “Circumcision.” People here already think I’m weird, I don’t need that.
De De Mouse De De Mouse is a Japanese electronic musician whose been pumping out music for quite some time, but I only just recently discovered him. His past two albums Be Yourself and Dream You Up are fucking glorious dance records that seamlessly blend together glitch-IDM elements with four-on-the-floor disco beats and pure pulsing techno. Dude is my life right now. Almost all of his music is available on the American iTunes store, look it up and give it a listen, I can’t imagine that you’ll be disappointed if you’re in the mood for happy-fun dance music.
This shit is like candy it gets me going so much. They still make DDR here in Japan, if they put some of his tracks in it that would get me back in the arcade for sure. I’ve been wanting to share his music for some time, but like I said, almost all of his music can be bought legally in the states, so I was hesitant to. Fortunately, his latest album came with an extra one-track bonus CD only available at Tower Records.
You can’t grab that in the states, and I highly doubt that I’m cutting drastically into his sales by sharing it here tonight. “Glass Of Heart” is a fantastic example of the De De Mouse sound, distorted vocal samples layered upon wonderful booming beats and an infectious upbeat energy that reminds me of the best late-70s disco and 80s house had to offer. It’s a mish-mash of everything that I love in dance music. Bombastic and beautiful all at the same time. God damn it’s good. Inoyama Land I’ve only written about this group once, all the way back in 2014.
They’re an ambient duo who were signed to YMO’s Yen Records label back in the 80s. Their first album, 1983’s Danzindan-Pojidon is one of my favorite ambient records, very chill while still managing to hold my interest with enough melodies and hooks, a very delicate balance that most ambient acts can’t manage very well. They’ve put out a few other albums since then, one as recent as this year. But I think that most of them are compilations of unreleased or live material, or reworkings of past tracks.
Additionally, none of them really hold a candle to that first release, which is just light years beyond anything else they ever put out. Of course, of all their records, their first and their best was the one that was out-of-print the longest. In recent years I saw it going for well over a hundred bucks on either CD or LP. Thankfully, it’s back in print, and with a new remaster to boot!
Just like the De De Mouse record prior, some locations selling this CD are including a bonus CD with a single bonus track, this one a live rendition of the 1983 album’s opening number. Give it a listen, and if it’s at all something that you think you might be into, consider tracking down a that first album now that’s it’s a little easier (and a hell of a lot cheaper) to get a hold of. It’s even on iTunes too!
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All this Japanese music becoming available on US digital marketplacessuch a weird thing. There’s so much horrible ambient music out there (shit, even Inoyama Land have released more of their fair share of it) so when honest-to-goodness great ambient music comes along, I always want to do my best to get the word out. As I get older and more stressed out, I find myself drawn to this stuff more and more.
I guess that’s kind of a stereotype? I don’t know or don’t care if it is. I just know that my brain is broken and this stuff can be a band-aid on occasion. I guess they call it healing music for a reason. I dunno, Motorhead can heal me too, it’s just a different kind of medicine.
Aretha Franklin Like most anyone who grew up in the 80s, my first exposure to Aretha Franklin was in The Blues Brothers, quickly followed by this massive hit single from 1985. In the days after her death, I saw a few “best of” Aretha lists on various publications, but not many people mentioned this song. I assume they think it hasn’t aged well? I’m no Aretha expert, I own a single album of hers and a greatest hits. But this has always been one of my favorite songs of the era, it’s the type of fun, bouncy track that could’ve only been produced in the 80s.
It’s 80s synth funk-pop is the best. When you toss out that phrase most people (of course) think of Prince and Michael, but they were far from the only people in the 80s who successfully fused 70s disco and funk with 80s dance and synthpop. There’s Aretha here, and let’s not forget Tina Turner, who scored the biggest hits of her career when she melded her classic sound with uber-sleek 80s production. And what about The Pointer Sisters?
Break Out, their synthesizer-fueled magnum opus, is one of the greatest dance albums of all-time, I stand by that. This sound died quick once the 90s hit, and I feel like it only recently made even the slightest comeback. “Uptown Funk” tapped into it, but it was kind of a false start. Not much came in the wake of that, save for Bruno trying to replicate it with his solo work (which is alright I guess). I blame Trump. We were on our way to a full-on dance-pop revolution and then that orange piece of rotten smegma got elected and pop music got horribly depressed (and heyditto).
I guess most people don’t want to boogie when the world is on fire. I need to boogie! I get that everything is shit and it feels like nothing is ever going to be good ever again. And in times like this, more emotional, downbeat music is of course going to be more popular. And protest or angry music is going to have a place too (I wish it had more of a place, to be honest). But let’s not forget to have fun, people!
Pop music is so dour right now, hip-hop is emo as fuck, indie rock is tweeing itself to death, and mainstream rock is still stuck in a 2000s post-grunge slump that I think it’ll never get out of. Fun music still has a place in today’s decidedly unfun world. You can fight the power, campaign for social justice, be aware of how shitty the world is and listen to fun music now and then. The 80s wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops y’know, but we still kicked it to dope jams like this.
Crank this tune. Listen to Aretha sing about men in tight pants. Take in that dope sax solo by Clarence Clemens, as well as the vocal harmonies of Sylvester and Jeanie Tracy, and remember that it’s okay to have fun once and a while, even if the music of today doesn’t always let you. Japanese Electric Foundation The Japanese Electric Foundation was a one-off project comprised of several Japanese musicians, the most notable of them being Hiroshi Matsuda and Hideyuki Nozawa, who are both in the Japanese megagroup Southern All-Stars. Southern All-Stars are a ridiculously big deal here in Japan, probably the biggest rock band of all-time. Bigger than YMO, bigger than Mr. Children, bigger than X Japan.
They’ve been around for 40 years and have more hit singles than any band ever. I don’t like them. I think they’re kind of boring. But hey what do I know? Anyways, I didn’t know that this was a SAS side-project when I bought it, I just gave it a quick listen at the record store because of the name (I misread it as “electronic” and assumed technopop or new wave). It’s actually reminiscent of the Madchester scene of the late-80s, which is really incredible considering this came out in 1986, well before most notable Madchester releases by acts like The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses dropped.
I think the sonic similarities are just a coincidence. Madchester is psychedelic electronic rock music. This is electronic-influenced covers of psychedelic pop music from the 60s and 70s, so the commonalities make sense. There are non-covers on this album, but to be honest they’re the weaker tracks, sounding much more like generic Japanese rock music of the era. I prefer these covers by far.
As far the original versions go, you probably know “Green Tambourine,” the psych-classic by The Lemon Pipers. You also most likely know “Don’t You Care,” which was originally performed by The Buckinghams (trust me, you know it). Finally, there’s “Open My Eyes” which was originally a Nazz song, Nazz being the psychedelic group fronted by Todd Rundgren.
I vaguely recognize the original, but for me it’s the most obscure of the three, it’s also the best of the bunch, really good arrangement. The psychedelic pop music of America and the UK was hugely influential for Japanese musicians, even leading the way for an entire genre of music in Japan that was known as “group sounds,” which was Western style rock music meshed with Japanese pop music from the 60s. Go to YouTube and check out The Spiders if you want to hear some of that.
The Southern All-Stars were never a “group sounds” band, but they were no doubt influenced by them, and I have to imagine that played a big part in this side-project of theirs choosing the cover songs that directly led to that genre. Also Todd Rundgren is fucking huge in Japan so there’s that. I wish they would’ve kept this group up for a bit. The original tunes aren’t great, but who cares? The covers are so original and fun that they more than make up for it.
And who knows? With a bit more influence from the burgeoning Madchester scene, this group really could’ve been something. Or they could’ve just given us an entire LP of Rundgren covers, who’s to say. Sorry for the lack of posts for the past two weeks. I place blame on a variety of factors, including a heavy work load, heat-induced malaise, and various other minor health annoyances. Although I guess most of those would be bullshit reasons next to my recent obsessive playing of Dead Cells.
I could’ve written a novel with the time I sunk into that game last week. I guess I’m saying that recommend it if you want a really good excuse to procrastinate and accomplish literally nothing with your life. But I thought I would take a back from the procedurally-generated nonsense and give you some gay disco.
Beckie Bell Saw this 12″ single in a record store a few weeks back and was about to pass it up when I noticed that “PATRICK COWLEY” was written on the label in all caps, followed by a bunch of kanji I couldn’t even begin to read. From what I found online, “Super Queen” features synthesizer work by the Hi-NRG master, although with the caveat of it being uncredited.
I’m liable to believe it, why would someone make that up after all, but how do we know it was him? Anyone out there care to present corroboration to back up this claim? The b-side is “Johnnie’s Home,” which is a radically different tune to “Super Queen.” While the A-side is a marvel of Hi-ENRG sequences and beats, “Johnie’s Home” is just weird. It’s part doo-wop and part reggae almost, with a strong synthesizer bent. It’s like if The Shrielles, The Ronettes, and UB40 did a mash-up.
Does that make it sound bad? Because it’s not, it’s just a little out there. I bought this track because of Cowley, but the songs are by Beckie Bell, who released her first album back in 1980, and put out a follow-up some 14 years later. That original album must have a following, as vinyl copies can seemingly go for over $100. CDs are much cheaper, if you’re interested.
I’ve never heard of Bell before I bought this single, but it turns out that I have heard her voice since she worked as a session player throughout a good chunk of the 80s and 90s. She’s one Duran Duran’s Big Thing, The One by Elton John, and even shows up on a few records by Celine Dion. The career paths of incredibly talented sessions players will never cease to amaze me. I put up where I talk about walking around Tokyo at 6:00 am and listening to Yes (two of my favorite things). It’s a bit different, but if you read it and like it let me know, I plan on writing more things like it in the future. Also a quick request.
Anyone out there have any experience with app development for the Android? I recently upgraded to the new Samsung Galaxy. I love it, but Samsung removed a few key features from their photo editor that I really like, mostly just some simple filters/effects. If anyone out there would know how to put new filters into the Samsung Photo Editor, I would make it worth their while (i.e. I would pay actual money). Now three very long songs.
Adelbert Von Deyen There are a lot of holes in my musical knowledge. For example, I still have never listened to a My Bloody Valentine album (I know I know, leave me alone). Another big gap, especially for someone with musical tastes like mine, is that I’ve never taken a deep dive in the more well-known krautrock acts. I love Harmonia and have most of their albums, and I’ve spoken in length about Tangerine Dream in the past, but I still don’t own much Amon Duul (I or II), Neu!, Cluster, Moebius, and so on. That’s probably why I had never heard of Sky Records until recently. Sky was one of the major labels of the Krautrock/Berlin School movement, most notably putting out the Cluster/Eno collaborations of the late-70s.
I’m becoming a fan of the label now, having realized that a lot of the old Germn prog/electronic music I’ve been buying lately (mainly reissues by Harald Grosskopf and Tyndall) was originally put out by them back in the 70s and 80s. Even among Sky Records artists, I think that Adelbert Von Deyen is relatively obscure, if prolific. He pumped out nine albums between 1978 and 1987, but most of those remain unreleased digitally or on CD. I’ve only managed to stumble upon Nordborg, his 1978 sophomore effort. Very much in the Klaus Schulze style, it is just two longform pieces, one on each side.
The first track, “Moonrise,” is super avant-garde and ambient, with nary a melody, rhythm or motif to be found. It’s purely soundscapes and sonic experimentation.
It’s not for everyone. This track, however, is a tad more digestible, complete with a steady beat and beautiful piano sections. I love this stuff. Mick Clarke Mick Clarke strikes me as a guy who rolls with the punches.
A Brit, Games, his first album was recorded in Germany in the krautrock style on the minor German label Blubber Lips. Since then, he’s seemingly dipped his hands in nearly every electronic music style I can think of, from new wave and synthpop to hardcore techno and house music, releasing music with various groups and under a number of aliases.
I’m not familiar with his work at all, but it does appear that his new wave group Naked Lunch, has some degree of notoriety among the more die-hard synth enthusiasts out there. This is the first track from Games, clocking in at over 17 minutes and taking up the entirety of the album’s first side.
It’s split into two distinct parts. The first half is very ambient, with an emphasis on textures and effects instead of strong melodies. The second part shifts focus to sequencer patterns, with a slightly dark edge to them. It’s like Tangerine Dream but a little menacing. Of these three songs I’m sharing today, this is the most noisy. The LP had some dust and other damage I couldn’t remove physically or digitally.
It gets better after the first minute or so though. Sorry about that. Sangiuliano I don’t know if it’s accurate to call Sangiuliano the “weirdest” of this bunch. All three of these guys are quite out there, but I feel it’s safe to say that, of these three artists, his music is the least typical.
Instead of following in the Berlin School/krautrock styles of Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream or Cluster, Sangiuliano seemed far more content to combine his electronic musical leanings with classical influences. His pieces sounds like concertos from space. Everything about his music seems to be intent on copying classical orchestrations entirely with synthetic instrumentation.
A symphony with a choir could perform this piece and it wouldn’t sound that out of the ordinary from other classical pieces, until it goes full synth at the end with an explosion of sequencers. Sangiuliano never released another album, although he allegedly recorded one that ended up shelved by his record company. According to his Discogs page, he’s now a radio personality in his native Italy.
Wonder if he kept the hair. This blog is intended to shine light on music that has been unjustly lost through the years. If you can find the stuff here, buy it.
Songs are only available for a limited time. If you own the copyright to anything here, email me at lostturntable AT yahoo DOT com and I will have them removed.
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RANT For the love of God don't leave random requests in my comment section. If I have it, I'll post it here eventually, nothing you say is going to make me buy a record you're too damn lazy to find yourself. Finally, DO NOT LINK DIRECTLY TO ANY OF MY FILES. Old Posts Old Posts. Search.
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