So, Julian Cope is going to publish this new book called “Japrocksampler” and…

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anhhh

Well-known member

I guess it could make for a beautiful discussion on the topic or the multiple tangents. To state the obvious, the book has the same structure as “Krautrocksampler” (the story of six big bands (really don’t know which six, the guys on the cover are The Flower Travellin Band, without doubt Les Rallizes Denudes and the rest is just speculation), that ends with some graphic material (photos, covers) and a big list with the best 50 records of the “movement”)).
Then, is this music as “big” as krautrock? It will be so life-changing as the other one? Was really so important any of this music or it’s just a rewriting of the story? Will go out of print as fast? Will it make move the critic’s canon? Or people will talk about how old is this guy and how good he was then?

And if people didn’t read the first one, I’ve got it in a PDF file, so…
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Rallizes, Flower Travelin Band, Fushitsusha are all phenomenal and extremely important groups. I'd guess that much of this book is going to be remixed from reviews and articles on headheritage but that's no bad thing. I look forward to it - Cope's enthusiasm is so infectious and again it's an undertold story.

Edit - Taj Mahal Travellers should be in there too of course.
 
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blubeat

blubeat

blubeat
Ah! I was never a fan of JC but his engineer was God. Hugoth Nicholson's remixes of JC's work was a taster the work that came later in his collabaroations with Andrew Weatherall. I dont think there was an AW track/remix I really loved after Hugo stopped producing for him.
 
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Tweak Head

Well-known member
Krautrocksampler is a classic. Cope's enthusiasm is indeed infectious. So much so that he oversells some of the bands IMHO, but it's a fantastic introduction to the genre. WIll definitely buy the Japrock book even though I suspect there's less in that scene that's as essential as the classics of krautrock.

Cope's autobiography is also a great read, especially the first volume, Head On. (Second vol, Repossessed, is a bit dull in large parts as it covers the period where he just holed himself away in his house in the Midlands with his wife and kids.)
 
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Chris

fractured oscillations
I imagine the interest sparked by this book might lead to some good reissues.... *crosses fingers*
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
the japanese stuff has always left me underwhelmed.

the boredoms for instance. i've (checks) 4 of their cds and much as i want to like them, it just never quite takes off.

i do have two (quite) nice masaki batoh records and a little fujishita as well, but again....a bit boring. not middlebrow enough? (to invoke a recent comment of sr's)
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
The four leaves of the lotus:

Les Rallizes Denudes - Live '77

Taj Mahal Travellers - August 1974

Fushitsusha - Double Live II (PSF 15/16)

Flower Travelin' Band - Satori
 
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anhhh

Well-known member
If I remember well, he doesn’t like at all Keiji Haino and his outfits (Lost Aarafat, Fushitsusha, etc.) so probably it wouldn’t be at the core of the book. Also I think there is a recurring theme between the two books. The subtitle is “How the post-war Japanese blew their minds on rock’n roll”, so that defines the time period a little. In “Krautrocksampler” he talks about the German youth, the generation that followed the one that fight in WWII and take rock, less or more, an American music as their musical language. How he manages to select which ones are “visionaries” or not, is problematic and probably only respond to subjective reasons. That problem was there in “Krautrocksampler” (see the recent article by mr. Ingram and the following thread here at Dissensus) and if the following links
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/550
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/465
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/525
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/839
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/330
http://headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/611
are any indication, remains in the new one.

Probably the social and historical context, apart from the music, will make it a fascinating read. Some of those groups lived in communes; other came from classic contemporary music, other one from theatre and happenings, and other was near terrorist groups or extreme politics. Far Out goes more into the prog-rock direction and space synth music, and Speed, Glue & Shinki, were quite dull (and had an American guy in their formation).
Probably Japrock is a wrong term that spring to mind associations with words as “Japanoise” or with groups of rawk’n roll playing with the volume over the top and closely related with a (boring) contemporaneous music movement instead of an historical one. Some of those groups made charming records and less unidirectional of what one could think at first, and the main thing may be not if they got the stature of the german bands but if there is the range of records and gems (and pleasures) that spread from other scenes.
 
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francesco

Minerva Estassi
i was searching info on FAR OUT and just in case anybody here is interested in bidding more than 1.200 $ for a copy of the album!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/FAR-OUT-s-t-JAP...Y_W0QQitemZ110125737758QQihZ001QQcmdZViewItem

obviously those records, like most krautrock and italoprog and french music concrete, were originally issued in small quantities and totally unsuccesfull, here the mad high price on collectors market (also some rich collectors stupid fetish for "original" first press).

I think also that, when reasoning about rock outside of English speaking countries, from where it evolved and have his roots, a process happened to bring often compelling, if a bit cold sounding, sonic results. A bit similar to what happened in others pop art forms, Spaghetti Western come to mind, here you have that you reshape a foreign art that you know only from the product you consume, but whose history is alien to your roots. Then (except obviously the poorly copycatting) take the bits you like, often the more visceral, expand on them and add to a certain degrees bits from your culture and sensibilities. The result is often something really abstract and over the top (quality may vary). Like krautrock or italoprog or norwegian blackmetal or, japrock. I really like this process, (maybe also because i'm not from anglo culture!).

Satori is great, really, and, even if i loathe downloading because is destroing the little records labels i love, here you go:
http://lysergia.blogspot.com/2006/05/flower-travellin-band-satori-1972.html

then if you love it enough to buy it, avoid the Radioactive pressing, is a bootleg, and go to Forced Exposure, they have of many japrock records the legal reissue from japan (often great also on packaging).
 
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Buick6

too punk to drunk
Thanks Chris!

You lunatics should listen to Les Rallizes Denudes, some of their stuff will explode your brain!

And some of the High Rise stuff is mind-blowing too. The Japs know how to push culture way over the edge.
 
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