On yesterday's Brian Turner show (http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/13326) I heard a few very good songs by Japanese musicians. I hereby request their names in kanji, should there be any, so that I can look for their music on Share or WinNY, or any kind of websites that serve mp3s of them:
Any help is going to be appreciated.
Kazuki Tomokawa is 友川かずき.
Tsumetaiikinomama is ツメタイイキノママ.
I use google, then I found their names.
I don't know more detailed information on them... m(__)m
Ah, thank you.
I don't seem to be able to find any of them online,
but I managed to order an album of Mr. Tomokawa.
Pricey (€ 22) and will ship in about two weeks,
but I think it will be worth it. I enjoy his
overly-melodramatic music very much!
Might want to start another thread in /music/ about this, but here's two songs I was able to find by Mr. Tomokawa. They are in the realmedia streaming format:
Kazuki Tomokawa Thank You For My Despair
http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=13326&archive=16992&starttime=0:03:36&endtime=0:07:10
Kazuki Tomokawa Track Three from the album Akai Polyan
http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=13332&archive=17004&starttime=2:26:43&endtime=2:28:38
You can order Kazuki Tomokawa's recent albums from www.fe.org or straight from PSF's website (which ends up being cheaper) www.psfrecords.org. Just recently PSF has released a new album by him as well as a DVD.
Kazuki Tomokawa is a very wonderful artist. You may enjoy another 70s acid folk/blues artist who still plays today, Kan Mikami. He too releases albums on PSF Records.
Both Kazuki Tomokawa and Kan Mikami have become underground favourites. I tend to like Kazuki Tomokawa more, but Kan Mikami has an equally dramatic and emotional voice. Both of them have also done some acting in the past; Kan Mikami shared the screen with David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Takeshi Kitano in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Kazuki Tomokawa is a rather well known for his poetry and beautiful art as well.
Some of Kazuki Tomokawa's early albums had musical arrangements by J.A. Seazer who many people know for his beautiful work on the Utena OST. My favourite album of his is 俺の裡で鳴り止まない詩. Not only does it feature amazing J.A. Seazer arrangements, but the lyrics are also taken from poems by the great Chuya Nakahara. His performance of "Circus" is incredible.
Tsumetaiikinomama is the new work of Kenichi "Idiot" Takayama. He was active throughout the 80s with his band Idiot O'Clock. He was the leader of Rasenkaidan in the late 70s which soon switched "ownership" and became the legendary noise band Hijokaidan. He has also contributed his wonderful playing to many bands of the Japanese psychedelic underground such as Halelujahs/Nagisa Ni Te.
Just thought maybe you'd be interested in a little bit more information.
If you're interested in this kind of music, you may enjoy browsing through http://www.ihurtnow.com/numbat/bbs/
Well, the CD didn't ship for whatever reason. And I do not have a credit card, so I cannot order from that site. Any idea on how to get myself a Tomokawa CD here in(to) Europe?
>>7
Did you try "http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/"?
I don't know whether they can ship CDs abroad, but
it doesn't hurt if you check out the website, does it?
They can ship abroad. I use AmazonJP very much.
So your problem was settled?
Well, I just came back from a long holiday and the CD is finally here, after three months!
It's pretty great and I am now trying to translate the titles of the track list as I found it on here:
http://www.interq.or.jp/www-user/kurenai/cd/cd2/akai.html
I could use a little help, though. I know virtually no Japanese and am doing this translation mostly by looking up the words or characters on http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/dict and http://excite.co.jp/world/english/ so I probably have made a lot of mistakes. If anyone wants to correct me here, please feel free to do so.
(First the original name in Japanese, then the romanization, then the translation as I thought it would be correct. "???" denotes utter cluelessness on my part):
1 赤いポリアン - Akai Polyan - Red Polyanthus
2 月夜の浜辺 - Tsukiyo No Hamabe - Beach on a Moonlit Night
3 この世を踊れ - Konoyo Odore (???) - ("To dance in the here and now"??? - I have no idea how the second part is inflected (imperative?), so: ???)
4 空のさかな−2000 - Kara No Sakana-2000 - Performance (Relish?) of Emptiness 2000
5 鬼と仏とあいや棲む - Oni ??? - Ogre and France and something ???
6 都会の夏の夜part2 - Yoru No Otsu No Tokai - Night in a Summer City
7 感愛集 - Kan Ai Shiyuu - Collection of Love Sensations
8 るりスズメ - Ruri Suzume - Lapis Lazuli Sparrow (???)
9 葛西善蔵 - Kuzu Nishi Zen Kura - (Something about zen, the west, arrowroots and treasuries - ???)
(I don't know who Tomokawa is.)
3 この世を踊れ - Konoyo wo Odore - To dance this life (or world)
4 空のさかな - Sora no Sakana - Fish in the sky
5 鬼と仏とあいや棲む - Oni to Hotoke to Aiyasumu(?) -
Oni - Ogre, Devil, etc.
Hotoke - literally means Buddha but perhaps Angel. (Hotoke implies someone who is very kind, generous, gentle, etc)
Aiyasumu - maybe separated into "Ai ya Sumu" in which case it means "(Ogre, Angel and) Love Live" though I'm not sure. Anyway it's rather poetic and difficult.
6 都会の夏の夜 - Tokai no Natsu no Yoru
9 葛西 善蔵 - Kasai Zenzo (first the family name, then the given name) - A man's name, who I didn't know. I google'd to find he was a writer around 80 years ago.