Japanese Single of late 1960's

[Ray]

Greetings from UK

I am building a collection of singles from late 1960's early 1970's.

A record I wpould really like to track down was released in the UK in this period.

It featured a Samurai - type war chant which was interspersed by an enchanting and melodic children chorus. It was a great record but I cannot seem to find anyone who remembers it! Can anyone on the forum remember this?

Any help will be very appreciated. Any information if it is available on disc will be a real bonus !!!!

thanks

Ray

[thomas]

Hi Ray, and welcome to the forum!

Do you have more details? You mentioned samurai-like war chants, but which kind of style was that song? Anyhow, stay tuned, we might be able to help you.

[Ray]

Thomas

Thanks for the interest.

The song was a straight pop song released in the UK which started with a gruff war chant that broke into a sweet children chorus and then the gruff chant returned and so on. The song was sung in Japanese and by other research this morning looks most likely to have been released 10973 or 1974.

Ray

[thomas]

I'll ask my wife later tonight, she's a walking compendium of knowledge in regard to Jpop from the 60s and 70s.

Sorry for being so curious, but what are your favorites or preferences? How did you get interested in J-Oldies?

[Ray]

Thomas

This is the one that got away!

I liked the record when it was released and was going to buy it but just never got round to it. In discussion with other friends of a simiar age, naturally you start dredging up obscure records that each of you have 'forgotten' and this seems to stir incredible memories of the past. This was just one of those. But most people have no recollection of the record. This alone spurs you on to track it down. Like searching for the Holy Grail!

Since CDs have become cheaper and more mainstream, more and more record companies are releasing early 60's and 70's tracks and it is fabulous to update the old vinyl with new copies. Just bought the Phil Spector 4 CD boxed collection of all his sounds - brilliant.

So on and off for 30 years I have tried to track down this Japanese pop song - but without an artist and without a title, you can imagine it is nearly impossible. Your forum offers a hope that someone will remember it and at least I can then set off with something tangible.

If your wife can help, Thomas, I will be ever grateful.

warm regards

Ray

[Twisted]

The only band i can think of is the Sadistic Mika Band. Their debut album was released in the UK in 1973. They also released a few singles in the UK, but that was a in the summer of '75.
I don't know if any of these contained war-chants, I only have their third album Hot Menu, but it is straight pop.

Then there was also the band Can in that period. They had a Japanese singer called Kenji "Damo" Suzuki, but this was very avant-gardistic stuff and i don't think they were popular enough to reach the charts.

Peter

[Nahoko]

I don't know the Sadistic Mika Band very well, but I am sure that Peter's guess is correct. As usual... ;)

I have found a few related web sites:

http://www.bb.wakwak.com/~buggle/jroot.html (a discography in English and Japanese)

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip...9992/smbg1.htm (a photo gallery with their albums and singles)

http://www08.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/za2...o/smb1973.html (another comprehensive discography in Japanese)

http://www.algonet.se/~jonwar/takahashi-sadistic.html (discography in English)

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip...3/jpfe.htm#SMB

[deborah gormley]

I'v also asked my husband who is a great lover of all types of music and can remember titles, band names ect but he's having a problem with this one, he will continue to have a think and if theres anything I'll post you back

[Ray]

Guys

Thanks for the response. Sadistic Mika Band sounds very encouraging. Peter thanks for the lead and Nahoko for the links. Will start checking those out !

Next part of the quest - Guys, best suggestion for hearing their debut album.? Anything available over the Internet or is the album likely to be able to be purchased anywhere?

warm regards

Ray

[Twisted]

You should be able to find their albums in any good second hand recordstore in the UK.
I believe all of their albums were released on cd. In 1998 two albums were combined on one cd, which included their selftitled debut album.

They were quite popular in the UK back then. They toured with Roxy Music and shared the same producer as well.

[Ray]

Twisted Thanks for update. Yes many of their albums are available and even their Greatest Hits, Black Ship, is sold by Amazon!
Deeper I go I am not totally convinced that they are the group but I will check out as many of their tracks as I can find. Who knows ! Thanks again !

[kinjo]

Have u guys heard Kamayatsu Hiroshi? very well known inside Japan......kinda cool music.........
Recently, I bought his 'best' album. pretty good.

And 'Alice' is 1 more good band from the 70's. Their "kimi no hitomi wa 10000 boruto" (Your eyeballs r 10000 volts) was a hugeee hit......one of my all time favs

[Ray]

Kinjo

Great another artist to follow up ! Was Kamayatsu Hiroshi releasing material in the early 1970's ? If so anything similar to the description in my earlier threads?

regards

Ray

[Twisted]

I have yet to discover JPop of the 70's. There's so much new stuff being released every week that there's hardly time to look into the past.
I will certainly look into the artists Kinjo mentioned, however, i doubt they ever had a UK release.

[Ray]

Twisted

Are any of the Japanese record companies helpful about the material they released for import into the UK ?

Ray

[Twisted]

Well, i never had the need to find this out, however, these days, if a Japanese artist is to release material in Europe, then they usually use European recordlabels to do so. Cornelius for instance runs his releases through Matador records and Takkyu Ishino uses Zomba.
It's probable that it also happened this way in the past.
The Sadistic Mika Band were on Toshiba-EMI in Japan, Capitol in the US and Harvest in the UK.

[deborah gormley]

ray I'v had no luck either sadly, but we are still searching ect, when you get this song you just have to let us all know the details, so we can find out which song has facinated you for so long,keep searching!!

[Ray]

Sorry to report that Sadistic Mika Band / Black Ship CD arrived this morning. Quickly scanned the tracks and oh, sorry to report that the track was not there. In fact not sure the band would have released the track I am earching for. Oh well on we go again!!

Someone has suggested a tokusatsu theme....does that ring any bells? or Stomu Yamashta ?

regards

Ray

[kinjo]

Hi
Could someone tell me where on the web can I get the lyrics of such old songs? (ro-maji as well)
lyrics of songs by Kamayatasu hiroshi and alice in particular?
am not able to locate any. :-(

Tia
Kinjo

[Twisted]

Ray, i hope you'll still listen to those Sadistic Mika Band cd's 'cause even though it might not have been what you were looking for, it's great music nonetheless.

I've run across something else in the mean time. Try looking for The Far East Family Band. It's the band in which new-age musician Kitaro used to play.
This band had a European release in 1975.
UBL.com describes this band as a "keyboard dominated space rockband".
Check it out here:
http://ubl.artistdirect.com/music/ar...st+Family+Band

There first album was produced by Klaus Schulze, known from Tangerine dream.

Erm... try looking for some MP3's first before you buy...

[Ray]

Twisted

Yes getting into the CD but only played it once. Thanks for the extra links but I know definately it cannot be later than 1974. That is the only thing I know absolutely.

Thanks for staying with me on this one !!!

Ray