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Creation - Super Rock in the Highest Voltage

April 26th, 2012

Creation - Super Rock in the Highest VoltageCREATION

  • Super Rock in the Highest Voltage
  • Express
  • 1978
  • Japan

Japanese psychedelic rock band Creation was formed in late 1960s by guitarist-singer Kazuo Takeda. Back then they called themselves Blues Creation and played more blues oriented heavy psych rock. After four albums and constant changes in line-up they dropped blues off from their name in 1972. The first album, the self titled Creation, was released in 1975. Weirdly, it has a bunch of naked little boys on the cover, which is very disturbing. The same theme continued on their third album, Pure Electric Soul, but this time the naked boys were packed on front window of the bus. Between these two was released Felix Pappalardi and Creation, an album made with the former Mountain bassist and vocalist Felix Pappalardi. Creation was finally disbanded in the early 1980s.

This fourth studio album of Creation, called Super Rock in the Highest Voltage was released in 1978 and it’s sounds were somewhat softer than on the first ones. While the first three albums were more or less psychedelic rock, this album is pretty strict jazz-rock fusion. The album starts with a song called “Wild cat”, an uptempo fusion jam with a really hectic break in the beginning and some nice percussion work in the middle. Next one is called “Swamp boy”. It’s a downtempo, funky blues jam again with percussion and wailing guitars. After that is another uptempo track called “Fou-fou, gun-gun”. It’s much lighter than the first one, but still quite ok. First one on the flipside is “No problem”, a percussive midtempo latin flavored jazz jam. Next one, “Spinning toe hold part 2″ is yet another uptempo bboy friendly breakbeat track. And a quite strong one. It was originally released on the b-side of “Spinning toe hold” single (taken from Pure Electric Soul), and it was the theme song for the American wrestling superstar duo The Funks (consisting of brothers Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr.). I can only imagine the atmosphere when The Funks entered the ring and this was playing aloud. The last one on the album is a slow blues track called “Blues from Tokyo”. I must admit that Super Rock in the Highest Voltage is actually a pretty good one for a late 1970s album.


Wild cat


Swamp boy


Fou-fou, gun-gun


No problem


Spinning toe hold part 2


Blues from Tokyo

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, fusion | No Comments »

You & The Explosion Band - Lupin III

April 22nd, 2012

You & The Explosion Band - Lupin IIIYOU & THE EXPLOSION BAND

  • Lupin III
  • Nippon Columbia
  • 1978
  • Japan

Yuji Ohno (大野 雄二) was born 1941 in Atami, Shizuoka. Soon after his first public appearances he became very well known in his homeland Japan as a great jazz pianist and composer. In the mid 1970s he formed his own jazz band, called You & The Explosion Band (ユ－&エクスプロ－ジョン・バンド) - where You Refers to Ohno himself. Even though he has released a lot of records during his career, he is primarly known for his scores for the anime series Lupin III. Before Ohno started scoring the Shin Rupan Sansei (New Lupin III) series in 1977, there was only some occasional 45s released of the series within its original run in the late 1960s early 1970s. But with Ohno handling things, there suddenly started to appear a relatively great number of soundtrack albums during the years. Of course these were not all for the tv anime series that run from 1977 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1985, but there was a great number of other stuff aswell. Including direct-to-video releases, yearly television specials and full length anime films. And they were really popular. Even the legendary Studio Ghibli did their share with the feature film called Castle of Cagliostro (Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro) in 1979 (as directed by Hayao Miyazaki). Hayao Miazaki and Isao Takahata also directed a great deal of the original 1971-1972 series by the way, but that was a time before Studio Ghibli was even established. But anyways, when the second Lupin III series began running on NTV in 1977, the boom of soundtracks also begun. Totally 48 soundtrack albums were released and most of them were composed by by Yuji Ohno. Takeo Yamashita made his little share on those too, but it was really minimal compared to Ohno. Later on Ohno have even released 15 collections of jazz arrangements of the Lupin III series with his Yuji Ohno Trio, The Lupintic Five and The Lupintic Sixteen.

This soundtrack here, simply named Lupin III, is supposingly the first one of the new series. It was released in 1978. The album starts with “Theme from Lupin III”, the original take of the new series theme. It’s an uptempo disco’ish soundtrack with some jazzy feel and there’s some dialogue in the middle as well. Next two, “Silhouette” and “I miss you babe (yes I do)”, are a little cheesy ballads. The latter one has vocals sung by Sandra Hohn. Next one is “Red roses for the killer”, a midtempo jazzy track. Then there’s “Dangerous zone”, which is an uptempo chase theme with nice breakbeats, some percussion and strong horns but on the other hand, there’s some occasional cheesy synth strings too. Next one, “Sunset flight” is a mellow groover with a hint of latin in it. It’s followed by the well known downtempo groover “Magnum dance” and a little similar “Lonely for the Road”. Last two tracks are the love songs of the album, “Lovin’ you (Lucky)” and “Love theme”. First one sung by Tommy Snyder (of the Godiego fame). Overall this is a pretty decent album and a good start for the great series.


Theme from Lupin III


Red roses for the killer


Dangerous zone


Sunset flight


Magnum dance


Lonely for the Road

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, disco, jazzfunk, soundtrack | No Comments »

Tatsuya Takahashi & Tokyo Union - Daitokai Part III

April 18th, 2012

Tatsuya Takahashi & Tokyo Union - Daitokai Part IIITATSUYA TAKAHASHI & TOKYO UNION

  • Daitokai Part III
  • Polydor K.K.
  • 1978
  • Japan

The other detective series Tatsuya Takahashi & Tokyo Union made music for, was Daitokai (literally Big City), that run three seasons from 1976 to 1979. Although TT&TU were’nt the only ones who did soundtracks for the series, they were responsible for Part III (season III) music. The first and the second season were mainly handled by the bands called Game and Microcosmos II, but that’s another story and we’ll come to them later.

Let’s talk about this one first. The opening track “大都会 Part III テーマ” (Daitokai part III tēma) starts the album quite frantically with it’s uptempo jazzy disco beats and hectic feeling. Maybe not the best theme around but acceptable. Second track “Dream of dream” is also an uptempo groover with also quite jazzy but discoish beats and some percussion works overdubbed with a slightly cheesy saxophones and occasional guitarwork. Next up is the very mellow but still groovy “And so in love” that would easily fit into the Love Boat soundtrack. After that comes another uptempo track “One floor house”. The first track on side b is “The Indian medicinman & g’uru”, despite the slow mellow start, it’s turns into a nice midtempo jazz track. Next one is “Midnight Tokyo special”, again very nice uptempo jazzy groover with its occasional disco moments. The last one on the album is a mellow love song called “Moon flower”. All the tracks are instrumentals. Although it’s nothing like the blaxploitation ones from the US, it’s still a pretty good one. It’s more like a typical Japanese detective soundtrack from that late 1970s - early 1980s era.


Daitokai part III tēma


Dream of dream


And so in love


One floor house


The Indian medicinman & g’uru


Midnight Tokyo special


Moon flower

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, disco, easy listening, jazz, soundtrack | No Comments »

Various - Gapô vol. 1

November 23rd, 2011

VA - Gapo Volume 1VARIOUS

  • Gapô vol. 1
  • Ace records
  • 1978
  • Philippines

The previous post was about some Filipinos hanging out in West Germany and doing music there. Now it’s time to introduce a bunch of Filipinos hanging out in Philippines and doing music there. Although I have almost nothing to say about these bands, this is still one magnificent compilation. And it’s most likely published in 1978. It seems that there has been a quite strong influence from American soul and funk music when it comes to the Pinoy stuff. I think the US troops based there during the Vietnam war were one strong influence in their special genre called Manila sound. Even the names of the bands reflect that. There’s Soul Jugglers, Frictions, Our Daily Bread, Poor Immigrants, Hangmen, Brown Sugar, etc. The music itself is very much western style, half of the songs are some sort of funky disco or disco’ish soul. And the rest are ballads and pop rock.

There are several tracks to mention, so this is definitely not a one track album. Funky midtempo pop tune “Sabi-sabi, haka-haka” by Brown Sugar is one. Midtempo disco funk track “Hanggang magdamag” by Soul Jugglers is another. It’s a very nice groover in a strong BT Express or Kool & The Gang way. Downtempo funk track “Happening sa gapô” by We Inc is also a really nice one. Last ones to mention are strong disco funk track “Let’s boogie now” by The Hangmen and the funky pop rock track “Perwisyo sa lipunan” by Frictions. Latter has a break in the beginning, some electric guitar work and even a short harmonica solo in the middle. All the mentioned are vocal numbers and needless to say they’re all sung in Filipino.


Brown Sugar - Sabi-sabi, haka-haka


Soul Jugglers - Hanggang magdamag


We Inc - Happening sa gapô


The Hangmen - Let’s boogie now


Frictions - Perwisyo sa lipunan

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, disco, funk | No Comments »

Osamu Shoji - Star wars

October 27th, 2011

Osamu Shoji - Star WarsOSAMU SHOJI

  • Star wars
  • Warner-Pioneer corporation
  • 1978
  • Japan

Japanese composer, arranger, keyboard player and synthesizer wizard Osamu Shoji (東海林修) has been active player in music business since the early 1960s. He has worked with many well known Japanese artists during his career. Akira Ishikawa, Kenji Sawada, Shigeru Suzuki, Haruomi Hosono and Goro Noguchi to name a few. Shoji has also done a bunch of anime soundtracks, Space Cobra as the most well known. In 1978 he did his first whole synthesizer album called Star wars. It didn’t however include only material from the Star wars soundtrack, there’s also one Shoji’s original compostion icluded on the b-side. Shoji used only polyphonic analog synthesizers in this album, including Korg PS-3300 with PS-3010, Korg MaxiKorg 800DV and Korg Polyphonic Ensemble Orchestra. Korg PS-3300 seems to be one of the rarest analog synths in the world as there’s only 50 pieces manufactured between 1977 and 1981.

A-side naturally starts with the theme song. “Star wars main theme & Imperial attack” is a disco version of the theme song with really amusing, occasionally a little freaked out synth sounds and quite basic disco beat. Next up is “The throne room” that also follows the main theme at first, but then turns to a disco boogie track. It even has a break in the middle. “Cantina band” sound pretty much like the original at first but the Shoji gets on fire with his synths again and the song changes into an analog sound mayhem. Last tracks on side-a, “Princess Leia’s theme” and “The robot auction” and downtempo orchestral pieces filled again with synths. The only original composition, “The space od’yssey” on side b, is a monster 20 minute track combining drama and synthpop. it divides into four different parts and all of them sound like they could’ve been made in the early 1980s Italy or France. The last track “The desert”, is again from the first Star wars soundtrack.


Star wars main theme & Imperial attack


The throne room


Cantina band


The space o’dyssey

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under disco, soundtrack | No Comments »

Various - Heavy Rock

January 3rd, 2011

Various - Heavy rockMIKI ANTONY & TOM PARKER / IRVING MARTIN & BRIAN DEE

  • Heavy rock
  • Bruton Music
  • 1978
  • UK

I bought this way back from a record fair for two euros. I bought it because it was cheap, it was published by Bruton and it sounded suspicious. Little did I know that there was actually a really great bboy track with breaks and all plus some other really great songs too. I guess one should never judge a record by it’s cover (or the title).

Bruton Music is a London based library music label that was founded in 1977 by Robin Phillips and is still functioning to this day. They have a really wide variety of music from action themes to classical and everything in between. Bruton Music has also a sublabel called Peer International, that have a small amount of releases and almost all of them are pretty good. Bruton Music was briefly owned (from 1982 to 1985) by the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson, who was a fan of their releases. Many of the releases by Bruton sounded like they’re straight from some British cop series from the 1970s with compositions minding of chase scenes and other action or dramatic sequences. But not this one. I’m not sure what they even meant when naming this album Heavy rock, because this ain’t even close to the term heavy rock as we know it. Although this was not originally brought up by Bruton, but it was first released by a small production library company called The Regency Line in 1975. Anyways, maybe back then in 1975 heavy rock meant guitar driven heavy groove, because that’s what this album is about. And that guitar work still disturbs me a little.

Miki Antony and Tom Parker were responsible for all the songs in side A. While Tom Parker is a pretty well known multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger, Miki Antony instead seems to be mostly a session musician involved mainly with library music only. Together they did anyways the best track on this album, magnificent rock’ish afrofunk track “Portugalia” with wailing fuzz guitars and a quite long percussion break in the middle. Other ones on the first side ain’t bad either, electric guitar driven funky library music in general. For example uptempo bboy/chase funk track “Tension in the city”, uptempo half minute percussion beat “The mysteries of Mars” and the midtempo funk groover “Dirty Rat”. All tracks except the last one on side B were composed by the accomplished library music duo Irving Martin and Brian Dee, who were involved with other library labels too. Their side is a little different from the A side. It varies more from bluesy and mellow easy listening to pace rhythms and even reggae. Their best track is fast beat track “Havin’ a ball”. There’s also one song composed by Norman Warren on the B side called “C for Charlie”, and what a song it is. Really cool and mellow funk track as a balance to this otherwise hectic album. The only minus is that most of the songs are only minute or so long as it’s normal for the library albums. At least six of the tracks from this album was used in the British police drama series The Sweeney.


Miki Antony & Tom Parker - Portugalia


Miki Antony & Tom Parker - Tension in the city


Miki Antony & Tom Parker - Dirty rat


Miki Antony & Tom Parker - The mysteries of Mars


Irving Martin & Brian Dee - Havin’ a ball


Norman Warren - C for Charlie

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk, funkrock, library | No Comments »

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