Hiromi Iwasaki 'Pandora's Box' - 1978 Japanese Quad Album Reissued on SACD

[4-earredwonder]

Gasp, gasp! The only way to protect yourself is put blue marker over your eyes!

Eerie, Indiana - Wikipedia

LOL......Lute's avatar IS Lady Gaga .......with that blue marker over her eyes ...... sure beat's her 'designer' meat dress!

'TIL WE MEAT AGAIN!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

LOL......Lute's avatar IS Lady Gaga .......with that blue marker over her eyes ...... sure beat's her 'designer' meat dress!

'TIL WE MEAT AGAIN!

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

 

[J. PUPSTER]

LOL......Lute's avatar IS Lady Gaga .......with that blue marker over her eyes ...... sure beat's her 'designer' meat dress!

i believe it's Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons...

 

[Sonik Wiz]

i believe it's Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons...

View attachment 55793

Doppleganger! But which one?

 

[4-earredwonder]

i believe it's Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons...

View attachment 55793

Good catch, JP. Am a casual Missing Person's fan but for some reason always thought it was Lady GaGa.

 

[HIBY]

Took the plunge.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Took the plunge.

Where did you order from? Any problems?

 

[HIBY]

Bought it through zen Japan. Cheaper than having it shipped separately from Japan.

I'll just have it sent over with other SACD's.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Bought it through zen Japan. Cheaper than having it shipped separately from Japan.

I'll just have it sent over with other SACD's.

Wow Thanks! It worked slick & smooth.

 

[jefe1]

Think they're going to wonder about all these American orders for an obscure Japanese album?

 

[HIBY]

Think they're going to wonder about all these American orders for an obscure Japanese album?

Maybe Tower records. A shipping forewarder, probably not.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Haha etc. I was poking around on Zen Market & found this:

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=b484719568
I take a size large T shirt American. To get something Japanese to fit me I'd have to buy the Godzilla size!

 

[steelydave]

It's cool to see that they're reprinting those shirts now - I have an original one of those (albeit faded and yellowed since it's 25 years old now, and I wore it so much as a teenager) that I got during the Toronto stop of this tour in 1995.

It was the first 'real' concert I went to (after Lollapalooza '94), at Maple Leaf Gardens. The opening act, Bad Brains, didn't make it through Canadian customs and immigration so the Beastie Boys played an extended set - somewhere between 25 and 30 songs in total. They had a quadraphonic PA system (long before I even had an inkling of what quad was) that supposedly belonged to Pink Floyd in the 70's, which had speaker stacks in each corner of the arena. These were used to good effect - I distinctly remember the distorted bass guitar intro to the song 'Gratitude' slowly swirling around the arena amongst many other things.

It still remains one of the best gigs I've been to, and I managed to record the whole thing on an enormous cassette recorder (Sony WM-D6) that I smuggled in to the arena jammed down the front of my jeans, which was no small feat back in the days when they actually cared about people recording at concerts!

I really love the design too - as I mentioned over in the Doobie Bros. Quadio thread, I collect promo posters for bands I like, and I spent about 10 years trying to hunt one down that had this design on it, and I finally did about 5 years ago:

But I digress - I was doing some reading and research about Pandora's Box, and it turns out it's the last album in the LP series it's part of, Victor Japan CD4B-5106. As previously mentioned, this album was released in (late) 1978 - the previous LP in the series, CD4B-5105, it Junko Sakurada Live at Bunkyo Hall, released in 1975, more than three years before. Not only that, if you go back numerically through that CD4B series (I only went as far back as CD4B-5070) the albums are all either live albums or greatest hits albums - not studio LPs of new material.

I'd love to know what the story is behind this record being mixed in quad so long after RCA Victor Japan had seemingly abandoned the format elsewhere - their last western pop releases (part of the CD4W series that included the Motown quads) were in mid 1975, and RCA's last release of domestic music mixed in quad (the R4J series) was in early 1976. I noticed in the product description for the SACD that the original recording engineer was involved in supervising the remaster, maybe the liner notes will have some information about the recording and release of the album. I guess it's sort of like the Japanese equivalent of Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven, which RCA put out on Q8 in the US (only via their mail order tape club) in 1978 after their last CD-4 pop quad releases (Jefferson Starship, Danny Davis, etc.) in 1976. I know Tomita continued to release albums in quad up until 1979, but he was part of RCA's classical division - this is definitely the last Japanese pop quad release, by a wide margin.

I also noticed that the album's songs were written and arranged by Kyohei Tsutsumi, who seems to be something of a legend in Japan - according to Wikipedia "He has released nearly 3,000 compositions to date, over 500 of which have entered the Japanese Oricon singles chart. Tsutsumi is the most commercially successful composer of the Japanese popular music of last five decades, selling over 76 million units on the country's single chart from 1968 onwards." Tsutsumi also had a quad release of his own: Kyohei Tsutsumi and his 585Band Hit Machine, which was part of the Toshiba Pro-Use series of SQ-encoded LPs.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

It's cool to see that they're reprinting those shirts now - I have an original one of those (albeit faded and yellowed since it's 25 years old now, and I wore it so much as a teenager) that I got during the Toronto stop of this tour in 1995.

It was the first 'real' concert I went to (after Lollapalooza '94), at Maple Leaf Gardens. The opening act, Bad Brains, didn't make it through Canadian customs and immigration so the Beastie Boys played an extended set - somewhere between 25 and 30 songs in total. They had a quadraphonic PA system (long before I even had an inkling of what quad was) that supposedly belonged to Pink Floyd in the 70's, which had speaker stacks in each corner of the arena. These were used to good effect - I distinctly remember the distorted bass guitar intro to the song 'Gratitude' slowly swirling around the arena amongst many other things.

It still remains one of the best gigs I've been to, and I managed to record the whole thing on an enormous cassette recorder (Sony WM-D6) that I smuggled in to the arena jammed down the front of my jeans, which was no small feat back in the days when they actually cared about people recording at concerts!

I really love the design too - as I mentioned over in the Doobie Bros. Quadio thread, I collect promo posters for bands I like, and I spent about 10 years trying to hunt one down that had this design on it, and I finally did about 5 years ago:

View attachment 55842

But I digress - I was doing some reading and research about Pandora's Box, and it turns out it's the last album in the LP series it's part of, Victor Japan CD4B-5106. As previously mentioned, this album was released in (late) 1978 - the previous LP in the series, CD4B-5105, it Junko Sakurada Live at Bunkyo Hall, released in 1975, more than three years before. Not only that, if you go back numerically through that CD4B series (I only went as far back as CD4B-5070) the albums are all either live albums or greatest hits albums - not studio LPs of new material.

I'd love to know what the story is behind this record being mixed in quad so long after RCA Victor Japan had seemingly abandoned the format elsewhere - their last western pop releases (part of the CD4W series that included the Motown quads) were in mid 1975, and RCA's last release of domestic music mixed in quad (the R4J series) was in early 1976. I noticed in the product description for the SACD that the original recording engineer was involved in supervising the remaster, maybe the liner notes will have some information about the recording and release of the album. I guess it's sort of like the Japanese equivalent of Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven, which RCA put out on Q8 in the US (only via their mail order tape club) in 1978 after their last CD-4 pop quad releases (Jefferson Starship, Danny Davis, etc.) in 1976. I know Tomita continued to release albums in quad up until 1979, but he was part of RCA's classical division - this is definitely the last Japanese pop quad release, by a wide margin.

I also noticed that the album's songs were written and arranged by Kyohei Tsutsumi, who seems to be something of a legend in Japan - according to Wikipedia "He has released nearly 3,000 compositions to date, over 500 of which have entered the Japanese Oricon singles chart. Tsutsumi is the most commercially successful composer of the Japanese popular music of last five decades, selling over 76 million units on the country's single chart from 1968 onwards." Tsutsumi also had a quad release of his own: Kyohei Tsutsumi and his 585Band Hit Machine, which was part of the Toshiba Pro-Use series of SQ-encoded LPs.

No Pro-Use CD of that Tsutsumi Hit Machine then Dave, only LP?

 

[steelydave]

No Pro-Use CD of that Tsutsumi Hit Machine then Dave, only LP?

As far as I know, yeah, only relying on what discogs has listed though.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

As far as I know, yeah, only relying on what discogs has listed though.

After, listening to the Tsutsumi Hit Machine songs on the Discogs page; I was trying to imagine them in Quad and how good they should sound with all that lovely production. You turned me on to those Toshiba Pro-Use Series albums, and I’ve got/heard several now through the Surround Master v2 and they have very convincing Quad mixes in them. But I believe they are QS encoded rather than SQ. This one definitely has that Funky/Disco vibe goin’ on, but most of the sellers are in Japan and want a healthy amount for near mint and typically no OBI. Maybe try running these YouTube tracks through the SMv2 and see if the encoding holds up!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

It's cool to see that they're reprinting those shirts now - I have an original one of those (albeit faded and yellowed since it's 25 years old now, and I wore it so much as a teenager) that I got during the Toronto stop of this tour in 1995.

It was the first 'real' concert I went to (after Lollapalooza '94), at Maple Leaf Gardens. The opening act, Bad Brains, didn't make it through Canadian customs and immigration so the Beastie Boys played an extended set - somewhere between 25 and 30 songs in total. They had a quadraphonic PA system (long before I even had an inkling of what quad was) that supposedly belonged to Pink Floyd in the 70's, which had speaker stacks in each corner of the arena. These were used to good effect - I distinctly remember the distorted bass guitar intro to the song 'Gratitude' slowly swirling around the arena amongst many other things.

It still remains one of the best gigs I've been to, and I managed to record the whole thing on an enormous cassette recorder (Sony WM-D6) that I smuggled in to the arena jammed down the front of my jeans, which was no small feat back in the days when they actually cared about people recording at concerts!

I really love the design too - as I mentioned over in the Doobie Bros. Quadio thread, I collect promo posters for bands I like, and I spent about 10 years trying to hunt one down that had this design on it, and I finally did about 5 years ago:

View attachment 55842

But I digress - I was doing some reading and research about Pandora's Box, and it turns out it's the last album in the LP series it's part of, Victor Japan CD4B-5106. As previously mentioned, this album was released in (late) 1978 - the previous LP in the series, CD4B-5105, it Junko Sakurada Live at Bunkyo Hall, released in 1975, more than three years before. Not only that, if you go back numerically through that CD4B series (I only went as far back as CD4B-5070) the albums are all either live albums or greatest hits albums - not studio LPs of new material.

I'd love to know what the story is behind this record being mixed in quad so long after RCA Victor Japan had seemingly abandoned the format elsewhere - their last western pop releases (part of the CD4W series that included the Motown quads) were in mid 1975, and RCA's last release of domestic music mixed in quad (the R4J series) was in early 1976. I noticed in the product description for the SACD that the original recording engineer was involved in supervising the remaster, maybe the liner notes will have some information about the recording and release of the album. I guess it's sort of like the Japanese equivalent of Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven, which RCA put out on Q8 in the US (only via their mail order tape club) in 1978 after their last CD-4 pop quad releases (Jefferson Starship, Danny Davis, etc.) in 1976. I know Tomita continued to release albums in quad up until 1979, but he was part of RCA's classical division - this is definitely the last Japanese pop quad release, by a wide margin.

I also noticed that the album's songs were written and arranged by Kyohei Tsutsumi, who seems to be something of a legend in Japan - according to Wikipedia "He has released nearly 3,000 compositions to date, over 500 of which have entered the Japanese Oricon singles chart. Tsutsumi is the most commercially successful composer of the Japanese popular music of last five decades, selling over 76 million units on the country's single chart from 1968 onwards." Tsutsumi also had a quad release of his own: Kyohei Tsutsumi and his 585Band Hit Machine, which was part of the Toshiba Pro-Use series of SQ-encoded LPs.

Fascinating post, Beastie Boys & all.
Based on the non-response to my occasional posts about J music, I didn't think there was much interest for it in the forum. Fortunately it seems I'm wrong.

In Jonathon Ross' s excellent TV series Japanorama (viewable on YouTube) many segments were done on music. It seems in the 50'>60's musical acts were direct copies of Western groups. Think Asian Pat Boone. My awareness stems from the late 80's to present. Chisato Moritaka, Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, Utada are in frequent play here. Besides J pop idol music there are some great male groups like Asian Kung Fu Generation, Radwimps, T.M. Network & don't forget X Japan.

But the other thing good about this thread is it's made me interested in that gap between the 60's & 80's. Sure it's an understatement to say I know about Western pop/rock in the 70's but I never thought about Asian music in that time period. Also I've never seen any new J music released in surround & it never occurred to me that music never making it out of Asia might be recorded in quad.

So I've been doing a lot of time in Wiki & YouTube digging up this stuff. A whole new world to discover thanks to this Hiromi post!

 

[jefe1]

SW you should get the book Jap Rock by Julian Cope. It details the rise of western pop groups in Japan in the 60s -70s many started by Jazz musicians.
There are many album reviews photos etc. Its worth looking up.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

SW you should get the book Jap Rock by Julian Cope. It details the rise of western pop groups in Japan in the 60s -70s many started by Jazz musicians.
There are many album reviews photos etc. Its worth looking up.

I found the book but I also found this wealth of information:
http://www.japrocksampler.com/
Excpet for Yellow Magic Orchestra & Mickey Curtis (whom I mentioned in the "convenience store post) they were all new names to me. This is really cool thanks.

 

[jefe1]

A record store owner ordered that book for my friend and I when it came out. That book caused us to buy several vinyl and CD reissues.
A few were recorded in quad. There is a conversion out there of the Taj Mahall Travellers SQ encoded CD.

This is the same author that wrote the Krautrock Sampler many years out of print. A good review of those German groups.