CD/MUSIC REVIEWS ~ BURNING FARM

[thegl0r]

So, they're re-releasing these Classic albums on CD using a slightly better grade plastic for the discs. Ooh! Limited editions, so tempting...

But what about the music itself? Is it going to be the original CD versions that will get released, or from a later release of the CD, or will they be new, digitally remastered versions from the original master tapes? Or perhaps new vinyl rips they've had cleaned up?

[scdoyle]

I want to know what the bonus songs will be.

[tangerinesun]

A lot of people must want to know about that, because the info seems kind of sparse. For example, I found this so far:

www.cdjournal.com/i/disc/burning-farm/4115042630

BURNING FARM SHM-CD
WAX RECORDS TKCA-10147 [1 Disc]

¥2,980 preorder
2015-07-01 release

Tracklist:

01 ミラクルズ
02 パラレル ウ・マン
03 TWIST BARBIE
04 象のパオパオ
05 亀の子束子のテーマ
06 動物小唄
07 工場の一日
08 BURNING FARM （焼畑農業のうた）
09 オウムのポリネシア
10 WATCHI GIRLN'
11 BANANA FISH

True? Or not so true? It reads like the 1983 original on the Zero label, plus 3 of the 5 extra titles that have already come out through Oglio. No mention of your remasterizations and alternates.

WAX is the punky sub-label of Crown Tokuma.

That Watchi Girln' is a radical remix, I can only suppose.

Just buy it, it's for Knife Day! Why you asking so much trouble question, anyway. Give money, please.

[thegl0r]

May 14, 2015 23:32:59 GMT -5 tangerinesun said:

Just buy it, it's for Knife Day! Why you asking so much trouble question, anyway. Give money, please.

You're right of course. Give money and some of it will eventually get to Shonen Knife. We know that it makes sense. It's more a case of being curious as to exactly what is going to turn up on the door mat.

I notice that on the English language version of cdjapan's webpage, it says for each of the four re-releases, "Comes with three unreleased tracks as bonus." Presumably the bonus tracks will be live recordings of SK songs, but cdjapan are saying unreleased ones. Hopefully that hasn't got mixed up in translation and there really will be 12 new versions of SK songs to listen to. Or perhaps Watchi Girln' really is a shiny new song.

Credit card has broken out into a cold sweat and keeps asking me if I'm really, really sure that I need yet more copies of those four albums. For some reason credit card is under the strange misapprehension that this time it really is "too much of a good thing."

It is just a shame that with these Limited Release CDs, they're just going to be using "Value" packaging rather than using "Added Value" packaging which would set the fans pulses racing and send the collectors into a rabid feeding frenzy of BUY, BUY, BUY!. But I guess we can blame the accountants for that tragic slip-up. Perhaps they should take a few lessons from the manufacturers of boxes of chocolates, 'cos those guys really know that presentation and packaging sells product. A nice box makes the chocolates more desirable, makes them feel better value for money, and also makes them taste nicer.

Here's a CD that I bought recently that has added value. The band is called Coil, and its the seventh reissue of this particular CD. An "authorised bootleg" of an audience recording of one of their gigs that the band issued on their record label. The packaging is the same as for the original release of this CD which also came out with two other sets of designs of the transparent cells. (They really are pictures of cells.) And look - none of that horribly expensive jewel-packaging in sight! (I'd already got this album as a download, but just had to get a copy of the real thing.)


Coil - live at Porto, front


back


cover


cell 1


cell 2


track list


oh, and here's the CD

Please excuse the grubby fingers, but I wanted to highlight the lovely transparency of the packaging that you can spend hours of fun with endlessly rearranging it all. Perhaps I should have had a manicure after spending the morning polishing my boots and applying the black polish with my fingers. That wasn't such a good idea, but at least the boots look good now.

If you're really curious, here's one of the tracks from this CD youtu.be/M_3SWyf_5q4. One of my friends describes their stuff as "Music to create nightmares." This track is easy-listening. For Coil.

[tangerinesun]

Wowie, that Coil packaging. =8-0

Agreed that WAX is blowing it with their un-inspiring paperboard "mini-LP" sleeve. Maybe they didn't try too hard further upstream either. Or they think SK fans are not susceptible enough (yeah, that's it).

No-brainer to do *something* extra-collectible when there are 8X as many fans who already own the songs as don't.

〜 ATTENTION! INCOMING PEDANTRY 〜

There actually is a slight translation issue with the product description. If you think it was written in Japanese first, then it says:

Mata bōnasutorakku toshite sorezore ni mihappyou ongen wo 3-kyoku shuuroku.

Which I make to be:

"Also included as special bonus tracks are 3 unreleased song recordings."

"Special" is sorezore, meaning "one by one, each individually." Each album gets 3 bonus tracks that belong to it alone. So far so awesome.

Then there's "unreleased." That one is mihappyou, and they use it in a couple of totally different contexts.

The 3 bonus songs have not been released = they've never been available before

The 3 bonus songs have not been released = it has not yet been announced what they are

So, go figure. I haven't seen any official comment. This will test the purity of your fanhood. Plenty of crummy bootlegs have had more up-front explanation than this pre-order limited edition made with unicorn tears.

[thegl0r]

I'm sure no unicorns were harmed in the making of these discs. The unicorn tears are their tears of joy at being involved in such a momentous release.

Thanks for your pedantry Tan, it always helps.

The paperboard sleeve may be because the record label thinks that SK fans will buy it despite the poor packaging. As its a "limited edition" they may be only pressing a quantity that they know they can get rid of quickly. Kerching! Then there's always the possibility that they may later reissue them again as a "luxury edition".

Yeh, often the translations on cdjapan (and other sites) are not all they could be, sometimes it is laughably wrong. Even with a copy of the disc in my hand, I'm often left thinking "WHAT?" when looking at some of their listings.

Concerning the bonus songs on the pre-release listing, I think it's more likely that it means they haven't been announced yet, perhaps they haven't decided which songs to put on which disc. It may well be that they'll use the live songs that they've already used on various releases of Shonen Knife stuff. They've probably also got some other songs from those sets that haven't been used yet. Or perhaps they may be rarities from SK's appearances on various compilation discs.

Because I don't speak Japanese, the Crown Tokuma website isn't much help either as different lots of translation software gives wildly differing results. But it seems the bonus tracks are "essential items for fans". またボーナストラックとしてそれぞれに未発表音源が3曲入ったファン必須のアイテム！

I still don't know. Only time will tell, and then it may well be too late to make an informed decision. Postie do your stuff.

[thegl0r]

After I posted that last entry of vague musings, I found this about the re-releases from Tokuma Japan Communications Doh!

BURNING FARM （SHM-CD）TKCA-10147
01. ミラクルズ (MIRACLES)
02. パラレル　ウ・マン (PARALLEL WOMAN)
03. TWIST BARBIE
04. 象のパオパオ (ELEPHANT PAO PAO)
05. 亀の子束子のテーマ (TORTOISE BRAND POT CLEANER'S THEME)
06. 動物小唄 (ANIMAL SONG)
07. 工場の一日 (A DAY OF THE FACTORY)
08. BURNING FARM　（焼畑農業のうた）
09. オウムのポリネシア (PARROT POLYNESIA)
10. WATCHIN’ GIRL
11. BANANA FISH
12. TWIST BARBIE　（live）
13. 動物小唄 (ANIMAL SONG) (live)
14. BURNING FARM　（焼畑農業のうた）　（live）

山のアっちゃん。 (Yama-no Attchan) （SHM-CD）TKCA-10148
01. 天使がやってきた (AN ANGEL HAS COME)
02. サイクリングは楽し (CYCLING IS FUN)
03. エルマー・エレベーター (ELMAR ELEVATOR)
04. Banana Leaf
05. Chinese Song
06. Flying Jelly Attack
07. 人喰いパパイヤ (CANNIBAL PAPAYA)
08. ダリのひまわり (DALI'S SUNFLOWER)
09. Insect Collector
10. Bye Bye
11. サイクリングは楽し (CYCLING IS FUN) (live)
12. Flying Jelly Attack　（live）
13. Insect Collector　（live）

PRETTY LITTLE BAKA GUY （SHM-CD）TKCA-10149
01. がんばれバイソン (MAKING PLANS FOR BISON / BEAR UP BISON)
02. サマータイム・ブギ (SUMMERTIME BOOGIE)
03. チョコバー食べたいヨの唄 (I WANNA EAT CHOCOBARS)
04. お風呂やさん (PUBLIC BATH)
05. 悪魔の館 (DEVIL HOUSE)
06. アントニオバカ貝 (ANTONIO BAKA GUY)
07. アイスクリーム・シティ (ICE CREAM CITY)
08. 嗚呼、新嘉坡 (AH, SINGAPORE)
09. ロケットにのって(RIDING ON THE ROCKET)
10. カッパエキス (KAPPA EX.)
11. ロケットにのって (RIDING ON THE ROCKET) (Pluto Version)
12. チョコバー食べたいヨの唄 (I WANNA EAT CHOCOBARS) (live)
13. アントニオバカ貝 (ANTONIO BAKA GUY) (live)

712 （SHM-CD）TKCA-10150
01. 少年ナイフ　(SHONEN KNIFE)
02. LAZYBONE
03. DIE RUN
04. BLUE OYSTER CULT
05. RAIN
06. THE LUCK OF THE IRISH
07. MY FAVORITE TOWN
08. FAITH HEALER
09. REDD KROSS
10. WHITE FLAG
11. SUPERSTAR
12. EXPO '90
13. 月世界都市　 (THE MOON WORLD)
14. BAGGS
15. LAZYBONE (live)
16. REDD KROSS (live)
17. FRUIT LOOP DREAMS (live)

So it looks like this Burning Farm release may be the cassette version of the album from K records (or one of the later releases) plus an extra 3 live tracks. The Zero release had 8 tracks on it.

[thegl0r]

Here's some pics of the release on Zero records of the 8" vinyl.


front


back


a side


b side


lyric sheet


insert

Apparently there are two different covers for Zero's release, different pressings. The other one has a different photo of the band on the back of the sleeve.

[tangerinesun]

It’s probably a mistake to encourage me in any way.

Ridiculously, Tokuma's own product detail pages don't have tracklists. Just the New Releases calendar.  

So… WAX Records is going to get my money, because they have given me just enough.  

Plus, there might not be a whole lot of later or ever again for this offering, except eBay. The publisher seems shy about taking on a lot of overhead costs** for this project. It doesn't feel like abundance when they stress "limited edition" so much, and don't bother communicating with big retailers and industry news.  

Sure, everyone in Japan was off flying kites for a week. They're probably going to catch up soon. 

Considering only Burning Farm, the earlier history of major official release events is possibly like:

1983 — 8 songs on 8” vinyl by Zero Records (JP); second pressing also 1983
1984 — Something happened to cause Zero to renew copyright (possibly the deal with K)
1985 — 11 songs on C-40 Musicassette by K Records (US)
1995 — 13 songs on CD by MCA Victor (JP) [the K Records 11, plus 2 studio tracks] (first digital mastering)
2005 — 13 songs on CD by Oglio (US) [the K Records 11, plus 2 live tracks] (second digital mastering)

In 2005, there was some remastering without fanfare. Since the bonus songs have to get mastered anyway, it raises the chances that the label might fluff up all the mixes a little once more. Just rationalizing, here. 

Last thought: if all the live recordings were done ad-hoc in small clubs in the 1980s to early 90s… no amount of engineering is going to make them sound, you know — good.

_________

** Exotic plastic is a cost-of-goods problem... but if you're passing the cost on to the customer, and it's half the entire premise for the purchase... then it doesn't look lavish to the bean-counters. 

[tangerinesun]

May 17, 2015 0:49:16 GMT -5 thegl0r said:

Here's some pics of the release on Zero records of the 8" vinyl.

This is just too awesome. It's made of art, instead of digital data processing and marketing analytics.

[thegl0r]

May 17, 2015 19:07:19 GMT -5 tangerinesun said:

It’s probably a mistake to encourage me in any way.

...Plus, there might not be a whole lot of later or ever again for this offering, except eBay..

OK, I won't encourage you - too much. Good work on getting together the release history of Burning Farm. It needed doing. But, tut-tut-tut, where's the catalogue numbers? For some foreign sites, that's the only thing I can read on their listings - that is how I managed to order a copy of the MCA Victor release from Japan.

You could be right in saying there might not be much more to come of these offerings anytime in the near future, if ever. So it's probably best to make the most of this "limited edition". No wonder that the whole of Japan is spending the week flying kites to celebrate the news of these forthcoming re-releases.

[tangerinesun]

May 18, 2015 5:28:04 GMT -5 thegl0r said:

... tut-tut-tut, where's the catalogue numbers? For some foreign sites, that's the only thing I can read on their listings - that is how I managed to order a copy of the MCA Victor release from Japan.

I didn't want to bore you! A PDF version of my Burning Farm dopesheet is here:  www.dropbox.com/s/wxgv4sjycs6j02j/SK-DISCOG.pdf

It's completely incomplete regarding multiple pressings and changes in content and materials, that's for sure.

You can contribute by telling us if the MCA CD release had the title for the Ramones cover in English only, or if they also wrote it out in Japanese kana.

Idly, I dream of the day when SK fans around the world can join hands with artists and publishers to make what Discogs is supposed to be: a complete, free music release database. But I don't really dream of the thankless drudgery and frustration of curating that.

I just feel that the info exists, the same way potential energy exists, so humanity should actualize it and have it.

But this is probably the information trying to control my mind for its own purposes. Not anything that a sensible mortal should spend a million hours on.

[tangerinesun]

May 17, 2015 0:49:16 GMT -5 thegl0r said:

Here's some pics of the release on Zero records of the 8" vinyl...


lyric sheet


insert

Ahahahahaha, "TWIST BIRBIE". How cute. I wonder how the "twist" part works in the mind of Naoko, anyway. Is it that it's a jointed doll, or are we referring to a dance rated "W" (safe for white people), or does someone want to twist Birbie's little head off, or what exactly.

But take a look at the credits. See the Cat-in-the-Hat-like non-rigid silk toppers on the stick-figure band? Well, you may remember Naoko was cleaning her closet earlier this month and found the following:



Something else I never understood before was why SK liked a curved dagger as its emblem. Something outlandish from the Arabian Nights, like a Yemeni janbiya. It's 'cuz it so completely resembles the na in naifu, duh. Quite amazing how much you can learn, especially if you don't know anything to start!

[thegl0r]

May 19, 2015 0:42:27 GMT -5 tangerinesun said:

I didn't want to bore you! A PDF version of my Burning Farm dopesheet is here: www.dropbox.com/s/wxgv4sjycs6j02j/SK-DISCOG.pdf?dl=0 It's completely incomplete regarding multiple pressings and changes in content and materials, that's for sure.

You can contribute by telling us if the MCA CD release had the title for the Ramones cover in English only, or if they also wrote it out in Japanese kana. 

Aaaaaargh! You terrible person, Tan. Asking me to find stuff can cause real difficulties sometimes, 'cos my whole world is in a permanent state of disarray. Now where did I temporarily put that CD "just for now"? I am in the process of pretending to tidy up and organise my stuff, but somehow me trying to tidy has resulted in even more mess while things get assigned temporary hiding places.

I was certain it's listed in English, but I wanted proof. I gave up hunting after I found something else that I'd "lost" for quite a while and that distracted me. But I did find a pic for you.

free upload image

I also have fantasies about a complete discog of SK releases being only a few clicks away. It would make finding out about the gaps in my collection so much easier and simplify attempts to fill them. I've not even got a list of the releases that I've own, and they're spread all around my flat. So seeing your pdf of Burning Farm releases further inspired me to get round to organising something. Any decade now.

[tangerinesun]

Thanks, that photo does the trick.

Naoko mushroom head.

Odd that they would misspell birbie when there was already an official release to crib from. So careless.