Peach Jamz

Peach Jam #79

Tanga Chicks feat. Dimitri & Tom // Brasil Over Zurich (Original Mix)

When I was 16 or so I was really into Toshiba EMI’s Dancemania series, thanks to my infatuation with Dance Dance Revolution; a music video game that made excellent use of several big tunes from the DM series around the turn of the millennium. (DDR died when the Dancemania licences dried up. Fite me.) These were compilations for the Japanese market, mostly mixed into “non-stop megamixes” by Japanese DJs, comprising of mostly European music across all sorts of dance music genres. The main line series was bubblegum Euro pop. There was a sub-series of high-speed happy hardcore. (DM Speed TID, kids.) I remember a couple of trance ones being pretty good. And then there was Dancemania Summers, which brings us to this track here.

Dancemania Summers were fun, sunny, house affairs with a funky disco flavour. (As an aside, Dancemania Winters was also a thing and in contrast was this all big beat, rock, and “ExTrEmE SpOrTs let’s go snowboarding“ thing. It was awesome.) Summers 2001 was by far my favourite and I still think it taught me everything I know about house music. I guess it’s fitting then that now that I am starting to mix my own sets, I have the most fun when I am mixing the funky stuff. I think it’s inevitable that my sets will become little tributes to Summers 2001.

Peach Jam #78

Park Hye Jin // I Don’t Care

Peach Jam #77

Was (Not Was) // Wheel Me Out

Peach Jam #76

Myd // Superdiscoteca

Peach Jam #75

Robyn // Between The Lines (The Black Madonna Remix)

Peach Jam #74

Peach Jam #73

Peach Jam #72

Culture Club // Mystery Boy (Suntory Hot Whiskey Song)

Peach Jam #71

Joe Jackson // Steppin’ Out

I borrowed a big stack of Mum’s records a couple of days ago and rediscovered this tune, which those more closer to my age might remember from Vice City’s Flash FM.

Peach Jam #70

Joyride // Aunty Tracey’s Cookies

I could do without the verses, but; - Joyride has a great voice that I could listen to for days - the hook is indeed very very hooky - the production by Hermitude is mmm, delicious

Peach Jam #69

Kool and The Gang // Joanna

Nice. ^_^

Peach Jam #68

Yellow Magic Orchestra // Kimi Ni Mune Kyun

Released in 1983, the record Naughty Boys was the second-last one ever made by Japanese synthpop juggernauts Yellow Magic Orchestra...or at least it was until the 90s when the group got back together for another album (but that's another story).  By this time the three members were up to their necks in other interesting projects while at the same time pushing the boundaries of what electronic music could be, how it was created, and what purpose it served. YMO’s first few records were generally quite poppy and a bit cheesy; novelties with what was considered novel technologies. By the eighties though, they were really digging in deep and experimenting with radical new instruments and musical technology. Their work with drum machines and digital sampling basically rewrote the book on popular music; a book that's still being read to this day. They were techno-pioneers and everything they made was right on the bleeding-edge.

And then they made this.

This is a pure, charming, kawaii-as-fuck pop song. Anyone who didn't know YMO already would probably think of them as just a sweet little Japanese boy band. In a sense it's quite a nice palate cleanser from all the hard techie stuff, and I'm sure the record company was really really happy with it. (Definitely a radio friendly unit shifter.) This of course isn't to say it's a bad song. It's a fucking excellent song! Pure 100% high-grade pop master class.

I'm jamming this because it's one of my (many) YMO favourites. Also I listened to their entire main album discography yesterday, and it's still in my head. The ear worm is strong in this one. (You're welcome.)

Peach Jam #67

Tatsuro Yamashita // Kanashimi no Jody (She Was Crying)

I guess this is what it sounds like when Japanese dudes listen to way too much Beach Boys and think "YEAH! That's what my next record is going to sound like". The result is this kind of pure and clean pop tribute to Americana which then went on to become some kind of musical shorthand for a certain state of mind. You might have heard it in a TV commercial in 80s Japan where everyone was beautiful, in soft-focus, and living a life of cashed-up leisure. Have you ever sat and watched a bunch of Japanese commercials from the 80s? I have. In fact it's one of my favourite things to do. I find it other-worldly and surreal. Everyone's rich and living comfortably, but not ostentatiously like the Americans were doing at the time. I don't think the attitude these commercials are selling exists any more though. They made it look like a really great time. Mid-1980s Japanese TV commercial aesthetic, before the tech bubble burst, is the stuff.

A genre of music attached to this point in time and place is "city pop"; a fusion of easy listening, jazz, a dash of funk, and sometimes a bit of disco. It was popular with the emerging wave of Japanese yuppies; they had abundant hope for the future, and flashy new cars with great stereos. This was driving music. Tatsuro Yamashita has his name thrown around often when the topic of city pop comes up. He was in a band called Sugar Babe that pioneered the sound, and made some of the big tunes of the genre (Check out "Ride On Time" and "Love Talkin'" for some dank city pop vibes). This one is way more of a layered harmony, Wilsonesque, pop ballad.

This one really grabs me because it's fun to wail "JOOOOOOODYYYYYYYYYYYY!" in the car. Maybe that’s my own tribute back to the Japanese yuppies of the 80s.

Peach Jam #66

Nine Inch Nails // Less Than

So apparently I'm a Nine Inch Nails fan now. It hasn't been a downward spiral either (hurrrrrrr); more like a swift drop into a bottomless pit. (Little help down here? Maybe some Lunchables? Or a juice box?) It's been excellent.

In the last few weeks I have been feverishly going through the back catalogue and various eras of angst, pain, paranoia and baby little white guy dreads. I’ve probably found other songs that I’ve grown to like more than this, take for example this cut which you may remember from the greatest episode of TV this year, but I feel this one has made an especially important contribution by kicking off an obsession and that should be recognised.

Peach Jam #65

Koichi Oki // Summer In Shima

Hot-shit-damn I love old Japanese electric organ records. Cheesy, jazzy, or groovy. I love it all. Imagine my surprise then when my FP* brings over this one after picking it up on Record Store Day. I was drawn to this amazing Yamaha Electone on the cover and I knew instantly there would be something special on it. FP’s Dad was impressed by the find and held onto it. I’m no good in a street fight but I might have to fight a Dad for this record. Maybe. I’m a pacifist.

Fast-forward to today and I finally got around to listening to this track, via a Vintage Obscura mixtape. This Koichi Oki dude, apparently hired by Yamaha in the early 70s to help shill their Electones, knows what's UP! He plays tight but with some laid-back, fancy free moments in this summertime jam. Do yourself a favour and turn up your lower frequencies on this joint; the bass is sublime.

It's the middle of winter where I am, but this tune makes me feel like pouring myself a glass of something chilled and parking myself poolside for the rest of the day. Oh well. Only five months until summer!

Peach Jam #64

Com Truise // Syrthio

I have been waiting a bloody long time for this. When Com Truise's last full-length album was released, it was 2012 and I remember one weekend away down the coast I made my friends listen to it while we played Cards Against Humanity. That seems like an entire lifetime and an entire person ago. Sure there have been the occasional little entrees -- an EP here and there -- but not an entire album since that one.

Peach Jam #63

Aphex Twin // Funny Little Man

Despite being Windowlickered out of my mind, I haven't listened to a huge amount of Mr James' work. I've seen that one video on repeat-on-repeat-on-repeat thanks to Rage guest programmers and I feel it’s been a bit overdone. It's an excellent track and a fascinating video, but if I ever sit on that Red Couch in Ultimo it'll be a Windowlicker-free zone for this very reason. But anyway, I've heard the Richard D. James album a few times through and that's it, and not very carefully. I'm getting around to fixing that now that I have a taste for it.

Previously I'd been most familiar with a track from the Girl/Boy single called Milkman. It is a fucked up track. I discovered it via a flash animation by David Firth (of Salad Fingers and other vintage flash fuckery fame) also called Milkman. It is a VERY fucked up animation. Watch it with caution. I thought this shit was hilarious when I was in high school. (What does that say about me?) Only fitting then that I found this track via online media doing the 'rounds, except in this case it's the comedy of real life. Simply put, a man goes down to the shops to buy himself some beer. This man has already indulged, most likely in that delicious and wonky stuff we call ketamine, and he and gravity have a bit of banter. Whoever set it to this track is a genius. I actually wondered if it was the official video. Watch it here.