Favorite Japanese 70/80's soundtracks?

countmacula

I wanted to know if anybody had a favorite Japanese movie or tv show soundtrack or knew one that was superb.  Anything from cop shows to cartoons...I would like to hear some good ones.

DOR

I would love to hear some stuff as well. I have zero knowledge of soundtracks.

para11ax

Keitaro Miho's OST for Gorilla 7 is the best I've ever heard as far as Japanese OSTs go. There are some early 80's anime joints that are dope as well, but my memory is failing me right meow.

This is alright.



Check this beast out...one of my alltime OST fave tracks:

klezmer electro-thug beats

Somewhere in my CDs I have a compilation called Eat It Raw that is all Japanese library/OSTs from that era and is great, but I've never been in a position to cop individual joints. The comp might be worth checking out for ideas though, it had a lot of good stuff.

PS. Gorilla 7 is crazy! That Wairudo Bito track... "wild beat"

DOR

Thanks for posting. The playlist is pretty dope. The   2nd video "Daitokai - Part 2" whole playlist is exactly what I need right now.

Okem

Probably not what you're after as it's not fonky but it's still one of my favourite 80s OSTs, Japanese or otherwise.

Okem

I don't think the Japanese did Libraries did they? They would use Western ones occasionally but I don't think there was a domestic production system like they had in Europe. It's a shame cause they would undoubtedly be some killer stuff, especially in the 80s with the whole City Pop, YMO & general Fourth-World weirdness going on in Japan. 

Japanese Spiderman was pretty fonky


& this playlist should scratch that itch 

mattB

Symphonic Suite Akira... awesome @Okem 

mattB

Yeah, JP Spidey rules too.
Im trying to embed from 32m43s but doesnt seem to be working. That's my track.

mattB

'69 is close to '70. One of my all time favourites, soundtrack or otherwise:

mattB

There's a 45 of the Gorilla Seven which is pretty easy to track down too.

Okem

mattB said:

Symphonic Suite Akira... awesome @Okem 

Have you heard the rereleased version with all the tracks they had to take out when they transferred it from movie surround sound mix to the album version? I can't find word of it online but I swear I read that for a recent reissue Tsutomu Ōhashi had remastered it and put back in all the things that had to be taken out. 

The Akira ost and Kenji Kawai's GITS ost really opened a door for me when it comes to Japanese music. I was temporarily obsessed with them back in the late 90s early 00s, trying to find anything that sounded like Geinoh Yamashirogumi or Kawai's weirder work. But back then the internet wasn't as useful as it is now and buying records from Japan was too expensive for my meager budget. 

bonus beat

mattB

I didnt know about the unreleased music until someone mentioned it on my Instagram post (shameless link). I wonder if the recent vinyl re-issues of a couple of years ago included the unreleased stuff. I kind of ignored them because they were expensive (for re-issues) and I had the OG LPs. But if they had additional music... hmmm....

Man, Geinoh Yamashirogumi is one of my favourite groups. So interesting and such a wild range of music throughout their albums. I think I have almost all of their stuff on vinyl now. I had a chance to see them live but missed it due to family stuff.

Okem

I could be misremembering it cause I still can't find any mention of it online. It could well be Tsutomu Ōhashi reworked the soundtrack for the one of the anniversary Blurays. It would make more sense for them to have had to take audio channels out for the dvd versions of the film, the soundtrack was made in such an unusual and complicated way . IIRC Victor released a 4.1 version of the soundtrack back in the early 2000s. I have that one and a homemade surround sound rip from a dvd on flac, they're cool in the way they give you a bit more of that gamalan orchestra feel, but obviously they're not much use unless you have a surround sound setup. 

Edit: I finally found reference to the change in soundtrack, it's mentioned in Toru Mitsui's 'Made In Japan: Studies in Popular Music, which has  a chapter on the Akira soundtrack. But it was indeed the film version that was changed when they digitised it. I forgot that the first time I watched Akira it would've been on VHS. fuck we old
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YWQKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=Tsutomu+Ōhashi+akira+symphonic+suite&source=bl&ots=P3grhcjyYg&sig=J4EK3Cd4jCTrNU8A8qMO5e-xbjc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj48JHLo77OAhXrZpoKHZc5DakQ6AEIPjAG#v=onepage&q=Tsutomu Ōhashi akira symphonic suite&f=false

countmacula

Whoa!!! Awesome stuff! This was just the kind of stuff I was looking for! Thanks @mattB and @Okem