New member to the group

Hi, my name is Vince and I've just signed up to join the group. Well...I've
been a member before, but unfortunately my access to emaiils/internet at work
was withdrawn, so only now am I able to resurface as I have my own pc.

The site is great, and a good way to keep up to date with releases - and I
may be able to help out with some images to plug some gaps - so whoever wants
them can email me. But bear with me as I am only just learning how to use my
scanner!

I have -
1995 The Golden Age of Japanese Films on CD
1995 Mighty Jack on CD
1996 Unbalance on CD
1996 Captain Ultra on 2CD
1996 Catastrophe 1999 on CD
1998 School 1-3 on CD - and I believe this is the "Class To Remember" in the
website's unreleased section.
2000 Shigeo Nagashima on CD
2001 1000 Year Love on CD

I also have translations for the track listings for -
Jungle Emperor Leo
Shin-Nihon-Kikou (in fact a complete translation of the whole booklet!)

Finally, can anyone help me out with the following questions?
1) Is Tomita's Disney Sea Aquasphere actually out on CD? If so where can I
obtain a copy? and
2) On the official Tomita site reference is made to a 1994 CD entitled
"Tomita Sound Cloud Special Edition" - any info on this? Like is it still
available?

Hope the above is of some use to some of you, and hope to hear from some of
you


Vince Williams

 

HalloweenVince at a... wrote:
>
> Hi, my name is Vince and I've just signed up to join the group. Well...I've
> been a member before, but unfortunately my access to emaiils/internet at work
> was withdrawn, so only now am I able to resurface as I have my own pc.
>
> The site is great, and a good way to keep up to date with releases - and I
> may be able to help out with some images to plug some gaps - so whoever wants
> them can email me. But bear with me as I am only just learning how to use my
> scanner!
>
> I have -
> 1995 The Golden Age of Japanese Films on CD
> 1995 Mighty Jack on CD
> 1996 Unbalance on CD
> 1996 Captain Ultra on 2CD
> 1996 Catastrophe 1999 on CD
> 1998 School 1-3 on CD - and I believe this is the "Class To Remember" in the
> website's unreleased section.
> 2000 Shigeo Nagashima on CD
> 2001 1000 Year Love on CD
>
> I also have translations for the track listings for -
> Jungle Emperor Leo
> Shin-Nihon-Kikou (in fact a complete translation of the whole booklet!)
>


so I'm asuming you are saying that that is your list of CDs not on John
and Ben's site, otherwise its a very unusual list!

Am I correct that Unbalance is like Mighty Jack II? For some reason I
keep seeing it on lists but I've never I.D.ed it in a shop.

Anyone have info on if the singles from Shin-Nihon-Kikou contain
anything unique? And are there two singles? I definitely saw one but I
was running out of cash and it didn't seem to contain anything unique,
but my skills weren't what they are now for whatever thats worth.

P.S. as I like to point out the Catastrophe 1999 from '96 is a new
concoction that I doubt Tomita approves of, its the mono raw film cues
plus the stereo single. The original release in '74 was two side long
stereo suites (and the single sold separate of course). The suites did
see an early 90s CD release (VICL-5080, out of print). And I might add
for anyone wondering why I'm making a big deal, its that this is the
only Tomita analog synth soundtrack I know of that was released. (Please
tell me if there was another!)

> Finally, can anyone help me out with the following questions?
> 1) Is Tomita's Disney Sea Aquasphere actually out on CD? If so where can I
> obtain a copy? and

see the yahoogroups archives if you can or my website (but the server is
down today!)

the number is Avex/Disney Records AVCW 12269

I got it from the HK based company www.yesasia.com They were good
enough, I paid the economy postage rate and it took 10 days the only
downside is they mark up the CD because they've imported it themselves
to Hong Kong. Still it almost works out a touch better than it initially
seems in that the postage rate was lower than Japan

the Cat# is
Avex (Disney Records) AVCW 12269

Tomita's name is just on the obi, its not on the cover or spine so it
doesn't wind up in the online databases a lot of people order off of.
This is a similar situation to the mediocre sound quality but commonly
available Jungle Taitei (TOCT-10235) and Ribon no Kishi (TOCT-10404) CDs

In general there is a lot more of 60s tomita TV music out especially on
Toshiba on loose tracks.

Like on my list of what I suspect is out there is I know there is an
album of I assume half music from Tezuka's what it it? "Big X" I think
series, which was done by Tomita. It's coupled with another series
"Wonder 3" I think its called. None the less the theme music to the
series is on probably a half dozen or more compilations.

TOCT-8792 is a compilation of Super Hero TV themes 1967-68 with 6 by
Tomita, but they just seem to be from Mighty Jack and Captain Ultra.

more interesting is TOCT-9355, which I'm not sure of the name of, its
like adventure TV themes 1956-82, its got a pair of very early Tomita TV
themes and most interestingly "008" which has a female singer on top of
the full out flanges and filter sweeps we instantly recognize from the
classical albums


> 2) On the official Tomita site reference is made to a 1994 CD entitled
> "Tomita Sound Cloud Special Edition" - any info on this? Like is it still
> available?

Yes, this one stumps me too, the cat # seems odd also, maybe its not
even a CD?? (considering Hansel & Gretel is on the list) also as I
recall its not on his listing inside "Bach Fantasy", right?

Anyway I can't find it on Nasu's list either. I'd wager that if it was
a CD it wasn't a regular release because I did serious Tomita CD
shopping in Tokyo in '95 and it was not to be found



>
> Hope the above is of some use to some of you, and hope to hear from some of
> you
>
> Vince Williams
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> isaotomita-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

 

--- In isaotomita at y..., ndk <ndkent at o...> wrote:

> This is a similar situation to the mediocre sound quality but
commonly
> available Jungle Taitei (TOCT-10235) and Ribon no Kishi (TOCT-
10404) CDs

Can you tell us where you obtained these? I got my Jungle Taitei CD
from ebay, but I could probably find at least a dozen other people
who'd like a copy. And I would definitely like a Ribon no Kishi CD
for myself.

 

kimbawlion2001 wrote:
>
> --- In isaotomita at y..., ndk <ndkent at o...> wrote:
>
> > This is a similar situation to the mediocre sound quality but
> commonly
> > available Jungle Taitei (TOCT-10235) and Ribon no Kishi (TOCT-
> 10404) CDs
>
> Can you tell us where you obtained these? I got my Jungle Taitei CD
> from ebay, but I could probably find at least a dozen other people
> who'd like a copy. And I would definitely like a Ribon no Kishi CD
> for myself.
>


These have been out since 98 and were fairly easily obtainable in any
really big shop when I was last in Japan in 11/00. They were never with
Tomita's classical albums, they were with the anime.

Over a couple years Toshiba put out this series of old anime music in
mono volumes, one CD at a time, they have matched covers and do not
mention the composer on the outside of the packaging (which is 100% in
japanese, but I can spot Tomita's name with ease) so like I said, in
theory its unlikely they will show up on the databases if "Tomita" is
keyed in. Kimba is volume 35, Princess is vol 44. I can't read the name
of the series which has like a little logo, but then the name of the
show proper is printed in its original title logo quite large on the
cover and both the Toshiba series name and "Ribon no Kishi" for example
are on the spine.

You should just try ordering them by the cat#s from a CD seller that
allows that. I've double checked the numbers mentioned above for typos.

They aren't to be confused with the Bandai 4CD sets. "Jungle Taitei" was
withdrawn shortly after release and "Ribon no Kishi" was cancelled
before it shipped. The Kimba one had Tomita's name very prominant on the
cover, which was in English. Like the record collector in me is angry
that I had the Kimba set in my hand in '99 but didn't put 10,000 yen on
the credit card to buy it. On the other hand, now that I know Tomita
san's dissapproval of the release was the cause of it being withdrawn,
respect for him clearly outweighs issues of, wow its rare now!

I'm still curious about that Big X / Wonder 3 pairing I think I saw. It
was not in the above Toshiba series but I'm near certain I saw a CD to
it. Big X, was a not terribly successful series Tezuka did after Astro
Boy and before Kimba. It was scored by Tomita (the other series wasn't),
I have the theme on at least 2 compilations.

nick

 

--- In isaotomita at y..., ndk <ndkent at o...> wrote:
> You should just try ordering them by the cat#s from a CD seller that
> allows that. I've double checked the numbers mentioned above for
typos.

I'll see what I can manage. Thanks for the idea and the catalog
number for the Ribon no Kishi disc.

> They aren't to be confused with the Bandai 4CD sets. "Jungle
Taitei" was
> withdrawn shortly after release and "Ribon no Kishi" was cancelled
> before it shipped. The Kimba one had Tomita's name very prominant
on the
> cover, which was in English. Like the record collector in me is
angry
> that I had the Kimba set in my hand in '99 but didn't put 10,000
yen on
> the credit card to buy it. On the other hand, now that I know Tomita
> san's dissapproval of the release was the cause of it being
withdrawn,
> respect for him clearly outweighs issues of, wow its rare now!

I can understand why Tomita disapproved of it; the whole set is in
phoney stereo, which is unobtrusive at times and very bad at times,
but always just phase tricks on mono material. I don't know why it
was issued like that, because some cuts sound like they were re-mixed
from multi-track masters by Bandai's engineers; for example, one song
has the voice _very_ much more prominent than the original mix.

But, despite the problems, there are some good things in there. If
you care to wade through all the links on my page
http://www.kimbawlion.com/audio.htm
there are a couple of cuts from the Bandai set. My favorite is the
one I labeled "variations on a theme" as part of the paragraph on the
original Jungle Emperor theme. Reminds me of the start of the second
movement of Grand Canyon Suite (or, actually, vice versa). (The
kimbawlion.com server is down at this moment, but hopefully that will
be fixed soon.)

 

As for catalog numbers I've found that everywhere but some online shops
will pretty much deal only with the cat# if ordering is involved. Like
the name is only the means to look up the cat# and perhaps protects a
bit against a typo causing some other album to show up as the order.

Then again stuff is staying in print radically shorter now than in the
90s. It doesn't mean it can't be found on store shelves, it
unfortunately just means that most places can't order it.



> I can understand why Tomita disapproved of it; the whole set is in
> phoney stereo, which is unobtrusive at times and very bad at times,
> but always just phase tricks on mono material. I don't know why it
> was issued like that, because some cuts sound like they were re-mixed
> from multi-track masters by Bandai's engineers; for example, one song
> has the voice _very_ much more prominent than the original mix.

The sets with the raw film cues sometimes have outtakes and alternates
-- because obviously they are most likely going through the all music
elements stored from that production rather than a final master for a
proper soundtrack, but your assumption that if they are adding simulated
stereo they are probably altering other aspects seems quite valid. For
example they might have been working with the dubbing elements on mag
stock ("M&E" tracks) which might have been intentionally isolating
japanese language vocals for foreign sales. I don't think the used stems
extensively back then like they do now and if they ahd multitrack they
wouldn't have to simulate stereo. But the separate vocals sounds like
something they'd likely do. Also I guess there is much advantage of
overdubbing vocals separate on a separate channel. Theres a 1990s
soundtrack reissue to Mothra (original not remake) where the CD label
even intentionally separated the Peanuts from the music just out of
curiosity, so you wind up with an extra track of them acapella (if it
weren't under strong copyright it would be just the thing for a club
dance hit) ... and the orchestra alone suitable for your own karaoke
version I guess.


Then again I suspect the phoney stereo isn't that near the heart of
Tomita halting that release. His name is quite prominant on the box as
you know, its a "given" that they obviously did not seek his approval
for its release. I've not heard exactly the extent of the ownership
rights to these scores that he has retained. All information points that
he was extremely bothered by the format of the huge set of raw cues
never intended for soundtrack release and the prominant artist billing
hurt him.

Something along these lines seems to also be what Vangelis believes in.
Like the never initially released Blade Runner album had Vangelis
refusing to release a bunch of film cues on an album as I think was the
intent. He was able to insist on a do it right or no album deal I guess.
If you are unaware, maybe 2/3rds of the Chariots of Fire (#1 charting
U.S. album) was composed for the album and not in the film. The standard
operating procedure in Hollywood is the film music is recorded first and
the orchestra is retained to follow once the film soundtrack is wrapped
with prepared suites based on the music, thereby the orchestra can play
with a minimum of rehersal and sound just like the film, yet be able to
make a proper album without the disjointedness of short raw film cues.
Also for Vangelis, that release 10 years later coincidently right after
the frenzy surrounding the bootleg at least meant when that release was
made he probably had a whole new better contract and the label wanting
him to do it his way.


One must remember that at the time of the Bandai box the Pioneer release
of the live Genji album was a fairly recent event (not to be confused
with the Dennon studio version). He was definitely bothered by that
because while pioneer had the rights to release the album, Tomita wasn't
expecting that to happen, and as I understand even had gotten adverse
reaction from professionals on the technical and performance quality of
that recording, something of course he did not supervise (He supervised
the Dennon version himself)

This whole area of discussion brings to mind a slight curiosity why the
original "Catastrophy 1999" album isn't on his official website list as
the version with the two side long suites at least seems to have been
prepared for a proper album. That material is in real stereo and while
its obviously reusing a film score, at least is formatted for album
listening. One guess is maybe someone else prepared it and he'll only
put on his official discographies material he himself prepared for album
release?

nick

 

--- In isaotomita at y..., "kimbawlion2001" <kimbawlion at w...> wrote:
>(The kimbawlion.com server is down at this moment, but hopefully
that will
> be fixed soon.)

OK, now that the server is back up, I can point you directly to the
appropriate cuts if you're interested. I thought this would help
since my page is written for fans of the show and not Tomita
collectors...

These are from the Bandai set--
http://www.kimbawlion.com/extmixJS.mp3
http://www.kimbawlion.com/RogersFluteTheme.mp3
http://www.kimbawlion.com/d2t23.mp3 <--this is the one I'm reminded
of by the opening of "Painted Desert" from Grand Canyon Suite
http://www.kimbawlion.com/d2t21.mp3

These are from the Toshiba disc--
http://www.kimbawlion.com/ElizasSong.mp3
http://www.kimbawlion.com/KittysSong.mp3 <--this is the one in which
the vocal is too loud on Bandai
http://www.kimbawlion.com/GALfull22.mp3
I have my doubts whether Tomita wrote that last one (the theme to the
New Jungle Emperor [1966]).

 

--- In isaotomita at y..., ndk <ndkent at o...> wrote:
> The sets with the raw film cues sometimes have outtakes and
alternates
> -- because obviously they are most likely going through the all
music
> elements stored from that production rather than a final master for
a
> proper soundtrack,

>From what I can gather from the accompanying book, this is what they
did. There are several pictures of tape boxes. Reminds me of
presenting an achaelogical find.

> but your assumption that if they are adding simulated
> stereo they are probably altering other aspects seems quite valid.
For
> example they might have been working with the dubbing elements on
mag
> stock ("M&E" tracks) which might have been intentionally isolating
> japanese language vocals for foreign sales. I don't think the used
stems
> extensively back then like they do now and if they ahd multitrack
they
> wouldn't have to simulate stereo. But the separate vocals sounds
like
> something they'd likely do.

This sounds very likely. I only know that when the show was shipped
to the US for English-language dubbing, the vocals for the songs were
included on the music & FX track (only the spoken dialog was
separated onto the second track). I have no idea how this relates to
the way the original parts were recorded or saved.

 

> I have my doubts whether Tomita wrote that last one (the theme to the
> New Jungle Emperor [1966]).

If you have the booklet to the toshiba disc it has the credits,

tracks 21 and 22 are not by Tomita, the rest are his musical composition
(not the lyrics)

I know I told Ben but I don't remember if I told the list, some of these
old reissues have "S40", "S42" or similar numbers listed. It took me
like a year to realize that these are year dates in the Japanese
Emperor's reign. "S" stands for Showa (= Hirohito), I just never thought
they'd use a roman letter to represent the emperor and then use the
formal name for the reign, but apparently it was the thing to do in
those days. What year is it now, H13?




You probably know but those who don't might find the Laughter Robot's
Hemp Mix of the Boredom's Jungle Taitei cover version amusing. Its on
"Super Roots 8", a Boredoms mini album along with their unremixed cover
and someone elses mix.

Whats of interest is avant garde pop-master Yann Tomita is adding his
kind of synths to it as the remix. Yann Tomita is no releation to Isao
but I was surprised to find some years back that if you say "Tomita" to
most people into cool and trendy pop they'll think of Yann Tomita who
had a lot to do with bringing Exotica music back into popularity in
Japan and does a lot of concoctions with Buchla and Serge synths. I
wouldn't reccomend it though for someone wanting Isao Tomita's synth
sounds or Kimba purists though it is pretty clever (its definitely
tribal to start with but Yann Tomita adds an alien presence to everything)

nick