Wednesday, September 10, 2008

VARIETE-SOUVENIR, 8" E.P., 1982, JAPAN







With their endearingly doinky bontempi rhythms, archly antiquated variety show keyboard themes and demure femme vocal stratagems, Variete's wry electropop constructs exude an irresistible air of subtly skewed gentility and roguish whimsy, strategies that are definitive hallmark of Japanese musical eccentricity of this era and ones that give them an almost Slapp Happy-like frisson at times.


Get it Here

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note to downloaders: Please use 7-zip to extract the latest posts from Eric (if you have trouble extracting). I ran into problems trying to extract using WinRAR, Winzip, etc.

Thanks for the new posts, Eric! Looks like great stuff as usual!

Anonymous said...

Huge thanks for this! I've been dying to hear Variete for quite some time now.

Knife in the Toaster said...

Quite charming. Thanks for this!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a million, but why the double up in the track number in the file name?

Anonymous said...

but why the double up in the track number in the file name?

A lot of posts have been that way lately. It's a pretty minor thing to bitch about, if you ask me.

Anonymous said...

Well, anonymous I didn't actually ask you, and I'm not bitching.

I was just hoping that there would be some sort of standardization amongst the wonderful uploaders across the tags, with an eye toward ease and correctness like there usually is.

Niall said...

Keef, You are bitching.........you are getting this for free,so ease and correct yourself and just enjoy !!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Asking a question to call attention to a minor thing is not bitching. And, my bank account says that I'm paying the provider and Rapidshare, so no I'm not actually getting it for free.

Perhaps I should reconsider contributing or starting my own blog, as I was going to do, if asking a simple question is bitching. Oh, well, your loss, innit?

Anonymous said...

Someone asks a simple question and they get flamed by assholes for bitching?

This is why I hate the comments sections of blogs. If you don't have a constructive answer to a question then don't answer it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a zillion for this and peace to all!
enz

Anonymous said...

by the way: is there a chance for moonriders material?
cheers, enz

Anonymous said...

I am the first and third anonymous on this comments post. I sincerely apologize as I did not intend to create a flame war or anything.

My intention was just to indicate that quite a few posts have this duplicate number thing and that it's not anything to really worry about or be too picky of, since regular downloaders from the blog first experienced it many months ago.

Also, Eric explained why this happens, but I forget the explaination. Something about sometimes receiving more than one vinyl album on one CDR or the tracks of more than one LP are included in the same folder... Something to that effect.

Toxik Boys said...

really great blog man!
I love this bands!

please visit my blog www.crucifiedforyoursins.blogspot.com

Cheers!!

Anonymous said...

thanks. this is great stuff. reminds me a bit of early guernica. anyone know if they recorded anything else? I haven't been able to find any information online.

Anonymous said...

Thanx for this incredible stuff you share,expecially the lesser known italian elusive gems you discover.One request for a group from my lands (Trieste,Italy):
GRUPPO FOLK INTERNAZIONALE
1)Daloy politzei (1977)
2)Le mille e una notte (1979)
3)Il nonno di Johnny (1979)
Keep on!

Anonymous said...

This is extremely late, and unrelated. There was someone who commented on the Absolute Body Control Tapes named Michael. He said that he had tapes of 'Incubated sounds'. This music is unrelated to this blog's criteria, but none the less, if he or someone has some of their work, let me know how to get ahold of it. It is out print, and almost impossible to even barely find info on. Thanx:)

TymexPyres

xopher.tm said...

Do we have a title for Track 3?

Even in Japanese would be helpful as I try mu best to keep my tags accurate. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Unknown said...

Does anyone know what is playing in this scene? I figure this would be the best place to ask, so if anyone could help I would really appreciate it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0utOKpttRKk
If you can help please email me at discotrash1@gmail.com.

Sheerinertia said...

Thanks SO much for this! Never heard this before now- Thought I'd stop in to say hello, (I don't often enough, you see)- hope all is well. Hoping to hear the next installment of the Alphabetical Uploads of Whacked Out Singles soon! Take care and talk soon!

Anonymous said...

Tracklist here: http://atfirst-atlast.cside.com/garage/variete-01.htm

Based on the lyrics in the inserts, it looks like these are all tagged incorrectly. The first track is actually the first three (Japanese titled) tracks combined (I'm guessing that's the entirety of side A); the third is "Angelic Alice"; and the untitled track is "Good Night Age."

Anonymous said...

For some reason the tracks have completely different Japanese and English titles:


Variètè ヴァリエテ

Souvenir

Kitchen Records Co, DANCE 1, 8" EP, 1982

1. Kokage Himegoto 木陰の秘め事 The Bower's Secret [Bower as in Tree-Shade]

1. Angelic Alice

2. Aozora Review Jidai 空中レヴィウ時代 Blue Sky Review Age/Era

2. Good-night Age

3. Man-getsu Shashin-Kan 満月写真館 Full Moon Photo Studio

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I already corrected the error I made at 6:01 PM. Perhaps my correction was diverted as Spam or something.

Anyway, having consulted the liner note lyrics while listening, I GUARANTEE this is absolutely the correct track order and naming [for clarity, PLEASE delete this preamble and my previous comment, and just publish the following]:


Variètè ヴァリエテ

"Souvenir"

Kitchen Records Co, DANCE 1, 33 1/3 RPM, 8" EP, Japan, 1982.


A-SIDE

A1 + A2 + A3 are all on one mp3 file:

A1. Kokage Himegoto 木陰の秘め事 The Bower's Secret [Bower as in Tree-Shade] + A2. Kuchuu Review Jidai 空中レヴィウ時代 Sky/Air Review Age/Era + A3. Man-getsu Shashin-Kan 満月写真館 Full Moon Photo Studio [6m 41s, 12.2 MB]


B-SIDE

B1. Angelic Alice [3m 54s, 7.1 MB]

B2. Good-night Age [3m 17s, 6 MB]



"CAST"


Starring:

Paris, mon amour: ANDJOU TOUKO [f]

Sayonara Moon: HIKO RYUICHI [m]


Featuring:

A Blind Guitarist: Azuma Kazuhiro [m]

Chorus Girls: Taguchi Keiko & Sugi Kyoko

xopher.tm said...

Awesome, thanks, brianakira! I like to have my tags on straight. :)

(& thanks again mutantsounds crew for all you do...)

cody said...

According to this page, Variete released two more albums after this one. I have been unable to locate digital or physical versions of either, though. Would love to hear them if anyone comes across them.

Anonymous said...

incubated sounds: look here:
http://lost-art-music.gratis-server.de

Thomas (former member of incubated sounds)

Anonymous said...

This looks great but the links do not seem to be working anymore. Is it just me or are they out? Thanks for sharing