Miki Sugimoto - Ballad - Melon Woman After (Intro)
Sou Kaburagi – Sex Hunter Theme
Gen Kaburaki- Worms Onsen Geisha M-3
Masao Yagi - Horror Girls High School Woman Blackboard Jungle
Kaji Meiko - Silver Butterfly, Migratory Bird
Toshiaki Tsushima – M-13
Unknown Artist - Wide-Violent Bloody Kiwi M-14
Sou Kaburagi – Sex hunters PS-C
Toshiaki Tsushima - Hisano and Hirotani
Hirose Kenjiro - Kenka Timon Game Woman M-5
Toshiaki Tsushima – At the Yakuza Quarters
Miki Sugimoto - The Ballad of Zero - Melon woman After (Part 2)
Masao Yagi - Woman Banchou M-2
Unknown Artist - The World Of Sadao Nakajima Track 6
Sudo Rica - Cold Generation
Shunsuke Kikuchi - Red 0 Division Woman Handcuffed M-18
Sou Kaburagi - M-11 Bloody Conflict
Toshiaki Tsushima – The Confrontation / Prières
Nihon Boko Ankokushi Ijosha No Chi - Kill Theme (with song)
I don't know if you can tell but I had an immense amount of fun doing this mix. It seems to be a tribute to fuzz guitar and wah wah pedal as much as it's a tribute to Pinky Violence / Yakuza style soundtracks from the mid to late 60's to the early to mid 70's.
If you haven't explored the genre of Japanese Soundtracks I strongly suggest that you do, there is a wealth of interesting music - Toshiaki Tsushima being one of the masters, also Hajime (So or Sou) Kaburagi.
Information is difficult to come by, just as much as the music is since the original text is Japanese - most of these soundtracks have been re-issued via Ultra-Vybe (Solid Records, Hotwax) and a lot of the tracks are doubled up on the amazing 'Go! Cinemania' compilations.
If you wish to explore some of the music - including the non psyche/funky material Wildgrounds is a good place to start.
If you wish to download '19 Killing Shots That Rang Out Under a Blood Red Sun' you can do so here.
Kenjiro Hirose - Kenka Timon Game Woman 5 (Japan, 1974)
As best as I can find this is from the soundtrack to 'Girl Boss: Diamond Showdown'. It's a great little mid tempo funky piece with an excellent drum break in the middle. As I think I've previously said, there are a lot of nuggets to be found in late 60's early 70's Japanese soundtrack music.
Again, the title was produced by Google translator and could mean anything. Most of the time you end up with titles like 'Blind Man Woman Death Battle Albatross Lampshade M-3', which to be fair, could very well be the title. Either way, it must have been a hell of a fight sequence if it existed anywhere but in my mind.
Delinquent Girl Boss : Worthless To Confess (1971)
Toshiaki Tsushima - M-22 (Japan, 1971)
I've decided to change the pace a little and put some Japanese soundtrack music up for your listening pleasure. I've recently been getting some excellent 60's- 70's, mostly Nikkatsu New Action / Pinky Violence soundtracks which vary between Japanese garage/psyche with bands like The Mops and The Spiders, but also some really funky library style soundtrack music with big brass, meandering guitars and some big beats (Sukeban Guerrilla being a great example for instance).
This one is more of a grandiose theme rather than a funky segue and has moments where it really should have ended up on a Tarantino soundtrack (in fact I think he used a Toshiaki Tsushima track in Kill Bill 1)
And yes, I suspect that M-22 is the title. It's very hard to find titles for this stuff.
Anyway. Enjoy.
Japanese record labels have been issuing Italian soundtracks and compilations for several years. But, until recently, the availability of Japanese cult soundtracks has been scant at best. Thankfully, the Hotwax Trax compilations from Ultra Vybe subsidiary Solid Records are making a serious dent in the demand for Japsloitation movie music. With home video companies like Criterion and Panikhouse releasing DVDs of Japanese cult flicks of the '60s and '70s it only makes sense that a record label would come forward with a series of soundtrack comps. Hotwax Trax accounts for some of the most notorious yakusa crime and "pinky" sexploitation films of the era. With music ranging from early rock to jazz to lounge to folk to psychedelia and funk, these discs offer a full gamut of listening pleasure. That's the good news. About half of the tracks have Japanese vocals, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing the complete lack of song title and lyric translations are likely to leave some listeners humming along but also scratching their heads. Sure the melodies are usually catchy, but wouldn't it be great to know what they're singing about? One can assume that the lyrics reflect the seedy subject matter of the films, but without the proof it's difficult to appreciate their celebration or lamentation of life in the underworld. That said, if you can listen to Bollywood songs without getting held up by the language these Japsloitation tunes shouldn't pose a problem. For some listeners the instrumentals will be more enjoyable. Hearing the Japanese take on rock 'n' roll and crime jazz can be a giddy pleasure. Still, it would be a stretch to say that they do anything innovative with the forms. We're not talking about hybrid cars or lean manufacturing processes — areas where the Japanese are famously innovative. Clearly, when it comes to popular music forms, they're copying what they've heard in American and European films, and merely doing a competent job of it. There's novelty in it to be sure, but repeated listens may leave more descerning listeners wanting something more inventive — like Bollywood's often kaleidoscopic take on the same western genres. Just as the listening experience is a mixed pleasure, so is the packaging. Most of the CDs come with surprisingly large, luridly colorful movie poster reproductions. And the CD inserts contain numerous provocative movie images. The problem is all of the text on these inserts is in Japanese with no translation. So, artist names, tracklists and movie info generally are a mystery. Unless one reads Japanese or knows someone who can, the only way one can learn anything about these releases is to use Google's automatic translator when visiting the Web pages associated with them. But even then, the translations are approximate at best — often laughably so. With so many European soundtrack releases having English-translated liner notes it's frustrating that Solid Records didn't consider it a priority — especially considering the vast number of Japsloitation movie fans in America and Europe. While the Hotwax Trax CDs are exciting additions to any cult soundtrack collection, ScoreBaby can only give a cautious recommendation to non-Japanese listeners, especially in light of their import prices.
The above text was taken from the Score, Baby! website
