Denki Groove: C/D, RFI

I've purchased "Karateka" and "Flash PaPa Menthol" which to be honest are a bit dated and disappointing. Orange + Voxxx + what I've heard from ilbon2K and later efforts all still totally classic, though.

Had to bump this thread, wondering if anyone else has experienced the greatness of Denki Groove?? They've released a few albums since this thread was created. Look up the video for "Shonen Young" on Youtube...amazing tune, bizarre and very cool video. What can I say about the albums (in one or two sentences):

Flash Papa (1990): Kind of a KLF-type stadium house album with some rapping, well-produced but yeah kind of dated
UFO (1991): Best of the early period, ace remix of "Cosmic Surfin" on here, some great pop tunes as well
Karateka (1992): Some ace stuff in the first half, otherwise a little bland
Vitamin (1993): First album of more straight-up techno. Some good trance grooves and cheery melodies. Sounds dated but I still enjoy it - "N.O." is a classic.
Dragon (1994): Vocal tracks are amazing, the rest is kind of hit or miss
Flash Papa Menthol (1994): I prefer this to the original. Some creative remixing.
Drill King Anthology (1995): Not essential but kind of fun. Cool rip of "Tour de France"
Orange (1996): Neat sound based on short loops, inconsistant but interesting. DAREDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
A (1998): Great electronic album with many different approaches. Funny and terrifying.
VOXXX (2000): All-time classic!! Covers seemingly every genre of electronic music, long but very worthwhile.
J-POP (2008): New, stripped down sound, some very funky grooves. Not as colorful as past stuff.
Yellow (2008): Good material but terrible production. What happened??
20 (2009): Hit or miss, obviously put out to honor their anniversary but a little light on good material. Would have made a fantastic EP though.

Oh yeah: CLASSIC!

btw I realize that I'm destined to be the one bumping this thread into oblivion but I seriously think that ILM would absolutely love these guys. I just picked up the Singles & Strikes comp, which is great (the single mix of "Kame Life" = ACEEEEEEE) and found out they have a new comp coming out called "Due to Contract" which has a cover featuring the skulls of the two members

I like 'em, was wondering Frogbs, do you like Yukari Fresh?

Yeah...its really fun stuff for the most part, I think she fits the description a lot of critics were giving Cornelius during his Fantasma period a lot more than Cornelius ever did. I really like the cover of "Dead" by Datarock on the 2005 covers disc

oh wow, new album tomorrow, I'm beyond excited. havent heard "Missing Beats" yet but "Upside Down" and "Shameful" are damn great singles. plus there's apparently a Monkees cover on this one. what is it with the Japanese and the Monkees covers, I wonder? oh yeah, I'm just talking to myself here. I don't care what it costs, that double 12 inch will be mine!!!

http://coolestsound.jp/im/blog/480/http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QVXTSo3EL.jpg

come on folks. this is going to rule

Heya Frogbs, have you read this?

http://neojaponisme.com/2004/11/15/the-legacy-of-shibuya-kei-part-one/

just got through the first part and this is real fascinating, guessing i'll have a dozen new bands to check out after this

glad to see him giving Hosono his due, I always considered him (and YMO as a whole) as sort of the forefather to all this stuff

come to think of it I know there's a really good dissection of Fantasma on this website - one of the best music articles I've ever read

they have a great video featuring a gas leak.....

celebrate new album by Denki Groove by playing this on repeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV8bsYWQkpo

okay, this is pretty damn good, especially the 8th track which is downright gorgeous, kinda like a new "Reaktion". god I love these dudes

new one a good place to start? I've never really listened to em outside of a few youtubes.

Its definitely one of their most overtly pop albums. I'm sure you'd probably dig it but I dunno if it would turn you into a fan. Although I'd say it's on par with <i>A</i> which is the one that most people seem to know. I'd probably recommend <i>UFO</i> (1991) or <i>VOXXX</i> (2000). <i>UFO</i> is probably their most fun album overall, especially if you're into <i>White Room</i>-era KLF. <i>VOXXX</i> is my favorite, in fact one of my favorite albums period, but I say that with the caveat that I know most people will probably find it real abrasive. It's kinda like a standard late-90's big event techno album that goes to hell four tracks in and never quite makes it back. But given the other stuff you like I doubt you'll find it inaccessible or anything. The one I started with was <i>Dragon</i> (because "Niji" was on it, I guess) and I definitely liked it though it did give me some wrong ideas about the group.

oh that tag doesn't work huh ooops

right on, thanks! I'm gonna listen and report back.

man, VOXXX is impressive. the stretch of long tracks at the end totally rules. the whole thing totally rules.

glad you like it! you may want to pick up Ilbon2000, the live album they did right after - same sort of overly aggressive mixing, and the last 15 minutes (which runs through six of their most famous songs) is absolutely nuts

oh man, that sounds great. I definitely will, thanks!

really addicted to VOXXX now. "reaktion" is gorgeous and I'm loving the banging electro tracks like "themes from the invader" too.

ohhh baby, look what came in the mail today :)

http://i.imgur.com/80vvzSi.jpg

officially the weirdest music video I've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jolA2GYwZg

Weird! Shame that the track is absolutely piss poor.

Oh I should catch up on these dudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEsj16GHWKo

MAN MAN MAN MAN MAN MAN HUMAN

30th anniversary album out today, hope it comes to US iTunes

wtf, they've been disappeared

probably because of https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/03/13/national/crime-legal/actor-musician-pierre-taki-arrested-drug-bust/

yeah - I knew Japan was still a Reefer Madness sort of country but didn't know it was to this extent. This is a really weird situation because A) Denki Groove have been an institution for 30 years, from what I read their music is still everywhere, and B) Taki isn't *really* the main guy in the band anyway, Ishino writes all the music and (I assume) gets most of the royalties, so it's kind of fucked in that sense too. It seems like there's a big backlash to this, Ishino's tweets are getting 70k likes (up from say, 100) and Ryuichi Sakamoto publicly came out in his defense. It's just obnoxious, a great example of why streaming services kinda suck, especially since copies of all DGs stuff just went up 150% overnight on Discogs and eBay. R. Kelly is still on iTunes, by the way.

Sega pulled a game off the shelves because he plays one of the characters. Disney pulled Frozen off the shelves because he voices Olaf in Japan.

They don't play around. Screws everyone.

dropped by Sony :/

happy Friday, just wanna share the best music video ever, finally one that YouTube didn't pull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH1C-LZ57K4

Used to walk around blaring Takkyu Ishino's DJ-F400 mix in my headphones all the time in middle school, it was in its own league. Everything he did around that time was killer. Voxxx is tremendous.

I found a vinyl copy of Voxxx on discogs for 40 bucks!!!! But because of the stupid pandemic it would've cost an extra $64 to ship!!

all their stuff is back now

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyzc5hVpmygNHOYOy8717Xg

looks like everything is finally back on streaming services again. fuckin right!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RMFTkvkZqU (skip to 2:00)

who could believe these guys were on coke ????