Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

The mix CD that inspired the graphic of MotokoAoyama.com v2.0… or is it the other way around?

In actuality, I had the concept for the graphic first, but while I was thinking about it, I fooled around with a track listing in iTunes (one of the great things about iTunes and iPods – I can fool around with mix CD track listings before committing a final sequence to a CD-R) and this was the result, which probably spurred my making the final graphic for the site in the first place.

Doing mixes like this is second nature to me. There’s a Black Flag vs. TLC mix that I posted at ArtOfTheMix.org in 2002 (and was well received there, mostly for its sheer ballsyness), and back in the days of cassettes I used to put two albums that had nothing in common with each other outside of my liking them both on each side (Somewhere in my house there is a Maxell C-90 with Debbie Gibson’s first album on one side and Soul Asylum’s Hang Time on the other.)

Anyway, I might as well take everyone through this mix, track by track:

1. “Prelude” - by Robert Fripp, from Exposure (EG/Polydor, 1979) – This is how Robert Fripp’s first new recording since the 1974 breakup of King Crimson. Brian Eno is sitting in a restaurant saying that he has some new things to play that “might be commercial”, followed by multiple Daryl Halls (yes, that’s right) doing a twelve-part harmony, followed by a phone ringing. When the receiver was picked up, the listener ordinarily heard the opening guitar part of “You Burn Me Up I’m A Cigarette”, but on this mix, instead we hear…

2. “Kira Kira Fuyu No Shiny Gal” – by Reina Tanaka, from Morning Musume’s 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini (Zetima, 2006) – This had to be the first Reina song on this mix. She has a great voice and its so great to hear her voice alone on this track. I happened to be watching her live performance of this song from the Autumn 2006 tour this afternoon, and she sounds even better on that.

3. “Elephant Talk” – by King Crimson, from Discipline (EG/Warner Bros., 1981) – The first track the world heard from the reconvened King Crimson after Fripp reformed it with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford in 1981. This was definitely not the same band that dropped “21st Century Schizoid Man” in people’s laps back in 1969 – this was some other-level new shit. Belew making animal noises, Fripp playing a guitar synthesizer, Levin guiding everything along with a Chapman Stick rather than his usual bass… this was a classic right out of the box.

4. “Egao YES Nude” – by Morning Musume, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2007), later on Sexy 8 Beat in an “album mix”. – And speaking of classics right out of the box, this already-classic MoMusu single must have wound up on every mix I made for the International Mixtape Project since this song came out. It’s that fucking great of a song. As of this writing it’s the most-played song ever on my iPod.

5. “I Advance Masked” – by Andy Summers & Robert Fripp, from the album I Advance Masked (A&M, 1982) – A great instrumental from Fripp and the Police’s Andy Summers, the title track of their first collaborative album. A 7/4 tiem signature behind some rather Eastern-sounding leitmotifs, Fripp doing clean 16th-note obbligatos, then Summers comes in near the end with some sustained, Hendrix-esque string bends. Universal just released a remastered edition of this CD.

6. “Sexy Boy ~Soyokaze ni Yorsisotte~” – by Morning Musume, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2006), later on Sexy 8 Beat. – Another great MoMusu A-side with Reina as one of the featured MoMusus.

7. “Sleepless” – by King Crimson, from Three Of A Perfect Pair (EG/Warner Bros., 1984) – This should have been a bigger hit for KC, but Warner Bros. dropped the ball and a lot of radio station programmers weren’t very intelligent or ballsy in those days. Come to think of it, a lot of radio station programmers have gotten worse since then…

8. “FIRST KISS” – by Aa!, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2003), later on the compilation Petit Best 4. – Early evidence that Reina was going to be a standout member of Hello! Project back when she was a rookie MoMusu, with this great TLC-influenced urban contemporary track that also features a young Airi Suzuki (now of °C-ute) going note-for-note with the then 15-year-old Tanakachii.

9. “Dislocated” – by Robert Fripp, from The League Of Gentlemen (EG/Polydor, 1980), later on the CD The League Of Gentlemen/God Save The King (EG, 1989). The first Fripp album I ever owned was the original League Of Gentlemen album, which was mostly Fripp doing new wave-influenced instrumentals in a four-piece outfit that featured ex-XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews on organ and future B-52’s sidewoman Sara Lee on bass. This is one of the standout tracks from that album, which is overdue for a remastering in its original form (only a handful of tracks from this album ended up on CD along with tracks from a couple of post-Exposure Fripp solo albums in 1989 and is out of print even in that form.)

10. “Shanimuni Paradise” – by Miki Fujimoto, Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki and Reina Tanaka, from Sexy 8 Beat. – A splinter group track from MoMusu’s current studio album. The Wonkylicious One shares the mic with Takitty, Gaki-san and then-soon-to-be-shortlived-leader Mikitty.

11. “Inductive Resonance” – by Robert Fripp, from The League Of Gentlemen. Another LOG track. As evidenced by the posthumous (and also currently out of print) Official Bootleg CD and two other live shows that can be downloaded from DGMLive.com, this song both opened and closed LOG concerts. The LOG theme song, then, perhaps? A great Fripp rocker, definitely.

12. “Indigo Blue Love” – by Reina Tanaka, Risa Niigaki and Eri Kamei, from Morning Musume’s Rainbow 7 album (Zetima, 2006) – Back to a modern R&B troika a la TLC for Tanakachii, this time with Risa and Eri as her accomplices.

13. “Disengage II” – by Robert Fripp, from the 2006 CD reissue of Exposure (Discipline Global Mobile) – Why am I using the version from the recent remastered edition of Exposure, rather than the originally released version. Because the actual original recording of this song, which is on the 2-CD reissue, features Daryl fucking Hall on a very punky lead vocal. After hearing this, the originally released recording with Peter Hammill pales in comparison.

14. “Osaka Koi No Uta” – by Morning Musume, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2005), later on Rainbow 7. The last MoMusu single with Rika Ishigawa and Mari Yaguchi on it, and with plenty of Reina on it. This is one of my favorite MoMusu songs – and one of my favorite videos, too.

15. “You Burn Me Up I’m A Cigarette” – by Robert Fripp, from Exposure. Now we get to this track. Fripp provides both Ramonish guitar riffery and some rather unique lyrics for Daryl Hall to sing. This was one of only two Hall vocals that RCA would allow Fripp to release on the originally released version of his own album, a major error on RCA’s part.

16. “Onna Ni Sachi Are” – by Morning Musume, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2007). The third great single in a row from MoMusu this year. Like Drifoy said on 100% Wonkyfied, Reina owns this song.

17. “The Great Deceiver” – by King Crimson, from Starless and Bible Black (Island (UK)/Atlantic (USA), 1973) – The only cut from the original era of KC (1969 to 1974) that I was able to fit onto this mix (most of them, though great, are way too fuckin’ long!). The chorus of this song has been stuck in my head a lot lately.

18. “Yuujou ~Kokoro no Busu niwa Nawanee!~” – by Morning Musume Otomegumi, from the single of the same name (Zetima, 2004). This mix is going out rocking. One of the first MoMusu singles I ever bought (and I bought a bunch at once). Can you do the MoMusu Mosh? Side note: Two of the members of this splinter group, Kaori Iida and Nozomi Tsuji, have since become Morning MILFs this year, with Nono set to pop out her little UltraTsuji next month and Johnson due sometime next year. Reina and the other four members of Otomegumi better go to Condomania and stock up!