So, there are these tracks which I love, the artists of which I don’t know too well. I’m looking for them, I am, because I want to understand more myself and find more music by them… but should I wait until then to share my discoveries with you? (Fistula Spume is raising the bar here, since he’s always posting amazing things and is teaching me all about his crazy wonderful music. Well, gloves off. He’s inspired me and I’m ready to post. Even in my ignorance, you will at least hear what I’m talking about thanks to the MOG player, in all of its glam fabulosity.)
First up is Doctor Y.S. and the Cosmic Drunkards. I have three tracks by this artist/project/brainchild of Yoshihiro Sawasaki. I’ve tried to find out more information but I’m lacking some language ability here (and here), so help me out if you’re in the know. Discogs tells me he has a number of other projects besides the Cosmic Drunkards. There’s also Meditation Y.S., Mushroom Now!, Techno The Gong, and he’s released music in collaboration with these other projects/groups: Transonic Jokers and Ultra Machine. Sawasaki seems like a really fun guy who’d be fun to tour with from the pictures I’m finding of his sushi eating antics and explorations of neglected steam baths and other fanciful places.
I first discovered Sawasaki by cosmic serendipity in a welcome moment of confirmed pronoia. His track “Secret Samba” was one side of some vinyl I found in an orphaned record sleeve in a Philly Record store (611). With little idea of what album it came from, and little help provided by the store dj/clerk, I had to settle for the pleasure of a good mystery. The other tracks on disc were also brilliant: “Matsuri” by dj Krush and “Paradise, version 2” by Swing Slow (the project of Miharu Koshi and Haruomi Hosono). I left the store without buying the disc — a big mistake! At the time I was thinking it was only one of four discs and I’d rather get the complete album, and the orphan was selling for something outrageous, like $10. I mean, how much would you pay for an orphan?? The Internet was of no help to me in 1997 looking for more information. (I’d have to wait five more years before I learned it was off a compilation called Pacific State (1997, Deviant Records). You can now find it easy.). It dawned on me a week later that what I had heard was extraordinary and I had to find that disc. But Alas! it was nowhere to be found. I was really lucky when a year later, to the day, it reappeared in a section given over to happy hardcore. Really, there’s no telling how stuff can sometimes be filed in some record stores.
Now for the music. First, is “Secret Samba.”
Second, by Yoshihiro Sawasaki, is “Snow Coast” from the soundtrack to the anime show, Boogiepop Phantom. (You’ll have to stream/download this into your favorite player for MOG is, for now, only allowing me to share one song at a time, not that I’m not appreciative.) I should mention that since I’ve been rather hooked by this “Snow Coast” track… I think I’ve listened to it about 20 times now!
“Doctor Y.S. & the Cosmic Drunkards” is shared by Aharon N. Varady with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
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