[TJ] 2004.11.25 - Kyouiku (CD) [Album]
教育 (Kyouiku)
01. 林檎の唄 (Ringo no Uta) 02. 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori) 03. 入水願い (Jusui Negai) 04. 遭難 (Sounan) 05. クロール (Crawl) 06. 現実に於て (Genjitsu ni Oite) 07. 現実を嗤う (Genjitsu o Warau) 08. サービス (Service) 09. 駅前 (Ekimae) 10. 御祭騒ぎ (Omatsurisawagi) 11. 母国情緒 (Bokoku Jousho) 12. 夢のあと (Yume no Ato) Total Playtime: 42:10 Second-Press Availability: Amazon.co.jp, CD Japan, HMV Japan, YesAsia |
I'm quite curious about this album. Most of the songs are pretty good to great. However, I hate how it was recorded. I would think that she would have had enough clout at this point to get some major backing, yet it sounds as if they had low end equipment.
Was there really major doubt as to how good the band would be and fare, and thus had low funds for the recording? Or was it an artistic whim, a la St.Anger? Has Ringo or any of the band members ever commented on this? |
I thought the same thing about this album when I first got it. Actually, the only reason I bought it instead of just using the mp3's I dled was because I thought the mp3's were a bad rip or something. I'm guessing that that was the sound they wanted on the album, or i'm sure they would havedone it differently.
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I think it was just their choice..maybe they wanted to sound like an indie band. Considering their contract with EMI I don't think they had a low budget (though most of their videos look quite cheap :p) |
I think it was said that this album was recorded over the course of 4 days, and that Ringo wanted a more 'raw' sound for it. Too bad it didn't really work...
It's still a great album, though. |
Hirama looks like 50 years old in the Gunjo PV.
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Well, I can't really tell that the recording is bad, so I don't mind the sound they were going for. :)
Also, it's been mentioned before, but I think the official romanization of track #3 is "Jusui Negai." Quote:
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I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say that this album was recorded badly. There are parts of Adult that sound pretty bad too.
Example: Shuraba (adult ver.) -- near the end of the guitar solo jawn near the beginning, at around 1:10/1:11, if you listen closely with the sound turned up, you can hear a fuzzy sound a second before the drums come back in. I assume it's because they threw the drum track back in there and it wasn't recorded as well as the others (I know nothing about editing). Is this the kind of stuff that you say is wrong with Kyouiku? |
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Kyouiku in it's lovely raw state is better than what most high-budget major artists release throughout their entire careers. :)
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The demon agrees. |
He actually doesn't look that bad there, except for the weird horns. :mellow:
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Hirama's best PV is the half-transvestite one. But I can't find it on youtube anymore!! *cries*
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hes was the best man that SR had in her life |
You know, I'm kind of confused that there's so much mutual distaste for this album.
It was actually my favorite of all of theirs. I thought the kind of grungy-rock really suited the band at that period. It really grew on me the second I heard it. I kind of liked the fuzz and the feedback and static--hell, I would even go far enough as to say it was musical! I feel like the chemistry of the band during the recording of this album was definitely perfect. I guess you could argue that the later albums were better put together, but there's something about this album that stands out that none of the other albums could try to touch. My 2¢. |
Whoooaaa you definitely have the wrong idea. There is absolutely no "mutual distaste" for this album.
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From what I've read, everyone seems kind of "Meh," about it.
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You're my soulmate. There will never be a better TJ than the Kyouiku/DO era one, and the later albums have proven that to us*. *us: just me and you and a handful of other people who share the same sentiments about the band. |
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I've been so conflicted with this Education vs. Adult debate that my head's rattling. I think I lean slightly more towards Adult because I loves me the jazz, but Education (to me) is just as jazzy as Adult with more filters and obfuscations. The writer over at Musicwhore has described Ringo as an incredible jazz writer on more than on occasion and I really couldn't agree more. I need to go back to sitting on the fence. (But Variety still sucks mondo big-time.) |
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@justriiingo
Haha. :D I pretty much feel the same. Adult is more varied and jazzy, it's true, but I feel like (I guess I'll just say) Education had so much more of a punk-friendly attitude towards it that I love. Plus, the Dynamite Out DVD is great in every single way. (Plus, who besides me can get over the Ringo and Hirama duets?) @Cosmo! Like I said above, I agree with what you say. Her writing is pretty amazing (to me anyways) on both albums, but I prefer the abrasive nature of Education to the...maturity of Adult (lol, no one kill me for the shitty pun.) And yeah, I definitely agree--Variety didn't sit too well with me. It's good, just not very listen-able to me. @Lena-chan :] |
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Lol, admittedly, I haven't been too smitten with any albums that came out last year.
I liked Japanese Manners, though. Better than Adult. ._. |
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I can save Tokyo Jihen and Shiina Ringo with the power of my Stratocaster. Gone shall be the twangy twink-a-tink and in shall be the dream pop/swing. |
@Maou
Oh, haha. I see now. I could understand why someone wouldn't like that aspect of it, but I feel like this album is the best they've ever shown. :D And hooray! Another Fender aficionado! |
^ Yes, I agree that Kyouiku is their best album. Sounan and Yume no Ato cement that for me.
I love Fender guitars. I'm thinking of switching to a Jaguar for my main single coil guitar and turning my Strat into a Maiden-like metal machine. At the very least, I'm going to put a P90/P100 in the Strat bridge. If it works for Sugizo, it works for me. |
I cheat when it comes to matters of the Education. I sneak in Dynamite after Sounan and replace Yume no Ato with Kokoro. Kokoro is my absolute favorite Tokyo Jihen song from either phase, Dynamite is just a fun song that works really well cushioned between Sounan and Crawl, and the Heisei Fuuzoku version of Yume no Ato blows this version out of the water, so I don't feel bad about scrapping it.
I find myself falling in love with Education all over again. I just love the sloppy/hectic production/playing and wonder how Variety might've sounded through this filter. There seems to be a calculated precision to Variety that just doesn't work with this band; they need to be loud and messy and not so hamfisted as Jihad Jihen would type. |
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- The missing "humming" bass part. It was even missing in the Phase 2 version. - The weak ending in the HF version. The Kyouiku version has a hectic, desperate ending that conveys the song's mood better than the generic HF broadway ending. |
I totally get why you'd prefer this version to HF's. I just think there's a clarity to the newer version (especially with the piano) and Ringo's voice is more emotive, especially when she gets to wailing like a nervous banshee. That right there is the stuff of wet dreams for me.
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@Maou
Haha. If it works for SUGIZO? Lol, I'm a bit of a SUGIZO huge-mega-ultra-diehard fan. Or at least I used to be. He's disappointing me lately. My fandom went far enough to get one of his S-I guitars and his autograph and a bunch of his jewelry. *sigh* @Cosmo! You know, I think you put it best. Variety kind of threw me off due to it's production. It really is a lot more polished than what came before. That's part of the reason I didn't really like it. Don't get me wrong, it's not TERRIBLE. I listen to some of the songs, but it wasn't a very important release for me. |
^ Haha, yeah. My Strat has a hybrid of his old pickups. I have a Seymour Duncan Antiquity in the bridge and SD Antiquity II Surfers in the mid/neck. Sugizo's VIII model guitars have an SD SP90 in the bridge so that's what I'm going to use. I'm also planning on purchasing an S-III (with sustainer) when I'm in Japan for school.
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Lol...getting off topic, so I figure I'll just PM you. :]
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I'm not completely clear on this, but the singles had a different recording/mix than the album, right? I was listening to the Sounan single for the first time in forever and it didn't sound as bad as I remember Kyouiku sounding.
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Holy crap
Now I understand why people say this album's sound quality is utter crap...
I just loaded up a couple of the tracks in a sound editor and each song appears as almost a complete rectangular block instead of the waveform that it is supposed to look like... It is just too insanely loud...everything is clipped to hell... :L Was it truly meant to be this way?? Maou> I think it is just because you've not been listening to Sounan for a long time. I loaded both Sounan album and single versions and they both look like rectangular blocks... |
Ringo and Kameda know a thing or two about recording/production, so it's safe to assume that it was intentional. I think the songs were compressed to within an inch of their lives to give off that amateur/homegrown/garage band vibe, although that can cause a headache if consumed in big doses.
I think this might have something to do with the loudness war that has Bobby Zimmerman all verklempt. |
of course it was intentional. Intentional and moronic and it really kills the album
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I think Ekimae and Yume no Ato suffer from the heavy compression the most, what with the piano being that muffled (with Genjitsu ni Oite surviving intact for the most part).
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The mistake is Hyori. Hyori is the word normally, but because of the "ou" sound at the end of Gunjou, the Hyo sound gets "voiced" up to Byo.
Also, as much as I trash this record for its production; this is the only record in the discography where Hirama plays. So that alone is a compelling argument for "fav album..." (...even if HZM totally drowns him out most of the time ;)) |
just like the number 800. Eight is hachi, 100 is hyaku, but 800 is not hachihyaku; it gets voiced to happyaku tho that doesn't make "pyaku" a word. (well, in that sense)
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If you want to get really technical it'd be like "Gunjou-biyori" or "Gunjoubiyori" as a one-word compound almost, even though it's made up of two words. And yeah, if you were to write it in hiragana, and you're still keeping the two words next to each other, it's ぐんじょうびより. Replace, yes.
It's the same for a Mai Hoshimura song called 桜日和 or "Sakura-biyori." You sometimes see people who got it wrong saying "Sakura Hiyori" but since an actual line of the song goes "sakura-biyori," yeaaah... XD |
Lol at over a year later. But in all seriousness, regardless of 5 pages of hate for the sound quality, I actually think it was seriously effective. Not all songs were too heavy with it, but the raw 90s-LQ-recording feel really worked, in my opinion. It's almost nostalgic, tbh.
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I never minded the sound quality, in fact I liked the distortion and that lo-fi-ness from the start. It wasn't like PJ Harvey's Rid of Me where I really had to get used to it - that was very raw.
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I LOVE this album. I don't have words for how amazing this album is to me. I think Ringo's voice was fantastic and raw and beautiful as well as sexy all the way through. I also think that the music in general was very very well done. It has a complexity that I really love.
Genjitsu Wo Warau's lyrics are brilliant as well. So sexy. <3 |
I don't quite know what I feel about Kyouiku , but I think in Feb, closer to Sports release I'll give it a listen. Actually, I think I'll listen to all of TJ's albums and B-Sides and do mini-reviews of them...
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Kyouiku will always be their freshest album. Maybe because it was a new beginning, maybe because of Hirama and HZM, and maybe because it was so simple yet so complex :). Such a funny album.
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Must be the reason I never noticed it as sounding uncomfortably. I just love this album. I really love it for Genjitsu ni Oite which I adore because I adore Impressionism and this track sounds just like Débussy :wub: |
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O, just a note, but did anyone else find the bass in Genjitsu Wo Warau incredibly amazing? As someone who only recently "discovered" bass in music (I could never hear it before, now I know how to look out for it) I found it stunning. The bass throughout the album is just fantastic
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i take notice of bass a lot too, my favorite bass sound from shiina has to be Okonome De, so clean but so full and thumping on the speakers
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I guess since I play double bass, listening to basslines is a very natural thing for me...
Kameda does a lot of nice groovy basslines, it's great. His playing becomes even more alive when he plays live... |
I'm surprised it took anybody so long to notice Kameda's playing. It's always so prominent in the mix that it's hard to miss. Kameda's one of the best even if he is a bit predictable sometimes.
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It's not based on any evidence but I always guessed the verse of Gibs would be the kind of pop song a girl who liked Debussy would write (not so much the chorus), something about its dreamy chord set and reading the previous song title as a hint. And Hatsukoi Shoujo sounds very Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 played at the piano - the verse has the same chords and if anything the melody revels even more in the Major 7th interval. One nice thing about SR stuff is that she makes rock songs that sound good on piano despite my being a rubbish pianist. I don't know the chords to Genjitsu wo Warau for sure, but it's fun to play an approximation along with the melody (verse: F#maj7add2 Gmaj7 (repeat x times) | Dmaj7 Emaj7 D#m7 ... | Cmaj7 Dmaj7 Gmaj7 ... ). The verse to Sounan comes out really interesting that way, like a mix of 90s R&B and some unidentifiable but very strong 20s jazz sound. Kyoiku's the album that's grown on me the most because I thought it was weird at first, particularly when I started posting here. I used to think Bokoku Jouchou sounded like a piano being shoved down the stairs by a circus elephant and wished I'd got my albums mixed up and Izawa wrote it (I picked up on his "circus" sound early). I still pretend SR didn't write Crawl... <_< edit: Oh and Kyoiku Yume no Ato is the best Yume no Ato. Every other version gets a bit much... |
I think Kyouiku contains some of the best tracks SR has ever written, and although they don't have as many cool moments, or 'Easter Eggs' as the stuff on Shouso Strip, there's a lot of small things I like about them.
For instance: I like how, in Genjitsu wo Warau's verses, the piano/guitar/vocals seem to tease each other, keeping the carrot (apple) dangling. I like the emotionally unstable Ringo against a haunted backdrop in Jusui Negai. I love the smooth, sassy way she ends jissai no kisetsu ni kitai shite/jissai no matsuri ni miryou sare in Omatsuri Sawagi after samba-ing it up (This small thing makes the song for me! And it's sorely lacking from the DO rendition of the song; they just bulldoze it there) I think Ringo helped salvage Crawl by combining it with Sigma. She fused two average/poor songs together to create one of the best performances of DO. |
I like Kyouiku 'cause it's like they put much energy in it. Ekimae made a great performance and Service is freakin' crazy! Yume no ato is really touching.
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Jusui Negai is so extreme in sound and feeling; it's very passionate. It plays out like a Spanish soap opera or something. It gives me chills when I listen to it time in time again.
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IIRC, is there a hidden message as well if we run Kyouiku though a spectrum analyzer, like the XXX in Honnou? I swear I have seen the visualizer thing somewhere on this forum, but I couldnt find it. :(
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Details on the XXX thing here. You know, on the first page of the stickied Easter egg thread?
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Yo freckle what's up with all the sudden responses to ancient comments?
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Yo Bongo... I haven't checked the forum since late summer! I'm catching up! I know it's silly but there are outstanding questions that should get answered even if it is incredibly late.
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Service- how to be annoying yet charming at the same time
FOUL- Service's more annoying, less charming little brother. But I like them both :-) |
I'd say it was the other way round.
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Something pointless I just realized.
When turned on its side, the crane resembles an "E." "E" for Education! Probably not intentional, but I thought it was amusing. |
Speaking of the crane, did we ever get any explanation for it at all?
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Is it a crane or stylized pornography? It's both!
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the booklet does have a large mural with the band amongst birds. I always got the impression that the crane just came from the Japanese crane, which fits in with TJ's traditional yet neo-tokyo image. Also, the crane turned into the peacock starting with phase 2 so I think its kind of a moot point by now. |
SHIT. I GOT MINDFUCKED.
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Isn't Genjitsu wo Warau one of the greatest Jihen songs ever?
The Kyouiku version makes me think of a black widow mating session happening along an especially labyrinthine web. (And in the Dynamite Out version, the web gets ravaged in the process!). I just love how the band alternates between tickling you and slamming you into a brick wall, depending on SR's unreliable mental state. Btw, listening to this album again -- and Adult -- makes me think that every single one of TJ's albums could be cut down into EPs and would sound much 'tighter.' |
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The JCHI version sucks though. |
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It is just not right without them played together. |
Lol, I just imagined if the vocals on it were by Ukigumo
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Too true. Genjitsu was one of the first SR/TJ songs I heard and about half way through the first listen everything just clicked so beautifully. I remember that moment so well... one the train to work, My pupils probably dilated and I may have just sat there with a ridiculous expression of happiness on my face. |
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Ringo envisioned this perfectly in this two pieces. |
The first time I listened to the album I wasn't looking at the player and assumed they were a single track.
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The thing about Oite is that I kind of wish it didn't include that last little bar or figure that segues directly into Warau. I would kind of like it if it stood more on its own, just leave those last notes to fade and finish and then Warau can start as it does. That way it would sound like the songs are two songs reminiscent of each other, or two parts to the same song, rather than being essentially one song with an introductory piece. I just feel it could have been a bolder statement.
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In my custom Kyouiku I actually connected the two songs together.
It's my favourite off the album! A while back, I asked about Ringo's biggest "FUCK YOU" songs, and I think Genjitsu is one. Though the emotions seem so conflicting. First she's talking about how the guy is no good, and then she says "I would like to be merged into you" But listening to the DO version it's like any second she's going to find this guy and claw his fucking eyes out. It's awesome. |
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Hey, we all agreed on something! Ringo writes awesome "FUCK YOU" songs. :P |
According to YesAsia, this CD (as well as several other Ringo CDs) are copy-protected. Is that true? If so, does that really mean it's not possible to rip to your own computer.
((DRM sucks)) |
Only if u don't know what you're doing
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I guarantee you, 99% of the time I have no idea what I'm doing (this applies to every situation)
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Don't worry about the copy protection. It doesn't work. At best, it slightly slows down the ripping speed.
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YesAsia doesn't know the date range for when the record label was protecting anything.
With the Toshiba-EMI CDs I own from a handful of different artists, the protection streak began in Q4 2002 (months after Utaite Myouri - but months before Stem), and ended just before Q4 2004 (when Tokyo Jihen singles were introduced). The Casshern soundtrack seems to have been a protection-free exception during the timeframe (I'm not quite 100% certain about this). Unfortunately the streak of protected releases did include the bonus CD for Baishou Ecstasy, even if they haven't officially declared it as a protected release. Subsequent CD releases (Gunjou Biyori and onward) were unprotected. However, the record label (even as they became EMI Japan) continued to manufacture protected versions of the 2002-2004 releases, all the way until 2008 when they suddenly reissued most of their 2002-2004 catalog in unprotected versions. (and then they let the 2008 Stem reissue go out-of-print just like the first two pressings) So in a nutshell, no retail Japanese CDs under the Tokyo Jihen name were ever copy-protected. As for how to deal with the protection when you come across it: Trying to rip a pre-2008 KZK CD (one of the first Shiina Ringo purchases I ever made) was what compelled me into finally settling with Exact Audio Copy as my ripper-of-choice. I never had to tell EAC anything about what kind of protection it was ripping, or whether there was any protection at all. In-lieu of Secure ripping (the one-size-fits-all solution more commonly employed with unprotected discs), EAC simply knew what had to be done - even if it meant the ripping might go more slowly than Secure ripping would more-typically be. |
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