Home | Kyouiku REDUX | Patricle Physics | Actlab
Variety Revamp
- Kaban no Nakami
- Killer Tune
- SSAW
- Fukushuu
- Pinnochio
- OSCA
- Botoumin
- Tsukigime-hime
- Metro
- Put Your Camera Down
- Shiseikatsu
*Sample of originals at bottom of page*
Upon finishing my first re-mixed album project, I immediately began pondering my next project. If I wanted to do another audio project in that vain, I wouldn't have to look very far. Tokyo Jihen's third album, Variety, is largely seen as a failure in the fan base. Rather than having songs written by the champoined hit song writer, Shiina Ringo, these duties have been passed on to newcomer guitarist (Ukigumo) and pianist (Izawa Ichiyo.) What we got was a 13-track album full of goofy, disjoiunted, amateurish songs with as many as gratuitous, self-congratulatory solos as possible.
My goal was to refuse to allow my band to make a bad album without me having a say about it.
The last project was almost strictly a re-mix. This project is largrely a re-edit. The problem with the previous album happened very late in the creation process -- the mastering stage. Variety's problems lie in the bedrock, the actual song writing. This was an up hill, if not impossible, ordeal.
I gave myself some guidelines in creating this album: I wanted only 11 or 12 tracks totalling less than 40 minutes. It is my perception that the band wanted to make a retro pop album. The band ultimately forgot that pop records can't be too long. They need to get in and get out before the audience starts thinking and realizes how crappy the pop song really is. My goal for each track was to: remove needless, jarring solos; shorten where possible; make overall more pleasing and listenable if not covered by the first two goals.
Here is a track by track break down of my work:
Kaban no Nakami - This was not on the original album, it was a B-side. I felt it was too strong to omit. This was strong to begin with, all I did was fade out earlier. Most "60's" sounding songs I took the page from how these types of songs were edited back then and they almost always faded the outro as it was starting. Usually this sounded best.
Killer Tune: One of the singles from the original album. After the intro there was originally a very jarring, inappropriate guitar solo. When the song was first released, everyone slammed this solo. So I took it out -- I would have liked to omit the drum solo, which was there to RESTART the song since the guitar derailed it, but I couldn't achieve it in a manner I liked. The next and most glaring issue at hand with this song is to try to tone down Shiina's amazingly bad singing. To do this I slowed the entire song by 3.5%, and allowed it to lower the pitch of the entire song. This not only changed the key the song was in, but changed the note Shina is singing in the chorus thus curbing her voice a bit and making it more listenable. The band plays it this way live ANYWAY. Also I shortened the ending because it went on forever originally.
SSAW: This song was voted least favorite on the original album. I was all but ready to cut it from my album when I heard my re-edit of it in my head. I was very excited. I sped up the tempo by alot, got rid of every piano solo all together, moved the guitar solo between verses 1 and 2, cut out verse 3, and made the dragging 3:55 song into a snappy little 2:50 song. I'm 100% proud of this song.
Fukushuu: Almost exactly the same as the original, I just faded out seconds earlier. The main edit here is framing within the album. I think the first 3 tracks start off really happy, so then this song comes on and tells you you're not in Kansas anymore and I follow it up with Pinnochio and OSCA to re-enforce that idea. Originally this song was surrounded by three decidedly goofy songs and completely undercut Fukushuu.
Pinnochio: A B-side. I coulda left italone. No one ever complained about this song. But I had to mess with it anyway. The orig has the conventional verse, chorus, verse, chorus structure...and I was thinking going from the chorus back to the verse is kind of a let down. So I moved verse 2 after the instrumental bridge after verse 1, denying you the chorus. Then combine the two choruses into one big one. So hopefully there is this build up of excitement and tension through the verses and then have a big grandiose chorus. Unconventional, but interesting to me, and hopefully undetectable. I had several versions of this song, including a 6 minute one -- but it just wasn't working out.
OSCA: The first single from the album. I hated the song originally. It takes forever to start and has FOUR mino solos of eacch instrument before each verse. Crazy stupid. So I shortened the intro by 4 bars and removed two of the four mini solos. If you listen to the original youll hear the mini solo progression goes drums, bass, guitar, keyboard. However the bass plays the same thing the keys do and the guitar plays the same rhythm the drums do. So I removed the redundant and unnecessary bass and guitar bits. I originally planned to change the ending of this song, but after my changes I felt the song had "earned" it's ending.
Boutomin: An edit I'm very proud of. Thhis song was very problematic. It had a very cheesy bass solo sequence and it's ending was a reprise of a song from the band's second album. I cut the bass solo, but moved the intro ofthat solo to the very end of the song, in place of the reprise. I spliced two choruses together to make a very seemless reconstruction. One ofthe prouder things said to me about this prtoject was in regards to this song: "I know what you cut out...but I can't remember where it was originally" -- If these parts were from well-written songs, I shouldn't have been able to seemlessly cut them out.
Tsukigime-hime: Was a problem song to the end. I had cut a really short, sub 3-min version, but I felt it wasn't very satisfying. So I left it relatively unchanged except the ending. Which is a whooole nother story. =p There was a lot of debate between my confidants and me over the ending. I inevitably had to play this song and the different endings I concocted for my non-Shiina-fan, general music liking family to focus group the best way to end. They chose the one you hear here, which I even shortened a tad more than I had.
Metro: Shortened the solo you hear. After that the song originally got quiet and soft. Removed that. The ending, originally had TWO false endings. Removed them and just kept the real ending.
Put Your Camera Down: Another B-side. I like this song alot because it's one of the few simply produced songs the band made. Shortened the intro and outro and variably sped up the tempo of this song to try to make a really nice, simply produced, up-tempo song.
Shiseikatsu: Originally this was track 4. And was followed by goofiness. It is heard hear completely unchanged, the edit here is its album framing.
I removed 5 songs from the original album. And almost 20 minutes! I have to pat myself on the back for this project. I not only think I made a better album, but a pretty good album in general. Unfortunately though, this did not meet the same rave reviews with the fan base as my first project. Some were offended, some refused to listen to it objectively, some said "well its better...but it's still not very good." C'est la Vie. But the idea behind this is solid, I believe. If I made something shitty, and I had a fan do what I did, I'd be proud (and pissed at myself.)
Original Variety Samples: Click here