Let’s Go J-Sound!

Happy belated New Year! Many thanks for the nice comments we’ve gotten about Let’s Go J-Sound! in recent months. We’ve been neglecting the blog, but we hope to keep it updated a lot more frequently in 2007 and expand it’s focus a little to include news and other tid bits about Japanese music made between 1955-1985. We’d like to start updating Let’s Go J-Sound at least once a week or at the very least every other week, so please visit us more often!

We’ve gotten lots of requests from people asking us to repost some of the old songs we talked about here last year, so we decided to kick-start the new year by compiling all the tracks into a mini compilation for your listening pleasure. We plan on making it available for a month and after that we will remove the file and the songs will not be posted ever again so grab them while you can.

- Let’s Go J-Sound! 2006 Collection

Cheers!

Shunsuke Kikuchi is a prolific composer specializing in incidental music for television and film. His music has set the scenes for a long list of anime, drama and period drama programs, as well as tokusatsu shows like Chôjin Barom 1 (aka Superman Barom 1), Denjin Zaborga (aka Electroid Zaborger), Iron King and Robot Keiji (aka Robot Detective). In addition, he was responsible for the music in the first few installments of the long running Kamen Rider (aka Masked Rider) series. Kicuchi has also composed quite a few impressive soundtracks for films including Hajime Sato’s Kaitei Daisenso (aka Battle Beneath the Sea or Terror Beneath the Sea) and several of the Female Convict Scorpion, Gamera and Sister Street Fighter movies.

Masato Shimon is another heavy-hitter in the world of theme songs, lending his distinctive vocal talents to many tokusatsu classics such as Kikaida, Kikaida-01 and Inazuman (aka Lightning Man). He has teamed up with Shunsuke Kikuchi on several occasions with tracks for Denjin Zaborga, Iron King and Kamen Rider to name just a few.

Kamen Rider Amazon was the 4th installment in the Kamen Rider series and aired on TBS in Japan between 1974-1975. The program only ran over a course of 24 episodes and is known as the shortest running series in the history of Kamen Rider. The show starred Tôru Okazaki and is considered by many to be the most violent and bloodiest of the Kamen Rider series. It is for this reason Kamen Rider Amazon is said to have had such a short run on television, as it was considered to be just too “dark” for the kiddies.

Submitted for your listening pleasure are 2 short BGM tracks from Kamen Rider Amazon composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi. And for something a little different, a modern 2000 remix of the opening theme song “Amazon Rider Koko ni Ari” (aka “Amazon Rider is Here”), featuring vocals by Masato Shimon and remixed by URU.

- Jungle M-18 by Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Concrete Jungle M-10 by Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Amazon Rider Koko ni Ari vocals by Masato Shimon and remixed by URU

- brought to you by T3rtium Quid

Za KageStar (aka The Shadow Star) was a tokusatsu program that aired between 1976-1977 on NET TV in Japan over a course of 34 episodes. The show starred Naoki Tachibana as KageStar, who along with his trusty companion BelleStar (played by Emi Hayakawa), battled the forces of Doctor Satan and his Satan Empire.

Ichirô Mizuki (seen in picture) provided the lead vocals for the 4 songs associated with this show which include the closing theme “Star! Star! KageStar!” where he is accompanied by the childrens choir known as The Columbia Cradle Club. Mizuki is a force to be reckoned with in the world of anime & tokusatsu theme songs, recording hundreds of them over his 30+ year career so be prepared to see/hear more of him in upcoming posts!

Without further delay, this is my favorite KageStar track “Star! Star! KageStar!” and a video of the opening title sequence.

- brought to you by T3rtium Quid