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Bianca Neve - Wake Up!

This is another release of Al's that I have on vinyl. One of his later Italo-disco projects before foraying into work in films, Bianca Neve was the second attempt by Al to shoot Dutch? model Anne Dattner into Euro-dance superstardom; the first was Kristal, where she performed alongside future Rai Due director Massimo Liofredi, and scored a hit with Love & Magic, while other singles Ete Super and Mango Tree* failed to make a similar impact. (Despite what Discogs would have you believe, this Kristal was not the Kristal behind Love In Stereo.)

The same is true with Bianca Neve, where Dattner was merely a visual performer in the vein of Rob and Fab from Milli Vanilli or Jimmy McShane from Baltimora while famous Italian singer Edda Dell'Orso really performed the vocals; while the first Bianca Neve single Prince Kiss became an international hit in Europe, the single pictured here, Wake Up!, did not, despite distribution from CBS Records, and was never issued on CD by any of, say, Bianco Y Negro's Italo-disco compilation lines.

Its b-side, Broken Heart, has become the more well-known song in recent years, having cemented its way into the hearts of Italian horror fans when Al included its music video on the Synapse Films DVD of Fatal Frames. Broken Heart was later rearranged into the song "Tonight", featured in Al's 1990 directorial debut Gipsy Angel.

(*Al's video for Mango Tree has seemingly spiked up to over 20,000 views after appearing on YouTube, which I'm guessing mostly come from Italian users fascinated with Massimo Liofredi's presence in the video. It's hard to confirm my hunch since comments are disabled, but I did see someone from Italy post it on Twitter in reference to Liofredi, so that's what I'm working off of. Regardless, the song was seemingly not a hit when it was originally issued in 1985.)

Metallo Italia

Life's not all Mad Capsule Markets for me, y'know: one of my greatest passions in life is Italian genre cinema. This LP I'm showing off today isn't explicitly a soundtrack to an Italian horror, exploitation, poliziotteschi or fantascienza, but songs from this album have made their way into one through the guy composing its main soundtrack. What film is that, you ask? Bruno Mattei's famous Predator clone Robowar. Yes, the one that Spoony reviewed. (On a side note, I did send Spoony the songs on this album that showed up on the Robowar soundtrack through a brief email exchange. Great guy.)

Not totally seamless, these gatefold pics are, but what can I tell ya...

This compilation of NWOBHM-influenced Italian metal was released in 1985 (in May, apparently, according to a tiny printing on the inner record sleeve) to local success, but many metalheads objected to the cover: the beast of Italian metal, Marius, holding the severed head of a decapitated Eddie the Head, Iron Maiden's famous mascot. The entire compilation was put together by Al Festa, a famous composer of Italo disco, soundtracks to a few of Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso films from the late 80s (the latter's film, After Death, brought Al his most famous song in its opening theme Living After Death), and the director of the 1996 giallo Fatal Frames, one of my favorite films of all time, as well as a good friend of mine.

The two songs that show up in Robowar are the first two songs on the album: Raff's "I Trust" and Shout's "Break It Up". There are a couple other classics on this album as well, like TIR's "Amsterdam" and the famous Italian metal band Vanexa's "It's Over". Al also directed a video of the entire album, with all of the bands performing their songs at one venue, bookended by scenes of King Arthur (played by Al) and Marius. I haven't been able to track down the VHS by itself, but one channel on YouTube has devoted itself to uploading most of the tape. For some reason, they only put up the first halves of each of the performances, but the bookend segments are intact.

On a side note, Raff is putting out an album consisting of re-recorded versions of songs from their unreleased album Gates Of Fortune, and I Trust is one of the songs on it. The LP version is already out, but Jolly Roger Records is putting out the CD version of this album on September 8th. If you're interested, this is a great way to get into Italian metal, outside of, say, picking up a bunch of Death SS records.

Government Wall single

Here it is, folks, the manmaker, the shitstopper, the first release Mad ever released as Mad, and not Berrie as they were originally named. This was the first ever single they released, as well as the first release under their self-run and short-lived Insect Noise label.

This is seemingly Mad's rarest release besides the Poison Revolution demo they released under the name Berrie; as of this writing, the only listing for it on Yahoo Auctions sits at a whopping 32,800 yen to buy out (about $328 USD, considering the exchange rate between the US and Japan is pretty much 1:1). I got mine for 4,800, which is way cheaper, but more than I've ever paid for any other Mad release before import fees. (Humanity only cost me a few dollars less, and came with no Buyee fees.)

Unfortunately, neither this nor the Insect Noise release of Humanity list an intended release date like other Japanese CD releases do, but again, thanks to Tak Mad's blog on Mad merchandise, I've found them: the Government Wall single was released on August 1st, 1990, while Humanity was released exactly two months later, on October 1st.

This single was released in a longbox-cased 8cm CD single, just like the three P.O.P.-era singles, the single for Eject→Out, and the single for Walk!, which should be in my mailbox today.

Dance2Noise 002

A couple days ago, inside a package from Buyee sat Dance2Noise 002, a compilation I needed so I could add more to Rare Mad. Inside this odd collection of eclectic dance music sits a Mad track called Japanese Sight, which is the closest the band has ever sounded to industrial by the likes of, say, Einsturzende Neubauten.

Invitation released Dance2Noise 002 on March 21st, 1992, about four months before Mad released Capsule Soup on July 22nd. This was likely what steered them towards Capsule Soup's musical direction, if they weren't heading that route anyways.

A fairly scant portion of the liner notes focusing on Mad's contribution.

Digidogheadlock singles

Admittedly, Digidogheadlock is on the lower spectrum of Mad's discography as far as my personal order of preference goes, but despite that, it's still a pretty great album in its own right. It also features what is easily one of my favorite album covers ever. It had the first single releases in Mad's discography to have remixes, a practice they carried with them until the end after the additional success it brought them. I scored all three at the same time, in the same lot that compilation of P.O.P.-era singles came in.

All three singles from this album have very nicely matching obis, which thankfully also match the album's. The single for Systematic came out about a month before the full album's release, and although it does not have a remix by Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot as the later two do, it is the only one with two remixes.

Unfortunately, it's also one of my few Mad discography pieces with dreaded obi fading.

Crash Pow and Creature came out on the same day, about two months after the album's release. In addition to being on two different CDs, they were also issued together on one split LP. Both feature Alec Empire remixes that are pretty good (although I think Crash Pow's is better than the ridiculously long one Creature got), but they are also the only remixes he ever did for Mad.

The UK edition of Digidogheadlock, the version with a yellow cover instead of the Japanese version's red cover, contains all but one of the remixes on these singles as bonus tracks; unfortunately, the Motokatsu & Kei Kusama Remix of Systematic is absent, and the last two are written in the exact opposite order on the back, but they're still there.

Another reason obis (and Japanese CD releases in general) are useful: they have intended release dates on the back. Very helpful for possible research.

Taxi 2 soundtrack

I'm a fan of Luc Besson's Taxi series. (Well, the first two, at least...) They were an excellent precursor to our own Fast & Furious franchise (which the next one, Furious 7, is going to be the Hollywood debut of Ong-Bak's Tony Jaa, so I'm quite excited), and I wish they were released on video in English-friendly editions here.

Because of a shockingly short supply of good English-friendly releases and imports (only the first movie has a Blu from France that is both region free and English-subbed), my ability to view them with subtitles is limited, but CDs don't need no region coding, so here's the soundtrack to Taxi 2!

I have the soundtrack to the first film as well, but only as a download, and I haven't gotten to buying it on CD yet.

Taxi 2's soundtrack was done by One Shot, a French hip-hop supergroup formed for the sole purpose of doing this film's music. It consisted of rappers Faf Larage, Taïro, (Daddy) Nuttea, Disiz La Peste, and Vasquez Lusi, along with R&B singer Jalane. The soundtrack also features a few tracks with production work from IAM member Akhenaton. If you like the movie, like French hip-hop, or just like hip-hop in general, this is a soundtrack worth picking up.

Limited edition 010 singles with Kubricks

A couple weeks ago, I received a lot in the mail of all three limited edition CD+Kubrick singles from the 010 era, and I really wish more American bands would have done things this cool. The CDs are 8cm mini-CDs that only have 8 tracks in total (yes, those "Opening" tracks are way different), but the Kubricks in each set are by far the highlight. Check out the Black Cyborn in the Chaos Step pack...

The White Crusher 01, packaged with Gaga Life...

And my personal favorite, the Mega White Crusher packaged with Fly High.

And advertised on the backs of Chaos Step and Gaga Life is a mail-order only 8-pack of even more Kubricks, inspired by prior single and album art:

Do I have this particular box? You bet your ass I do.

My only complaint with the box is that Pochi's head falls off the body VERY easily, which is also true of the one included with the Scary single... but a little glue under the collar piece fixes that quickly.

That's about all there really is to say about these sets. There's a black box variant of the 8-pack which I don't have, but the contents are the same regardless of the box color.

Rare Mad: the story so far...

Artwork subject to change

I've been planning a compilation for fellow diehard fans of Mad, one which contains all of their B-sides, rare tracks, remixes, what have you. My mission is almost complete... at least on the B-side end of it. It still has a ways to go before it's complete, but this is what it looks like so far:

Click to enlarge photo and read the tracklisting

...and that's just with the remixes included with their Japanese releases! I haven't even begun to search for the remixes that were only released outside of Japan, and I'm honestly not sure if they should count for completism or not. However, on the B-side end, I know exactly how those holes will be filled, it's just a matter of obtaining the CDs they're on. The remaining rarities are:

1. Government Wall (Original Version)*

2. Shaburitsuke*

9. Humanity (New Version)**

10. Japanese Sight***

13. Walk! (Japan Mix)**

*Located on Government Wall single

**Located on Walk! single

***Located on Dance2Noise 002

The visible hole on the remixes end would be plugged up by those on the Good Girl single, and be filled with:

26. Step Into Yourself (Ryu Remix)

27. Good Girl (Long Beach Island Remix)

...and I haven't gone after that single yet, either. But even then, I need to make other decisions:

1. Should I include The Life In Fairy Story and Under The Sun from the limited edition of Park? I have them on the VICL-597 edition of Park, but I don't know just how many people have that version.

2. Should I go after those internationally released remixes? (i.e. Tribe's Razorface Remix)

3. Should I split this into two compilations; one for the rarities and one for the remixes?

Any comments or messages I get on the development of Rare Mad, especially in regards to those matters, would be greatly appreciated. After all, you guys will be able to get this too once I'm done with it, free and all in 320 kb/s mp3 format.

Pochi Racing...?

On the CD single for Pulse comes game data for Pochi Racing, a small little video game featuring Mad's first true mascot Pochi, aka Digidog. It's a game that, despite its listed compatibilities, I was thankfully able to get running on Windows 7. The name says it all: race to the end, avoid weapons the enemies shoot out, and win!

   

As you begin the game, you're greeted with an ultra-fast animation of all four Pochi racers going across the screen, with a couple Mad-oriented messages similarly blazing through below. Check out the rules and you'll find... a rules screen I can't read, since it's in Japanese and all. Click the machines button and you'll find a listing of each racer, listing each car's weapon and driver.

Click on up to the options screen in the top dropdown menu (easy to find, since there's only two options in it) and you can toggle between the odd button configurations, game speed, and sound. Click ????? and nothing noticeable happens, other than it not saving your settings. Click OK, and most of the time, it saves your settings.

 

As you start the game, all you really need to do is hold up while the other racers are spazzing around the track. Avoid their weapons, and try to be the first to the finish line. (Due to the other racers' extra length, they have an unfair advantage over you at doing so if they're at the top of the screen.) You don't have a projectile weapon like they do, but you can ram into them from behind... although I wouldn't recommend it. There is no recovery time for either you or them after taking damage, and they can fire at you from behind, so you'll most likely die instantly.

Once you win, you're greeted to a victory screen where-

HOLY SHIT!!!!! BOOBIES!!!!!

Indeed, after you win a race, you're treated to a two-frame animation of boobs from Erika, the female robot on the cover of the single to Good Girl. And not only are you treated to one shot of boobs, there are four or five different Erika animations that are chosen at random each time you win, with varying degrees of boobage being shown. This provides a great deal of replay value to the game.

(And whether you win or lose, a "Game End?" screen comes up, along with a neat MIDI rendition of Pulse.)

The game itself is not designed too well, and has absolutely no appeal to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of Mad, but if you are, this is a good way to kill a minute or two. Here's a download link for the game data, less than a megabyte total.

Re-Recorded Best Album digipak

Since I hadn't had the 1996 self-titled album when I found this copy, and I loves me some alternate packaging when available, I picked this up for about 400 yen. I still don't have the jewel case edition, so I can't fully compare the two variants, but from what I have seen, the jewel case copy's disc is monochrome and transparently labeled, and the obi strip is designed like the one for Invitation's reissue of Humanity that year; otherwise, the catalog number is the same. I also don't know if this edition came with extra stickers or anything, but my copy didn't have anything extra with it.

It should be noted that this was the last Mad album that ISHIG∀KI played guitar on, before publicly announcing his departure from the band about two months later.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Possess In Loop!!!!!!!!!!

2. Mix-Ism

3. S・S・Music

4. Mass Media

5. Hi-Side (High-Individual-Side)

6. Parasite

7. Jesus Is Dead? Jesus Is Alive?

8. G・M・J・P

9. (Down In The System) System Error

10. La-La-La (The Day I Became A Liar)

11. Walk! (Adrian Sherwood Remix CD Version)

Eject→Out single

This is one of the rarer pieces of Mad's discography. It was released on June 22nd, 1994, smack dab in the middle between Mix-Ism and Park, and simultaneously with their Reading SSM Video. I'm not sure if the two songs are leftovers from the former album's sessions or the first release of material from the latter's, but regardless, both songs are really good. An entry at Tak Mad's excellent Mad blog shows that a video for Eject→Out was made, but it was never released publicly.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Eject→Out

2. Periodic Classic

In addition, a sticker sheet was included with the single, made exactly to fit inside the long 8cm CD case. I sure as hell ain't gonna remove any of these because of its rarity, but it sure looks cool, and I'm glad it was in here.

And as a bonus for all of you who have never seen one of these 8cm CD single cases before, here they are compared to a regular CD jewel case. The single for Government Wall, the three P.O.P.-era singles, and the single for Walk! are other Mad releases using this packaging.