Another Game

Another Game
Studio album by P-Model
Released February 25, 1984 (1984-02-25)
Recorded 1983
Studio Sound Sky Studio, Nakano, Nakano, Tokyo
Genre
Length 44:20
Label Tokuma, Japan
Producer P-Model
P-Model chronology
Perspective
(1982)		 Another Game
(1984)		 Scuba
(1984)

Another Game is the fifth studio album by P-Model and the last to feature the rhythm section of Sadatoshi Tainaka and Tatsuya Kikuchi.[1]

Background

Sometime in either 1981 or 1982, P-Model frontman Susumu Hirasawa created two homebuilt instruments. One of them was the Heavenizer (ヘブナイザー Hebunaizā), a sampler made out of a tape loop delay machine and a synthesizer. He wanted to experiment with a sampler, but found company manufactured ones prohibitively expensive (according to Hirasawa, at the time a sampler cost just as much as a house in the suburbs, and he was rumored to have won the lottery).[2]

To conclude their BAND in Perspective tour of March 1982, P-Model performed a show titled Toppyōshi no Tame no Lesson.1 (突拍子のためのLesson.1), where Hirasawa freely used the Heavenizer, recording & looping the band's introductory greeting and the audience's cheering.[3] Hirasawa brought out the Heavenizer to various shows throughout the year, and performed a sequel show, Toppyōshi no Tame no Lesson.2 (突拍子のためのLesson.2), where the first eight songs of the set were Heavenizer experimentation. On March 23, 1983, P-Model's management company Model House released a collection of Hirasawa's experiments with his homebuilt instruments, titled Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū (不許可曲集, Unauthorized Music Collection), the group's first independently-created release.

In March 1983, Yasumi Tanaka, P-Model's keyboardist, left the group, and the music industry entirely, due to a severe case of writer's block, saying that he had no more ideas left. Since he was, alongside Hirasawa, the group's leading creative force since its days as Mandrake, Tanaka's departure left the band in a state of crisis; to try to overcome this situation, Hirasawa became the single creative force of the band.[4] One of Hirasawa's Yamaha Synthesizer School students (from the piano course), Shunichi Miura, an aspiring musician recently graduated from high school, was brought in to play keyboards (and occasional guitar parts) on live shows, his first happening a week after Tanaka's last. Originally meant to be a temporary replacement, Miura kept performing on shows through the year and participated in the album's recording sessions, formally becoming a member of the band after the album's release.

While reading a music magazine, Hirasawa saw an ad for Tōkai Gakki's then upcoming Talbo aluminum guitar. Drawn to the guitar's eccentric design, he immediately borrowed one from Tōkai by telephone. Hirasawa used the Talbo on this album (although the photographs on the back of the album's cover show Hirasawa with an ESP Random Star, his main guitar before the Talbo) and went on to use it in all following albums and shows, becoming his signature guitar.[5]

Composition

With Hirasawa taking creative control of the band, the songs start showing the epic mood that is present throughout his career.[6] Once described by Hirasawa as a "highlights" album,[7] Another Game is his first album to feature recordings of song re-arrangements, previously kept only to live shows. Through the album Hirasawa also pays homage to Pink Floyd, who deeply inspire his music.

The album carries over the sensory experimentation of Perspective, and like the songs on that album the ones on Another Game were written and developed during live shows (three of them were performed before Yasumi Tanaka's departure, and carry over some of his keyboard arrangement work). However, Another Game took its main experimental influence from Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū, and its songs, compared to those of Perspective's, kept comparatively tight structures, with the sensory experimentation kept mainly to the album's bookends, which try to affect the listener through biofeedback and alpha waves. On the album, Hirasawa experiments with song structures, mainly playing around with extending the length of unusual structural segments.

The instrument roles are switched from Perspective, with the rhythm section kept on the background of the songs with guitar & synths are on the forefront, and experimented with. Basslines are minimalist and mostly oscillate, drums are mixed with a drum machine (last prominent on the band's sound in Landsale) and a xylophone. The melodic instruments, through a change in gear, take on different roles than before. The synthesizers, with the implementation of the digital Yamaha DX7, are now atmospheric instead of plinky. The guitar parts, with the unique sound of the Talbo, keep mostly to small jangly riffs & solos. Besides P-Model, Eiichi Tsutaki (drummer & vocalist of Totsuzen Danball) and Manami Takada (vocalist of the obscure Null-A), underground musicians that the band befriended appear on the album, continuing a live tradition of bringing in guest musicians for certain shows.[8][9]

Artwork

The front and back covers of the album feature three photographs of Susumu Hirasawa performing live, two of them are motion blurred, while the third his face is obscured by a large monitor showing a close up of a face; Sadatoshi Tainaka's drum kit can by seen on the left. A psychedelic pattern on the front and a monochrome one on the back are formed through the halftone technique.

On the top right corner of the back cover a light blue cut-out of a vaguely humanoid figure, showing its legs, right arm, left hand and part of its torso is present. The complete figure has a "P" badge on its left shoulder and, for a face, a black void with a circle in the center top, three wavy lines seem to emanate out of the circle. This figure appears, fullbodied, on both of the record's pink center labels and throughout the monochrome liner notes, which feature various photos overlaid on top of each other.

The members of P-Model (except Miura, who was still a Support Member) appear on some of them, undergone various degrees of obfuscation (in one of them their faces are erased, in another one they appear as white shapes. A couple of the photos follow an "atomic" imagery, with various spheres and a microscopic viewing of circular microorganisms.

The artwork was reused for other purposes. The humanoid figure appeared on print ads for the album, and band photos from the liner notes were used as the cover for the "Solid air (Dance Version)" phonosheet (one that also featured the humanoid figure) and print ads for Scuba (with the members' faces visible).

Release

In 1983, Model House released a 16-page booklet titled Another Papers, distributed through the independently run Personal Pulse fan club, the booklet included a report on this album's recording, a discography of the group, an introduction to major live members and an interview with Hirasawa. The booklet also came with a vinyl record named "Index P-0", which included short samples of every song from this album. Hirasawa would later use similar techniques after heavily investing in internet distribution, adopting the same scheme as "Index P-0" for Planet Roll Call.

This album originally scheduled to be released on 25 October 1983. However, Japan Record, the band's label, postponed the album's release three times, only releasing it four months after the original planned release date. The delays happened due to a claim by the Recording Industry Association of Japan's Record Creation Standards and Ethics Committee (レコード制作基準倫理委員会（レコ倫）) that the lyrics of the song "Atom-Siberia" "encourage discrimination".[10] The band re-recorded the whole song, with the incriminatory verse Kikei no eria, fugu no tsujitsuma (奇形のエリア　不具の辻褄) replaced by Musū no kotae, hibi no tsujitsuma (無数の答え 日々の辻褄); the versions were thereafter referred to as "Malformed Area" (奇形のエリア Kikei no Eria) and "Countless Answers" (無数の答え Musū no Kotae). This led P-Model to annul its contract with Tokuma[11] and to start the "Another Act" project, where they would release records with compositions made separately by each member on styles different from the band's standard. The first release of the project, Ikari (Japanese for "anger"), was supposed to represent the group's anger at the record company.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Susumu Hirasawa, except "Bike" by Syd Barrett with adapted lyrics by Hirasawa. 

No. Title Length
1. "Another Game step1"   3:08
2. "Holland Element"   3:38
3. "Atom-Siberia"   3:49
4. "Personal Pulse"   4:24
5. "Fu-Ru-He-He-He" (フ・ル・ヘッ・ヘッ・ヘッ) 2:41
6. "Bike" (Pink Floyd cover) 2:19
7. "Harm Harmonizer" (instrumental) 0:57
8. "Mouth to Mouth"   2:52
9. "Floor"   7:05
10. "Goes on Ghost"   4:30
11. "Echoes"   3:44
12. "Awakening Sleep〜α click" (instrumental) 5:14

The titles of the songs are officially rendered out in all caps, except for the sub-titles of the first and last songs. "Fu-Ru-He-He-He" has had its title rendered in hiragana and translated as "FuLu He He He" on various sources.

Personnel

P-Model - Production, Arrangements
Guest musicians & production
Staff

Release history

Date Label(s) Format Catalog Notes
October 25, 1983 Tokuma Japan Corporation, Japan Record LP 28JAL-2 Released to the music press, has a "Sample - Not For Sale" sticker on the cover. The back of the obi lists dates for the Another Game Tour (which lasted for October–December 1983) and contact numbers for Model House (P-Model's management company) & Tokuma Japan, as well as info on P-Model related/then recent Japan Record releases (which ended up being the only material included on the back of the obi when the album was eventually released).[12] Includes "Malformed Area" version of "Atom-Siberia".
February 25, 1984 Includes "Countless Answers" version of "Atom-Siberia", whose lyrics are omitted from the liner notes. Side B of both this version and the promo vinyl ends on a locked groove.
June 25, 1989 Tokuma Japan Corporation, WAX Records CD 27WXD-120 Released alongside Perspective. All issues from this one onwards have the "Malformed Area" version of "Atom-Siberia".
September 25, 1994 Tokuma Japan Communications, WAX Records TKCA-70480 Released alongside Perspective. Part of the "Quality Music" series of budget reissues. Packaged in a slimline case and priced at 1500 yen.
May 10, 2002
July 4, 2014		 Chaos Union, Teslakite CHTE-0008 Remastered by Hirasawa. Part of Disc 4 of the Ashu-on [Sound Subspecies] in the solar system box set, alongside Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū.[8][9] The "Countless Answers" version of "Atom-Siberia" and the Rebel Street version of "Fu-Ru-He-He-He" are on Disc 15 (CHTE-0019); "Exercise for the Heavenizer 1" is on Disc 2 (CHTE-0006). Re-released with new packaging by Kiyoshi Inagaki.
April 25, 2007 Tokuma Japan Communications, sky station, SS RECORDINGS SS-903 Remastered (digitally, 24 bit). Packaged in a paper sleeve to replicate the original LP packaging. Includes new liner notes by music industry writer Dai Onojima.
July 17, 2015 Tokuma Japan Communications, WAX Records SHM-CD TKCA-10134 Released alongside Perspective. Remastered, limited release. Packaged in a paper sleeve to replicate the original LP packaging.

References

  1. ↑ "Another Game". Last FM. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Hirasawa, Susumu (1994). OOPARTS (liner notes) (in Japanese). Shun. SYUN. SYUN-001.
  3. ↑ キミは客いじめされたかったか? [Did You Want to Bully the Customers?]. The Aggregated Past KANGENSHUGI 8760 HOURS (in Japanese). Chaos Union. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  4. ↑ Hirasawa, Susumu (1989). 平沢進のＣＧ年賀状 [Susumu Hirasawa's CG New Year Message] (VHS) (in Japanese). Hirasawa Bypass.
  5. ↑ HIRASAWA SUSUMU 激烈インタビュー 「TALBOとの出会いから……」 [Susumu Hirasawa Intense Interview — "From Encountering Talbo......"]. TALBO Secret FACTORY (in Japanese). Ikebe Gakki. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Another Game". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  7. ↑ "『カルカドル』は、音と言葉が瞬間的に創りあげた世界" [Karkador is a World Created Instantaneously from Music and Words]. Takarajima (in Japanese). No. 12 (Takarajimasha). December 1985. p. 140.
  8. 1 2 Head, Said. "One of my favorite P-Model albums". Amazon.com. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  9. 1 2 "P-Model". Discogs.com. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  10. ↑ "P-Model". techno-electro-synth. POP ACADEMY.
  11. ↑ キミはシベリアでポゴ・ダンスを踊ったか? [Did You Dance the Pogo Dance to Siberia?]. The Aggregated Past KANGENSHUGI 8760 HOURS (in Japanese). Chaos Union. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  12. ↑ "ANOTHER GAME LP　二種比較". 平沢博物苑 (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 November 2014.

External links

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