Another Game

Another Game
Studio album by P-Model
Released February 25, 1984
Recorded 1983
Sound Sky Studio
Nakano, Nakano, Tokyo
Genre Post-punk
Psychedelic rock
Experimental rock
Length 44:20
Label Tokuma, Japan
Producer P-Model
P-Model chronology

Perspective
(1982)		 Another Game
(1984)		 Scuba
(1984)

Another Game is P-Model's fifth album.[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][3]

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.[4] 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 Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū (不許可曲集, Unauthorized Music Collection), an album created independently by Hirasawa without Tokuma Japan's involvement composed of hiss experiments with his homebuilt instruments.

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.[5] One of Hirasawa's Yamaha Synthesizer School students, Shunichi Miura, 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, participated in the album's recording sessions and formally became 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.[6]

Composition

This album marked P-Model transitioning into a "one-man band", with Hirasawa as the strongest creative force and writing most of the band's new songs, following on the style of Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū and being the first album to showcase the large-scale mood that he would develop over his career; it's also the first album to showcase Hirasawa's affinity for re-recording songs. Similarly to the band's previous album Perspective, songs were written and developed during live shows, however, unlike the songs on Perspective, the structures of the songs on this album did not change dramatically over time after being recorded. This album follows the psychedelic/experimental sense thematic of Perspective, however, it takes them in a different route - the rhythm section now keeps to the background and mainly acts for sonic waves, with oscillating basslines and a drum machine causing biofeedback and alpha waves. The synthesizers, now atmospheric instead of plinky, return to the forefront, alongside the guitars, which keep mostly to small riffs & solos. Hirasawa experiments with song structures, extending some sections, and uses guest musicians (he would bring different guest musicians to P-Model live shows around this time), Eiichi Tsutaki, drummer and vocalist of Totsuzen Danball (he would later appear on a Hirasawa solo show) and vocalist Manami Takada (of the obscure Hi-A).[7][8]

Recording and Production

This album originally scheduled to be released on 25 October 1983, however, P-Model's record company delayed the album three times (only releasing it four months after the original planned release date), due to the lyrics of the song "Atom-Siberia" being interpreted as "encouraging discrimination".[9] 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 Hirasawa to creating the "P-Model Another Act" project, where the group would release records with compositions made separately by each member on styles different from the standard P-Model ones, released through independent labels, as the band had parted ways with Tokuma; the first release of the project, Ikari, was supposed to represent the group's anger at the record company.

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 a similar technique later in his career, offering samples of his songs through the internet, and, in the case of the album Planet Roll Call, release an edit of various short samples of every song of the album.

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).[10] 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. Inner jewel case hinge insert claims "Quality Music".
May 10, 2002
July 4, 2014		 Chaos Union, Teslakite CHTE-0008 Remastered by Hirasawa. Part of CD 4 of the Ashu-on [Sound Subspecies] in the solar system box set, alongside Fu Kyoka Kyoku Shū.[7][8] The "Countless Answers" version of "Atom-Siberia" is on CD 15 (CHTE-0019), alongside The Way of Live, "Opening SE 1992" and the Rebel Street version of "Fu-Ru-He-He-He"; "Exercise for the Heavenizer 1" is on CD 2 (CHTE-0006), alongside rerecordings of other Heavenizer experiments. 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Another Game". Last FM. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Hirasawa, Susumu (1994). OOPARTS (liner notes) (in Japanese). Shun. SYUN. SYUN-001.
  3. ↑ "SYUN-001 『OOPARTS』旬：ライナーノーツ。".
  4. ↑ キミは客いじめされたかったか?. The Aggregated Past KANGENSHUGI 8760 HOURS (in Japanese). Chaos Union. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Hirasawa, Susumu (1989). Hirasawa Susumu no CG Nengajō 平沢進のＣＧ年賀状 [Susumu Hirasawa's CG New Year Message] (VHS) (in Japanese). Hirasawa Bypass.
  6. ↑ "HIRASAWA SUSUMU 激烈インタビュー 「TALBOとの出会いから……」". TALBO Secret FACTORY (in Japanese). Ikebe Gakki. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Head, Said. "One of my favorite P-Model albums". Amazon.com. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "P-Model". Discogs.com. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  9. ↑ "P-Model". techno-electro-synth. POP ACADEMY.
  10. ↑ "ANOTHER GAME LP　二種比較". 平沢博物苑 (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 November 2014.

External links