Victor is still in business and i think SLC too.

philkws, May 16, 2007; 1:39 PM

Hi Seifiot!
There are alot of soundtracks produced in Japan and it helps to know what kind of films you like (or if you like TV music). Also, are you looking for music from actual Japanese films and/or TV music or are you looking for reissues or issues of US/Italian, etc. releases? Most soundtracks to new mainstream Japanese films seem to be released on the large labels. For instance, in a post a week or two ago I mentioned the hit Japanese film "Linda Linda Linda" with music by James Iha and the soundtrack to "Swing Girls", these were both released on Universal Japan. I don't know offhand of any label that actually specializes in soundtrack music except for the defunct SLCS. As far as websites for soundtracks go I know of and have visited both the sites for Toho Music and Toei Music, as well websites for Polystar (Go Cinemania--this label is a subisidiary of Toho), Heart (ABCS label who put out the Toei Masterworks series), and of course my favorite Hotwax label (Ultravybe/Solid). These are all in Japanese, the best solution for people with no Japanese experience would be to go one of the best websites/store in the whole world, Arksquare! Or if you have limited Japanese experience and can type Japanese on your computer, go to Amazon Japan. Some of the labels you mentioned such as King and MCA Japan are huge record labels and soundtracks are only a small part of the catalogue, but some of their earlier Japanese soundtrack CD collections (such as King's "Soundtrack Renaissance Series" that featured music from legendary Samurai epics such as Zatoichi and Kozure Ookami) are highly soughtafter today. If you like Anime, old and new, you should head over to Columbia Records Animex webpage. For Tokusatsu fans (Ultraman and related) VAP records still puts out fantastic collections of that long running TV francise, and have also in the past made some cool soundtrack collections. A new label called "Think" records (it is associated with a large record store in Japan called "Disc Union") has just put out three new CD of early Japanese "noveau vague" films, the highlight, of course, being the jazz-influened score to the classic Seijun Suzuki film "Branded to Kill". The common logic why Japanese soundtracks become so rare is 1) they don't often reach other markets other than Japan (but thanks to many great new US internet stores, and the internet itself this is not so much of a problem anymore), and 2) Japanese labels usually do only one press and move on to new projects. I don't know of any "Varese Club" type of label, but maybe you can email Arksquare as they would probably know a lot more about that than me. I hope my info helps.

- Eric

PS- I don't have time today, but later I will post all the links I have to Japanese related soundtracks.

erictyee, May 16, 2007; 2:10 PM

Victor records is also like King Records in that they are both some of Japan's oldest record labels, and also that soundtracks are only a small part of what they do.

- Eric

erictyee, May 16, 2007; 2:15 PM

okay... thank you, please do!

My interest in film scores truly varies. I simply like a good film score (old & new?) which of course can be quite subjective.

I don't mind experimenting and I like to discover new listening experiences in film scoring.

I don't like to limit myself to mainstream film scores only, or scores from one genre like 'giallo' (which I like) or even scores that come from one part of the world if you know what I mean.

serifiot, May 16, 2007; 2:35 PM

Ultra-net (Ultravybe/solid online store)
http://www.ultra-net.jp/

Animex (home of the fabulous budget animation/tokusatsu budget priced CD over 100 volumes--all your faves are here!)
http://columbia.jp/animex/index.html


Disc Union (Japanese store)
http://diskunion.net/index.html

P-Vine (some soundtracks, but more cool for solo artists. For example, they have the great Sandra Julien LP on CD!)
http://www.p-vine.com/app.php/

Japanese Internet Movie Database: need to find out who the composer was for your fave Japanese film, find it here! (sorry, Japanese only!)
http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/

Absord Music Japan (Toei Masterworks Series)
http://members.aol.com/amjmumu/touei.htm#

Toei Music Publishing:
http://www.tmp-room.com/index.php?CTG=soundtrack&ITEM=01

Toho Music
http://www.toho-m.co.jp/

VAP music file list (a complete list of their "music file" series
http://www.vap.co.jp/musicfile/middle/list.html

Godzilla Monster Music: the definitive site for Godzilla music fans
http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/godzilla.htm

A cool little page if you like collecting "Tokusatsu" CDs
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/stuart/collect/index.htm

Tilliqua Records: no soundtracks, but a great label in Japan which officially re-released Reiko Ike's solo LP from 1972!
http://www.tiliqua-records.com/index.html

Polystar Japan (home of the Go Cinemania series)
http://www.polystar.co.jp/

HMV Japan
http://www.hmv.co.jp/fe/detail.asp?featurecode=212200013

Triarrow (this is an old page, don't try to contact them to get the A Better Tomorrow CD's)
http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/triarrow/

Animex Series complete list
http://columbia.jp/animex1200/index_s.html

Ultravybe (home of my favorite label Hotwax!)

Hotwax homepage
http://www.ultra-vybe.co.jp/hotwax/

- Eric Yee

erictyee, May 16, 2007; 3:35 PM

I'm actually browsing ARK at the moment.

I typed in John Barry and noticed that the familiar Bond scores are also available by Toshiba EMI(JP)... I had no idea.

I'm wondering if these have the extended tracks as in the Capitol remastered series from 2003.

serifiot, May 16, 2007; 4:35 PM

a "thank you!" to Eric Yee

Thank you very much for the links.
Although it was somebody else's question,
your answer and the links
were helpful for me as well!

Wim


WimArnhem, May 17, 2007; 2:37 PM

Bumping this thread up with a little update :)

Ok, I've found 35 CDs in this great TOEI MASTERWORKS COLLECTION.

What would be cool is now to write next to each line what are actually on the CDs... need to work on that, but
quite hard since I can't read japanese :/

Anyways, check my list below (hope it helps to fill in your collections hehehe):


TOEI MASTERWORKS COLLECTION

Website : http://www.tmp-room.com/heart/toeibest/index.html

1) #ABCS-1001 VOL.1 (one CD)
2) #ABCS-1002/1003 VOL.1 (two CDs)
3) #ABCS-1004 VOL.1 (one CD)
4) #ABCS-1005 VOL.1 (one CD)
5) #ABCS-1006 VOL.1 (one CD)
6) #ABCS-1007 VOL.1 (one CD)
7) #ABCS-1008 VOL.2 (one CD)
8) #ABCS-1009/1010 VOL.2 (two CDs)
9) #ABCS-1011 VOL.2 (one CD)
10) #ABCS-1012 VOL.2 (one CD)
11) #ABCS-1013 VOL.1 (one CD)
12) #ABCS-1014/1015 VOL.2 (two CDs)
13) #ABCS-1016 VOL.1 (one CD)
14) #ABCS-1017 VOL.1 (one CD)
15) #ABCS-1018 VOL.2 (one CD)
16) #ABCS-1019 VOL.3 (one CD)
17) #ABCS-1020 VOL.3 (one CD)
18) #ABCS-1021/1022 VOL.1 (two CDs)
19) #ABCS-1023 VOL.2 (one CD)
20) #ABCS-1024 VOL.3 (one CD)
21) #ABCS-1025 VOL.3 (one CD)
22) #ABCS-1026 VOL.2 (one CD)
23) #ABCS-1027 VOL.4 (one CD)
24) #ABCS-1028 VOL.4 (one CD)
25) #ABCS-1029/1030 VOL.1 (two CDs)
26) #ABCS-1031/1032 VOL.1 (two CDs)
27) #ABCS-1033 VOL.1 (one CD)
28) #ABCS-1034 VOL.4 (one CD)
29) #ABCS-1035 (one CD)
30) #ABCS-1036 VOL.1 (one CD)
31) #ABCS-1037 VOL.5 (one CD)
32) #ABCS-1038 VOL.6 (one CD)
33) #ABCS-1039 (one CD)
34) #ABCS-1040 VOL.1 (one CD)
35) #ABCS-1041 VOL.2 (one CD)
=======================

Cheers!

davegaumann, August 28, 2009; 12:17 PM

Btw, I'm just noticing that ABCS-1012 seems to be also part of ABCS-1039... and ABCS-1006 part of ABCS-1040... (though, I'm not sure if they are complete on both ABCS-1039 and 1040)

dave.gaumann, August 30, 2009; 11:36 AM