I know there are a few people here who collect and buy Japanese soundtracks, but does anyone own any of the Kosuke Kindaichi soundtracks (either LPs or CDs), for such 1970's films as The Inugami Family, The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song, Prison Gate Island, Village Of Eight Gravestones, Queen Bee or The House Of Hanging?
I own all the CD soundtracks, plus this one too, which is a compilation CD from the series...
I was curious if anyone else owns these soundtracks as well, and if so, what they think about the music? Even though this series revolves around a detective and murder mysteries, the music is surprisingly wonderful, and each soundtrack is basically a great stand-alone listen. Village Of Eight Gravestones (composed by Yasushi Akutagawa) is very impressive in it's own right too, it's excellent.
Village of Eight Gravestones is the only one I've got at the moment, but I absolutely love it! One of my all time favorite Japanese scores. And being a big fan of Yuji Ohno, I've had my eye on The Inugami Family for awhile as well.
I can't say I've ever heard anything by Shinichi Tanabe, who seems to have scored most of the other films, but if I ever come across an affordable copy of The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song, I'll pick it up on the strength of Kunihiko Murai's name alone.
I believe King Records also released a Kindaichi CD, but I haven't really examined the contents to see what's on it.
Yes, Village Of Eight Gravestones is a real treat! While the soundtrack has some "horror" elements to it, the music overall is very enjoyable and the soundtrack makes for an excellent stand-alone experience. Akutagawa's score has an almost classical flavor to it, it's not only great music, but you can tell immediately that he is a solid and skilled composer. As for Shinichi Tanabe, his music is excellent as well, but in a different way. All of his Kindaichi soundtracks are great...super catchy music. Yes, the soundtrack by Kunihiko Murai is also a winner.
As for finding these CDs, they continue to sell for roughly Y4000-Y8000 when they do show up in Japan auctions, so you will most likely have to pay these prices. That Columbia Kindaichi compilation CD is even more expensive, it continues to sell for around Y10000-Y20000 when it does show up, but it's a great CD to have.
As for The Inugami Family (Yuji Ono), what are you waiting for, it was released a few years ago by Sony Japan/Epic Records (remastered, and with bonus tracks), along with the soundtrack for the 2006 remake...
Yes, I also have that King Records Kindaichi CD too (KICA-3034)...it basically has the soundtrack from a Kindaichi t.v. series, but it's the bonus tracks which are the real treat here...vocal versions from some of the 70's Kindaichi films such as The Inugami Family and Queen Bee.
Yeah, I've almost bought that Inugami CD a few times since it first came out, but for some reason or other I kept putting it off. Now that I've gone and relistened to some samples of it, I'm making a point of adding it to my next order!
The Inugami Family soundtrack (1976, Yuji Ono), is very good, especially the excellent "Ballad Of Love" theme...it's simply incredible! However, the later soundtracks by Kunihiko Murai and Shinichi Tanabe are even better! Yes, they are even better stand alone listens...very catchy music for a horror/detective series.
All of these Kosuke Kindaichi soundtracks (including the rare Columbia compilation CD, and The Inugami Family Sony Japan CD) have been reviewed on Toho Kingdom's website, have you seen or read all of those reviews yet?
By the way, you seem to know something about Kunihiko Murai, are you familiar with his other scores? Anything you can tell me about his other soundtracks? I would like to hear some of Shinichi Tanabe's non Kindaichi stuff too, but I am not familiar with him either, and wouldn't know which of his other scores are good or not.
Murai contributed a few scores to the Lone Wolf & Cub and Zatoichi series, and from what I've heard of them they're pretty good, but the CD that really made me want to hear more was the Hotwax trax double feature of Yajû shisubeshi & Yaju Gari. At 32 minutes, it's a fairly short CD, but it's one I really enjoy. I especially like the jazzy Yajû shisubeshi portion of the disc.
I also did a bit of research on Shinichi Tanabe, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of his stuff out there. I did find a CD of his music for an anime about King Arthur that was released as part of Columbia Records Animex series, though.
Yes, those two Kunihiko Murai soundtracks have a nice early 70's jazzy flavor to them. The Kosuke Kindaichi soundtracks from the late 70's are something else entirely though, and seem to be unique compared with anything else Murai or Tanabe have done before or since. To use an analogy, we all know what a signature sound John Barry created for his James Bond scores, we all know that all of his main title themes, and his soundtrack albums in general make for excellent stand alone listens. Well, while I am not suggesting these Kindaichi scores are on that level, I can say that Murai's Devil's Bouncing Ball Song and all three of Tanabe's Kindaichi scores are equally enjoyable stand alone listens, they are that good and catchy. All four main titles are fantastic as well, and when you consider that this is music from a horror/detective series, it's really fascinating.
Basically, here's the deal, Murai kept the same basic sound for his Devil's Bouncing Ball Song score (1977), which Yuji Ono created with his incredible Ballad Of Love theme (from The Inugami Family, 1976), and Tanabe retained this same "Kindaichi sound" as well when he took over the scoring for the later films, although I personally feel that Tanabe improved on what Murai did and is more like the John Barry of the franchise. Some of the themes also have haunting female background vocals as well, which helps to create a rather soothing and almost hypnotic effect on some tracks. If you are planning to buy The Inugami Family soundtrack one day, (which has the awesome main title theme for the "Ballad Of Love"), you owe it to yourself to get the other Kindaichi soundtracks at some point in the future. I would personally recommend finding that Columbia compilation CD (COCA-13095) though, because it has all the main titles and all the best tracks from each Kindaichi soundtrack, this way, you won't need to get all of the individual scores. This Columbia CD will be a lot more money, but is worth every penny in my opinion.
By the way, here is a link to see all the current Devil's Bouncing Ball Song LPs and CDs on YJ...
I second all praise "Ifukube" is showing to these damn fine scores! I also own them and the music is really great! It seems like not a lot of people are aware on how good this music is, but I guess it's only because they probably simply don't know this music is available, as it's from Japan and therefore hard to know what's "out there" (the CDs are quite expensive to get and it's a tough dig when you know nothing about Japanese).
Thanks to "Ifukube" for having opened a thread to talk about a few of them!... just a few, but these are the best ones! The ones to get if you have money (and the money is well worth spent)!
I will try to speak more about the ones "Ifukube" and "Squiddybop" are talking about, but they already praised the quality of each. So, will soon drop a list of a few of my own favourites (to-be-added-to-any-good-film-soundtrack-collection)
Well I guess I'll finally have a chance to listen to some of Tanabe's Kindaichi music without having too pay too obscene a price. Fuji Cinema will be reissuing the score to Prison Gate Island on March 23rd. Like other Fuji Cinema releases, it should be a straight reissue of the LP program and come housed in a mini LP sleeve.
Hopefully they're planning to release more scores from the series as well. This will actually be their second Kindaichi CD, since they also released Joji Yuasa's score to Akuryo-To way back when this thread was first made. I still need to pick that one up.
Looks like Fuji Cinema plans to keep the Kindaichi train rolling. The rerelease of Kunihiko Murai's score to The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song is coming April 20th!
I know there are a few people here who collect and buy Japanese soundtracks, but does anyone own any of the Kosuke Kindaichi soundtracks (either LPs or CDs), for such 1970's films as The Inugami Family, The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song, Prison Gate Island, Village Of Eight Gravestones, Queen Bee or The House Of Hanging?
I own all the CD soundtracks, plus this one too, which is a compilation CD from the series...
I was curious if anyone else owns these soundtracks as well, and if so, what they think about the music? Even though this series revolves around a detective and murder mysteries, the music is surprisingly wonderful, and each soundtrack is basically a great stand-alone listen. Village Of Eight Gravestones (composed by Yasushi Akutagawa) is very impressive in it's own right too, it's excellent. How about this?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hqr8V3kZ2M
Looks like Fuji Cinema plans to keep the Kindaichi train rolling. The rerelease of Kunihiko Murai's score to The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song is coming April 20th!
Nice catch! Yes, I had suspected that all four of the films would get re-released, but I didn't know when. I can't wait to get them all, but unfortunately, the dollar is doing terrible against the yen these days and buying Japanese CDs right now is not what it used to be.
Looks like Fuji Cinema plans to keep the Kindaichi train rolling. The rerelease of Kunihiko Murai's score to The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song is coming April 20th!
Nice catch! Yes, I had suspected that all four of the films would get re-released, but I didn't know when. I can't wait to get them all, but unfortunately, the dollar is doing terrible against the yen these days and buying Japanese CDs right now is not what it used to be.
By the way, I never thought I would see this rare Columbia Kosuke Kindaichi CD on eBay, yet there is a used copy up for auction now. Just search under "Ohno CD" to spot it...
Yeah, the exchange rates have definitely limited the number of CDs I've imported over the past year. Thankfully I've currently got about 1,800 yen worth of coupons and discounts at CDJapan, which should take a bit of the sting out of ordering Prison Gate Island. Still, I'm really hoping the dollar will make a comeback soon, cause my wishlist is starting to get pretty long...
