Tsuruta Koji (鶴田浩二)

Tsuruta Koji appeared in more than 260 feature films made by companies such as Shintoho, Toho, Daiei and Toei. He was also a singer and was regarded to be Toshiro Mifune's rival. I picked this 7" up at Recohan in Shibuya.

A-side: Akai to kuroi no Burusu (赤と黒のブルース)
B-side: Machi no Sandoichi-man (街のサンドイッチマン)

The Puppies-Funky Y-2-C

This great song made it into the #40 on the billboard hot 100 chart back in 1994. Siblings Calvin and Tamara Mills made two albums; "The Puppies" (1994) and "Recognize" (1996).

Rembetiko-Music of the outsiders

Here's the first part of a 6-part documentary on Rembetika. Follow the link to see the rest of this little gem. Call your mangas, fire up the narghile and enjoy!

Rallarvisor- Scandinavian Folk and Working songs

The word "rallar" comes from the Swedish word "rallare" which means wheelbarrow. The word was used primarily about men that built railroads, factories and roads from the middle of the 19th century and up until the 1920's and 30's. Much of the construction took place in Norway and although Norway had it's fair share of "rallare", a lot of Swedes participated as migrant laborers. Rallare were known has hard-working and hard-drinking men, and although they hailed from both Norway and Sweden they shared a common rallar-culture. This is perhaps most obvious in their style of clothing, a big black hat being the ultimate fashion statement. The topic of their songs usually revolved around the hazardous work they were doing, being hassled by the man, drinking, fucking and fighting. The songs posted under are taken from the record "Rallarvisor" by Pierre Strøm and was released on YTF Grammofon AB in 1975. I picked this one up in Berlin for 2 Euros.

Song 1: Transportvisan
Song 2: Aangermansvisan
Song 3: Fleckefjordbanevisan

Takura Ken (高倉健)/Mikai Rieko (三界りえ子)

These two songs are from the movie "Abashiribangaichi" (網走番外地). The movie was released in 1959 by Nikkatsu and starred among others Takura Ken who is singing the song on the A-side. The B-side is sung by Mikai Rieko (三界りえ子).

A-side: Abashiribangaichi (網走番外地)
B-side: Nagare no burusu (流れのブルース)

Masayuki Yuhara (湯原昌幸 )

The opening of the A-side, "Ame no Barado" (雨のバラード), is one of the most in your fez (sic) openings I've heard in a long time. This guy is spilling his heart out. Even if you took all the Eurovision song contest contributions from eastern Europe from the past ten years, rolled them up into one song and had Oum Khalsoum sing the lyrics it still wouldnt come close to the emotional volcano that is Masayuki.
The B-side is called "Ima ni wakaru wa" (今にわかるわ). Kinda sounds like something from a 50's musical or something. Included is a note sheet for those of you musically inclined.

Noborikawa Seijin (登川誠仁)

Two great tunes by Minyo-music's grand old man, Seijin Noborikawa or "Seigwa". The A-side, "Naritai-bushi", is pretty uptempo with plenty of hayashi backing-vocal, while the B-side "Midori no Okinawa" is a slower tune. Both pretty damn great. I wish this guy was my grandfather. This one is released on "Respect Records". Check out the awesome logo. Massive respect!!

A-side: なりたい節
B-side:緑の沖縄