Jikkenteki
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Posts posted by Jikkenteki
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Shpongle probably hs the most frequent use of odd time sigs in the psy world recently. "And The Day Turned To Night" is 7/8. "Divine Moments of Truth" drifts from 4/4 in the beginning to 6/4 for the main parts and goes back to 4/4 for the end. Another track in the first album is in 5/4 as well (the second track I think, forget the title off hand). On the new album the run of three tracks from "Nothing Lasts" to "...But Nothing Is Lost" 7/8 as well.
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I agree its great album, but isn't a 2005 album. For those wanting a "proper" review I posted one back in 2004 when this album actually came out. The thread is here...
http://www.psynews.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=21196
Best....
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Shpongle - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost
Twisted Records TWSCD28, Solstice Music SOLMC053 2005
1 Botanical Dimensions (4:37)
2 Outer Shpongolia (2:33)
3 Levitation Nation (3:40)
4 Periscopes of Consciousness (1:54)
5 Schmaltz Herring (2:21)
6 Nothing Lasts (4:28)
7 Schnitzl'd in the Negev (4:18)
8 ...But Nothing is Lost (4:39)
9 When Shall I Be Free? (4:37)
10 The Stamen of the Shaman (4:11)
11 Circuits of the Imagination (3:12)
12 Linguistic Mystic (1:36)
13 Mentalism (2:54)
14 Invocation (2:40)
15 Molecular Superstructure (4:47)
16 Turn Up the Silence (3:22)
17 Exhalation (2:16)
18 Connoisseur of Hallucination (3:31)
19 The Nebbish Route (3:36)
20 Falling Awake (1:50)
So here it is; the newest, and supposedly last, Shpongle album. Given the buzz on various forums over the last few months, to say that this album has been highly anticipated is probably an understatement. As usual, fans in Japan (including myself) got the chance to purchase this release first through Solstice Music’s release of it here.
It is probably the curse of Shpongle that this album will be compared to the two before it when it really should be viewed on its own merits. Shpongle, like all classic artists, are basically damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they cover too much new ground, some people will loudly complain that they have somehow “abandoned their roots”, while if they don’t change too much others will complain just as loudly that they are simply “putting out the same old thing to cash in on their name”. Personally none of this concerns me as long as I like it, and to get that out of the way, let me say that I do indeed love it. Like the albums before it, Nothing Lasts takes and pushes the Shpongle envelope to new levels while still remaining Shpongle.
As probably everyone knows, this CD is more one long piece of music that just happens to be broken up on the CD as 20 individual parts. Sonically this album seems a bit closer in spirit to the first album to my ears, but with the inclusion of a lot more non-electronic instruments ala the second album. These elements are then mixed up, with some new flavorings thrown in, and then brought to nice nice boil leaving us with an album that is, as to be expected, unique.
As always, the production is top notch, although Nothing Lasts sounds a little looser, rawer and wilder than previous albums. Track by track descriptions here are worthless here, but it’s all there. The flute solos, the ethereal vocals, the clean guitar bits and the mad effects works are there. Levitation Nation and Schmaltz Herring gives us our Shpongle salsa fix. Nothing Lasts, Schnitzl’ed In The Negev and …But Nothing Is Lost give us some great odd time workouts. When Shall I Be Free? has a sort of Eastern vibe with lots of guitars. Sprinklings of psychedelic drum and bass are all over. Molecular Superstructure and Turn Up The Silence actually get things pumping pretty seriously, while The Nebbish Route is bound to ruffle a few feathers with a short section featuring some crunchy guitar work (personally I think it fits the flow).The Stamen Of The Shaman’s main melodies even come from a brass section.
As I said previously, this album seems a bit wilder to me that the previous ones. At many points it seems like it’s almost pushing the limits of what it can handle and is about to come crashing down upon itself, but it never does. Like all of Shpongle’s music, undoubtedly this will be an album that some people will get right away, others will have to spend some time with, and some others will probably never get into. However this listener is happy to report that all his expectations of having a Shpongle musical journey were met. Hands down the best album of the year for me.
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As usual, the June 6th "World-wide Release" doesn't apply to Japan where it is already in the record shops. Just picked up my copy 20 minutes ago at Tower Records (even though I pre-ordered it too). Just started but I'm liking it so far.
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Hydro Generator - Lucid Dream
ELF Music ELFCD 008 2005
01 - Psychological Depiction
02 - Philosophy
03 - Evolution
04 - Future Scape
05 - Lucid Dream
06 - Dream Provider
07 - Karma - Circulation of the Orbit
08 - Dawn 2005
09 - Cosmo Rmx
Japan's Elf Music returns with yet another release from the up and coming crop of Japanese artists, this time featuring Hydro Generator. While I actually received this CD several weeks ago, I waited on writing this review because on first listen I suspected this is one of those albums that change for the listener with time. Simply put, I suspected that in a week I would either be completely bored of or totally be in love with it. In hind site my suspicion was correct. My first impression was that of a solid, modern full-on-ish album. Over time however, this album has slowly been revealing added layers of depth and sophistication. Lets take a quick tour.
Psychological Depiction starts us off wonderfully. This is a freestyle-ish slow brooding, breaky, heavily compressed bass monster that reminds me of the old days when labels like Matsuri, Blueroom, and company where willing to give us something outside of the standard four to the floor. Hell, it is even DJ unfriendly with its changing BPMs and shifting moods as. Me likely, gimme more.... Philosophy is up next and is a classic example of the type of current psy-trance I like, that being the soaring slowly while still pounding aggressively down in the lower regions variety. Lots of synth lines swirl in and out while fly-by sounds are given lots of breathing room with long reverbs and delays.
Evolution follows and while many of the samples here have been used before, it doesn't really bother me. The bass and kick give us a typical, but not too in-your-face style full on base upon with more lovely synth lines float in and out. Hydro Generator knows how to balance dirty leads with clear glassy clean ones well and at times here I am even reminded of some Astral Projections better moments in days of yore. Moving on, we have Future Scape. Hydro Generator's style is pretty well established by now. Solid full on bass and kick with an ever evolving soundscape of dirty leads, clean bits and long fly bys sound effects. As with previous tracks, Future Scape isn't afraid to let a lead soar long and slowly rather than drop straight into the typical 16th note craziness so common now (although there is plenty of that too), nor is he afraid to let a part evolve slowly. Balance seems to be the name of the game here, and Hydro Generator is doing it well.
Lucid Dream drops in pretty hard after a few reverbed bangs and crashes. Even better, the bass line changes up rather than simply chugging along in the same pattern all the time. This one has a little less melodic content than the previous tracks, in fact it is a hair mono-tone at times, but it storms along fairly well regardless. I suspect this tracks is probably better on the dance floor than it is for the home listener. It's not bad, but it's just not quiet as sonic-ly deep as the previous tracks. Dream Provider is our next stop and we are back on track. Hard kick, bouncing bass and spread out, evolving melodic content. Lots of calm trailing echoes dripping off quiet understated leads here. Good stuff.
The beginning of Karma makes me realize that while some aspects of Hydro Generator's sounds are solidly planted in "modern full on" (namely the kick and bass use), much of his choice of synth sounds and leads is actually refreshing old (if that makes any sense). It’s also not always crystal clear simply because it doesn't need to be. Some of the synth sounds and percussion samples here are, when listened to in isolation, rather noisy and perhaps a bit cluttered, yet taken as a whole with the flute samples and track development, the track is anything but noisy or cluttered. In fact it is wonderfully spacious and somehow "breaths" even in its most busy sections. Further proof that good musical ideas will always win out over "good" production. Dawn 2005 starts off continuing Karma's vaguely ethnic vibe, with time with some nice percussion work. The bass line slides in and slowly builds up to a frenzy rather than just storming in straight out of the gate. More flute work slides around in this track providing the early "melodic" content in a very eerie and harmonically ambiguous sort of way. Again, the development isn't rushed and some nice understated synth lines finally work their way in just at the right moment. On paper this track should probably be rather boring, but it just seems to work.
Last up we have Cosmo RMX which brings the vibe of the whole album up to full boil for the climax. Basically take all the elements I talked about before and bring them to their full potential for this track which I can only describe as a relaxed, full on stormer that makes the feet stomp wildly, but the head soar freely and slowly. If Hydro Generator keeps making tracks like this, he has a very bright future ahead of him.
All and all Hydro Generator has given us an excellent album here. It is by no means perfect, but its much more to my liking than a lot of the music out there now-a-days. While some people have called this album a little dark, I somehow can't see the "darkness" they speak off. I find this album to be deceptively calm at first, but at the same time equal parts refreshingly raw, aggressive, beautifully calm, and soaring. Elf Music has been on a roll with their last three releases and while I have loved everything they have released since Phi's pumping modern hard goa work out debut, Hydro Generator is the CD I find myself reaching for the most when I simply want to listen to some good music. Highly recommended 8/10
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Recently the Music Making forum here seems to be flooded with "listen to my new track" type threads. I have no problem with these types of threads, but recently it seems like they are burying all the threads actually about making music (thus decreasing at least this viewers participation in these forums recently). Does anyone think that perhaps it is time for a sub-forum devoted solely to track feedback? This would give these threads a proper place to go and also refocus the music making section back on the actual techniques of making music and such.
Just a random thought,
Jikkenteki
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"Kono joho wa tadashii joho dewa nai"
It translates basically as "This information is not correct information"
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I agree that everyone is way too into compressing the hell out of everything, but then you can kind of what "productions fads" come and go on the various psy forums. Seems like every 9 months or so some people discover some new aspect of production that the rest of the music industry has known about for years and then every jumps on the band wagon until the next one comes along. My overall guide to usuing compression for me is pretty simple. Does it sound better? If yes, use it, if not, don't. Personally I think compression is in general much more vital in the recording of live instruments than it is in electronic ones, but it has its place. But you don't have to stick it on everything.
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I just picked this up today here in Japan and am pretty happy with it so far. It passes the instant gratification test for me. Next up is the longevity test....
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I personally have gotten my best basses out of Absynth of all things. Just goes to show anything works when done properly
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The parts and all are decent and there are some good ideas in there, but the development is really slow. It feels like you let everything run for 32 bars before adding a new part when it would have been more efffective to pile them on every 8. As an artist I often used to get stuck in a groove of something and let it run on WAY too long when making a track, so I understand how it happens. Anyways, my advice, make changes more frequently and work on more development, change ups, breaks, etc. Anyways, a good effort with some good stuff in there.
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Yeah, Uni has always had a good live set up (from the pics it looks like it hasn't changed much from when I first saw them in 98). One have of the duo handles all the synth and electronic stuff, while the other does live drumming and various other electronic madness live. They've also been the most consistantly good act I'll seen live as well.
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Space Tribe – Collaborations
Space Tribe Music & Solstice Music SOLMC-042 2004
01 - Space Tribe / GMS ・3rd Eye (Spacebase Mix)
02 - Space Tribe / CPU ・Single Dose
03 - Space Tribe / Electric Universe ・The Acid Test
04 - Space Tribe / Psywalker ・Twitch!!!
05 - Space Tribe / Safi Connection ・Dinner with God (Remix)
06 - Space Tribe / CPU - Wacko
07 - Space Tribe / GMS ・Alternate Future
08 - Space Tribe / Psywalker ・Tall Poppy Syndrome
09 - Space Tribe / X-Dream ・Turn On/Turn Off
Space Tribe…. Up until recently it seemed like Olli Wisdom was about the only keeper of the old school flame. Not to say that his sound never progressed, as he did indeed take the better elements of the full on sound, but he always maintained that wonderful dirty squelchy old school vibe that we know and love from Space Tribe. This new release, the first from Space Tribe Music and released in Japan through Solstice, features a nice collection of Olli Wisdom’s more recent collaborations with other artists. There is a lot of work with the current full on crowd, so I suspect this release will be a lot more “current” than some of Space Tribe’s work. So without further ado, lets jump in and see just what we have here.
3rd Eye (Spacebase Mix) sees Olli team up with GMS. While I have been a bit harsh on GMS in the past, but I have since made my peace with them, realizing their clones were giving them more of a bad name than they themselves were and thus I am able to objectively look at this track and say I like it. It’s got the typical GMS bass line, but it’s held a bit back in the background, which enables the synths to do their thing. We have a nice contrast between some cleaner exotic sounding synths and a nice mixture of Olli’s dirty melodic leads and GMS’ dirty grinding leads. All in all the Olli squelch factor helps kick the GMS sound up several notches into a nice thumper of a track here. Full on, yes, but good full on.
Next up Olli teams up with a more recent full on master, CPU, to bring us Single Dose. In this case,, CPU does seem to overpower the Space Tribe sound a bit, but they do compliment each other well, even if CPU does seem to have had stronger influence on this track, especially in the bass and percussion areas.
Continuing on, we have a match up with Electric Universe for The Acid Test, which is truly the highlight of the album.. This track is a couple years old now and a meeting of two great old school masters, but this track outshines the newer, supposedly better (in some people’s minds) tracks by far. Massive leads, super powerful stomping, squelching galore… It might be old, but it will wipe the floor up with 99% of the new, supposedly “killa” tracks out there. Great stuff here.
Twitch!!!!, made with Psywalker is next on the hit list, and again we have another thumping track here. Kind of full on, but more old school to my ears. Again, we have the squelchy grrr-ing leads, balanced with more recent full on sounding dirty atonal zippy noises. As is common in a lot of Space Tribe tracks, there is a lot of sampling going on here. Some people find some of his sample work to be a bit over the top, but so far there has been nothing too extreme on this release. This track becomes perhaps a hair too “typical full on” for me, but its still fairly good
Next, Olli meets Safi Connection for Dinner With God. We get tricked into thinking there is a big intro coming, only to be suddenly thrown right into the track. If there is one lead sound I have a hopeless weakness for, it is squelchy leads with a strong “vocal” quality to them. This track has the psycho robot desperately trying to communicate with us sound that I love, so I’m totally into this track. The change ups are pretty nice too. Again, pretty full on, but not surprising considering the collaborators, and its good full on so...
Wacko teams us back up with CPU. A typical Space Tribe sample opens things up for us. We have some CPU whirr-ing noises and then the bass kicks in. For a change it’s not the usual full on fair here and I dare say a bit groovy. We get a nice change up with some congas and the bass changing around a bit to be busier, but not loose the groove. We get a nice total silence break and then some more CPU percussion, filter work before sliding back into the stomp. This is quality stuff here and probably my second favorite track after The Acid Test.
The second team up with GMS has a hard act to follow here with Alternate Future. The intro is cool and moody, but it unfortunately building into a bass line than just seems too bright for the mood the intro set. This track doesn’t really stand out too much for me. The break goes back to the intro mood and gives us some good stuff for the last two minutes, but its nothing groundbreaking really.
Tall Poppy Syndrome teams us up with Psywalker again. Start out dark and distorted and drop into some thumping buzzy full on with out much fuss. This is another winner that makes up for the previous filler track. Very full on again, but it’s just dirtier and better than the usual bright. squeaky clean, polished but all to often boring full on we get these days. Sometimes dirty is good, and this is a great example of that. Good beats, good sounds, good development…. I know a track’s good if I end up sitting here bouncing to it and not writing anything and this is the third track on this CD to do that for me. Great stuff.
Last up Space Tribe meets the ever morphing psy-legends X-Dream for Turn On/Turn Off. This one drops out of the 140 bpm range to the 110 area. Even more interesting, it’s a breaks track!!!! Here we have a lot of the Irritant era X-Dream industrial distorted sounds going on with breaks action. As a fan of the long dead psy-breaks movement, I dig this a lot. That said, it’s so far away from what Olli usually does, it’s really difficult to imagine what he did on this track. A good track is only because it’s so different.
The end result - Given the collaborators Space Tribe worked with here, the heavy full on vibe of the CD is no surprise at all. Having said that, there are 3 or 4 excellent tracks here, together with a bunch of other solid effort tracks. Only one track really struck me as a throw away track, which is a lot better than many CDs I have purchased recently.. All and all a nice mixture of the new and the old, with a total WTF moment at the end.
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Yeah the drum programming on some of the older tracks is a bit basic as the bulk of these tracks were made about a year ago when I had gotten a grip of new synths in and I was kind of lost in "new synth" land for awhile. My more recent tracks (a couple of which appear in the later half of the set) have a lot more attention placed in the drum department.
Thanks for the comments!!!
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I posted this in the music making forum as well, but I thought some people here who don't make it over into that forum might be interested. If this is a problem with the double posting, moderators feel free to erase which ever you feel is unnessecary.
Anyways, I've just uploaded a 76 minute live set of mine for your listening pleasure at our site at http://www.par-2.com.
The direct links are here...
For Broadband http://www.par-2.com/choons/jikkentekilivehi.mp3
For Dial-up http://www.par-2.com/choons/jikkentekilivelow.mp3
Best regards and I look forward to your comments.
Jikkenteki
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I've just uploaded a 76 minute live set of mine for your listening pleasure at our site at http://www.par-2.com.
The direct links are here...
For Broadband http://www.par-2.com/choons/jikkentekilivehi.mp3
For Dial-up http://www.par-2.com/choons/jikkentekilivelow.mp3
Best regards and I look forward to your comments.
Jikkenteki
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Various Artists – Ultrapop
Fabula Records 2004 FABCD02
Phat Kontrollerz – Simple Control Complex
Antiscarp Warriors – Invalead
Kiwa – Offset
Loopus In Fabula – Casbah
Praecox – Fraktalik Penis
Kino Oko – Crakrum And Bocianum
Loopus In Fabula – The Chase
Dendron – Supernatural Jazz
Popper Hnool – Disco
Seinis – Nifty Fifty
If there is one thing I have grown tired of in today's psy-scene, it is cookie cutter compilations. You know the type... Look at the back cover, find the biggest name and then you basically know what the rest of the CD will sound like. I seem to recall a time when I could buy a compilation fairly regularly and get a nice mix of what I expected and something different that I might not have heard elsewise. Unfortunately those type of releases are definately the exception today and therefore I'm happy to report that Ultrapop is definately one of those exceptions. Those of you who like a little variety in your compilations and want to stretch your musical boundries a bit will find a lot to like here. Lots of variation, lots of groove and not a single cookie cutter full on track to be found.
Phat Kontrollerz starts us off with some nice deep progressive stylings. I am of two minds of on the progressive sounds, finding some of it to be amazing and the rest of it mind numbingly boring. "Simple Control Complex" is of the variety I like. Groovy, sonically clean, yet full, lots of percussive action and some surprising sonic mood shifts make this building beast a winner in my book. A promising start to the comp here.
"Invalead" by Antiscarp Warriors is next up. Upon hearing the grooving bassline and weird snyth sounds I though to myself "Finland" and a quick look inside the cd jacket proved my hunch right. Some Finnish music I find to be weird just for weirds sake, but this is a quality piece of work. It has all the bits of the Finland sound I like, without an undue amount of "hey look at this weird sound/sample I came up with" going on. I like the smooth and steady interplay of the simple kick and bassline, above which various layer of madness dirft back and forth. Crazy wigglying synths, chopped up horn samples, bouncing percussion.... Good stuff.
Another Finnish act, Kiwa, is next with "Offset". We start off with some atmospheric flybys and breaky bits, then start piling up layers of percussion before cutting out for a brief second and then finally dropping into the base bass/kick groove. "Offset" is somewhat tribally progressive in some aspects, but there is a lot more going on here with the endless amount of layer addition and subtraction going on. Yet another winner here, and even better, all the tracks so far stand up on their own and aren't part of the sort of one flavor sonic mush that so many releases are becoming.
Loopus In Fabula are next up with "Casbah" and if you know Loopus In Fabula, then you know something different is coming your way. This track almost seems to say "Yeah baby.... funky Jaaaaaazz" to me. Hell its even got a flute solo! While its perhaps not my favorite track of the comp, it definately is solid, and even more important, original. The fact of the matter is, it is rare that a person will love every track in a comp, but I'd much prefer a strong track that's not my usual style to run of the mill filler. This is a strong track and definately not filler.
Praecox are next up. In my darker moments I like to put on Praecox's dark ass semi industrial monster 12"s released on Hadshot a few years ago, so I was excited to see what "Fraktalik Penis" would be about. Again, we have a very different sort of track here that seems to combine some of the weirder elements of some of Loopus In Fabula's work, with a slightly colder sonic palate and focus on a sound that I can only refer to as a Jamaican steel drum gone totally awry. There is a lot more development going on here than the older Praecox tracks I am farmiliar with. While I wasn't entirely sold on the beginning of the track, by the half way point I have definately been sucked in. Again, not my usual cup of tea, but a good solid track regardless.
As Monty Python would say "And now for something completely different". Kino Oko jumps right in with a bassline that I can only describe as a full on bassline as it should be done, rather than how it is usually done. However the rest of the track has about as much to do with full on as a Yanni record. The bassline and kick prove to be the launch point for everything else here. We have some rambling real slap bass floating in and out, a wide range of flybys, some various percussion loops and some various small medolic bits. All in all it sounds like it should be really boring, yet it is made just right and somehow keeps my attention through out.
Loopus In Fabula are back with "The Chase". After intial being tricked into thinking something goofy is coming, with switches into a 2000-ish moody dark minimal bassline with some of the usual accompaning flybys, although with other sounds that only Loopus would think to add in this sort of track. Another solid track here and completely different from their last offering.
Dendron's "Supernatural Jazz" is next, starting like a mutant 1980's break beat rap track. It then shifts gears into a morphing breaky track that reminds me of something Matsuri Productons might have put out several years ago. Sometimes smooth, sometimes dark, its great, but definately a track I can't see many labels having the guts to include on a "psy" comp, so again, big props to the Fabula Records crew for being daring.
Popper Hnool's track is next and being that the track is called "Disco" we can be pretty sure of something in tune with the overall "different" vibe of the comp here coming. Complete with real drum samples, wah'ed guitar lines, more horns and a "funky baby" bassline, We have another track that is not your usual fair here. Like "Casbah", its not really my style, although I can definately get into it.
Sienis closes the comp with "Nifty Fifty". If there has been one vaguely common element on this comp, it has been a sort of vague loungy-jazz vibe popping up here and there and Sienis has this same vague vibe, although in a completely different way. With the exception of the wah guitar samples and such, the sonic palate here is more modern psy than the rest of the comp has been, but the song structure is completely unlike most of the psy you probably listen too. All in all its an excellent track with almost a touch of "party" vibe to it and a great way to finish off the comp.
The end result - Simply put I like this comp a lot. Even if there are a few tracks I am not totally in love with, this compilation is a great lesson in that it is ok, and even usually good to have some variety in a release these days. In the days of everyone playing it safe, I give Fabula Records a lot of credit in doing something very different. And if that alone wasn't reason enough, there is a lot of damn fine music here too. Highly recommend to the open minded!!!
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I often find a synth sound I like and just trigger a short note with a long release and then reverse the sound and apply FX as needed.
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This page might have something that can help you.
Can some help me to buy some CD's from Japan?
in For Sale/ Trade
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I actually have had an extra copy of this floating around for about 6 months now. This is pretty easy to get used over here in Japan.