|
In advertisements appearing regularly throughout the 1990s a leading UK specialist importer stated that the sound quality of Japanese compact discs "is superior to that of similar products manufactured in Europe or USA". This generalisation seems hard to uphold for many releases and certainly does not apply to Shadows' material over the period in question. Sound is good, but not exceptional: through the 1990s Toshiba-EMI did not appear to have at its disposal the high-grade masters regularly employed by EMI UK, though there is thankfully not a single example of the multitude of horrors perpetrated on vinyl by Japanese engineers in the course of the 1960s: they seem to have been consigned to the dustbin long ago. Where Japanese CDs (Toshiba-EMI issues at any rate) do score is in standards of presentation, with ample liner-notes (regrettably incomprehensible to the present writer), and with colour photography second-to-none. One disappointing feature is the paper used within the booklets, which is low grade, in marked contrast to the high-gloss covers: this means that the b/w photos housed in them, small-scale in any case, can often look grainy and coarse.
One feature deserving of brief comment is the "obi strip", a functional appendage found on most Japanese LPs and CDs. It is a removable piece of paper generally folded over the left-hand side of the sleeve/case: it provides key details in Japanese about the release (title, catalogue no, track-listing etc.), details that can be taken in by native speakers at a glance. Shrink-wrapping holds the obi strip in place, so naturally, and somewhat inconveniently, it becomes a separate flap of paper once the music-carrier is opened up! In Japanese terms, the strips are integral components, therefore their condition is relevant to resale value, with some LP strips in prime condition fetching more than the records for which they were designed!
The relevant strips are opened out for illustrative purposes in the present survey. Here is a pic of one in place on a CD, The Shadows At Abbey Road from January 1998:
Turning to the music content, while there is nothing on Japanese CDs that cannot be acquired elsewhere, there is one release that is of special interest, the "2 on 1" Live In Japan And Pops In Japan: this adds to the Sankei Hall concert (1969) the home-grown equivalent of From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John (1967), which includes the four "Japanese" tracks. The remaining releases draw heavily, as does every market, on the UK A-Singles, especially the run from APACHE to THEME FOR YOUNG LOVERS. Other numbers frequently found on CDs from Japan, reflecting their popularity there in the 1960s, are: BLUE STAR, PERFIDIA, SPRING IS NEARLY HERE, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, THUNDERBIRDS THEME and BOMBAY DUCK.
Note
This survey does not deal in detail with UK products given a Japanese makeover, usually by the inclusion of folded paper inlays providing programme and other details in the home tongue. The relevant EMI-related CDs are these:
1987 & 1988: 20 Golden Greats Toshiba CP 32 5387 / EMI CP 32–9008; 1993: Everything Of Value — Rarities 2 EMI TOCP 7797 (has large folded sheet incorporating song lyrics, presumably in aid of karaoke); 1998: The Shadows At Abbey Road EMI TOCP 50422; 1999: The Shadows [first Album] EMI TOCP 50750; 2004: A's B's & EP's [this with one track more than the UK parent, APACHE as it happens!] EMI TOCP 53382.
|
