Skip to content
Hi and thanks for reading. I still have not really been listening to records. Probably not what you came here to read, but it is what it is. I hung out with my good friend Danny the other night and he played me a bit of jazz alongside some cool Japanese stuff like 奇形児 (KIKEIJI) and 第四インターナショナル (THE 4th INTERNATIONAL). I don’t think I knew THE 4th INTERNATIONAL until Danny played me the flexi when he originally got it. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can check it out here. I’m always impressed with the sound quality of ‘80s Japanese flexis. It’s a shame flexis usually sound like shit these days, especially if they are double-sided. This flexi is not only double-sided, but in true Japanese fashion it’s also an 8”. I don’t think KIKEIJI is nearly as obscure, with their 7”s being released on ADK Records; they were also reissued back in 2012. I didn’t discover them until those reissues. We used to have those in stock not too long ago, but it looks like we’ve sold out. I think KIKEIJI’s debut flexi was the first release on ADK. It was recorded in January 1983. Later that year, ADK released a proper KIKEIJI 7” entitled Plastic Scandal, and this was the one we jammed over at Danny’s. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but I favor their 7” over the flexi. It just seems like their sound came together more. They still have a bit of weirdness to them, but I think the songwriting is much catchier. The drumming style is overall much more punk, and I think the guitar solos are better.
Sticking with ADK and moving on to the photo above, MASTURBATION is one of two records I’ve spun on my own time this week. The other one was MALINHEADS. I think Probegepogt Aus Spandau is one of the most raging German hardcore 7”s I have ever heard. If you don’t know it, I would suggest you check it out! You can find the 2010 reissue for fairly cheap if you keep an eye out. So anyways, I think this MASTURBATION was the first proper 7” released on ADK, and it’s quite rare. I was lucky to land this in a recent trade. I love to trade, but it seems it happens less and less these days. I traded more records than I can count in the previous two years. This was only my second trade of the year, and we are already six months in. I’m not in the position to be buying expensive records, so I was especially stoked on this. I landed their 被害妄想 12” a handful of years ago for dirt cheap, and that’s the material I was most familiar with. The 12” is cool, but the 7” is way cooler. The 7” starts with that drudging kinda sound you hear on the 12”, but they still have some punk sounding shit that I think the 12” lacks. Its production is way more raw, while the 12” has that sorta lo-fi sound that you often hear from stuff on ADK. If you aren’t familiar with MASTURBATION, you can check it out here.
I’m still primarily listening to rap/hip-hop. I’m currently listening to DJ ZIRK. I remember when I first heard this shit I was blown away to hear tons of samples that TRIPLE 6 MAFIA also used. I’m assuming they lifted them from DJ ZIRK, but I really have no idea as I am not well-rounded on this shit. While I love ‘90s NYC rap, I love ‘90s Memphis shit just the same if not more. The sound is entirely different. I feel like NYC shit focused more on lyrics, while Memphis was more centered on the beats and samples. JUICEY J’s Vol. 9mm tape is a masterpiece in my opinion. I first heard Memphis shit when I was serving time in juvenile detention centers as a youth. They gave us some computer time at one of the facilities I was in. I think we were supposed to be doing schoolwork or something, but one of the kids I was locked up with managed to download some old TRIPLE 6 MAFIA shit. That was dangerously against the rules, haha, making it even cooler for me to hear. Alright, I guess that’s all for today. Thanks for reading. Much love to my friends out there, and thanks for the trade, Ian!!!