Mark Turner writes:
>Digging through the a-j vinyl at one of my local haunts
>yesterday, I came across two lps that piqued my interest.
>They were in plain black sleeves, like a 12" single, but
>they appeared to be albums...and were definitely priced
>like it, at $18.99 each. As I recall, the titles were
>MAJOR FORCE COMPILATION Parts 1 and 2, and the label was
>Major Force Records. Can anybody give me a quickie
>review of these (i.e., are they worth the big $$$)?
If you don't want 'em, I do!!
Major Force items are very difficult to get a hold of, particularly
these days. However, in many cases, the material I'm aware of is
actually worth more for its historical value, than for the quality
of the material. Without a track list I'm unsure of what you saw,
but, I'd want anything available! :)
However, I'm also aware that some Major Force material has been
bootlegged and is circulating in the UK. As I'm unaware of
a compilation titled "Major Force Compilation," I'm thinking that
may be what you saw. I've picked up one of the bootlegs in a
record storehere in Tokyo and paid about $15 for what turned out
to be instrumental versions of material by various major force
artists that had preciously been released only as singles. I can't
confirm if there were any such official compilations. The purchase
_was_ well worth it though (the tracks are cool, but a bit "old-
schooly"). I suspect that what you saw may be the complete set
of bootlegs.
I'd get them in any case.
Coincidentally, Naoki Harada wrote:
> Hi! I joined the mailing list yesterday. I like acid-jazz,
>especially, I like "Love T.K.O", but I do not know what they doing now.
>I have "HEAD TURNAR" from Major Forth Production. I would like to kown
>about "Love T.K.O". Did they release new album or single? If somebody
>knows anything, please send a mail.
> I also want to know about Major Forth Production.
After Tosh and Kudo ceased activity with the group "Melon" (itself, a
project which followed up the "Watermelon Group" in the early 80's)
Major Force productions began as the Hip Hop group "Major Force" and
soon became the "record label" Major Force with a joint arrangement
with Sony. Major Force, the label, released several early Japanese
Hip Hop artists on 12" and even a couple albums before its originators
Tosh and Kudo moved to the UK and Takagi Kan split off from the project.
In time, "File Records" which had been created in Major Force's latter
years, took over the reigns and is still specializing in Hip Hop to this
day. "Major Force West" was the center for Tosh and Kudo's UK activity
and it was through this project that they created LoveTKO, Tosh and the
Silver Arks, and joined up with Howie B for Skylab. Nakanishi Toshio (Tosh)
was also one of the original members of Natural Calamity, which released
its initial projects on File Records, and later, Bellissima. That sound
that many people liked from Love TKO remains on Natural Calamity to a
great degree. Takagi Kan released several solo projects and has produced
many artists. He is apparently working on a "non-Hip Hop" revival of Tiny
Punx (one of the first Major Force artists), and many of the MF 12" from
back in the day are scheduled to be rereleased on Yum Yum Vinyl, a division
of File Records (Jpn).
(I realize someone posted a web site, but thanks to computer troubles I can't
check the site and therefore don't know whether the info enclosed is complete
or not)
-b
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