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Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die

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Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 1, 1999 (1999-09-01)
Recorded1999
Studio
Various
    • Studio Wireself, Ibaraki
    • Soyuz DataFact, Tokyo
    • Cooshin-An, Osaka
Genre
Length36:18
LabelChaos Union, Teslakite, Magnet
ProducerP-Model
P-Model chronology
Electronic Tragedy/〜ENOLA
(1997)
Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die
(1999)

Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die, stylized as Music Industrial Wastes〜P-MODEL OR DIE (音楽産業廃棄物〜P-MODEL OR DIE, Ongaku Sangyō Haikibutsu〜P-MODEL OR DIE), is the twelfth studio album by P-Model, the third by its "revised" lineup and the final one for the band overall.

Background

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In 1999, feeling that technology had advanced enough and frustrated at major labels' reticence to adopt it, P-Model terminated their exclusive contract with Nippon Columbia and started the Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die project. Through it, the band would completely redevelop their distribution methods, starting up the online MP3 store P-Plant with the assistance of the Nikkei Business Publications magazine netn@vi as their primary commercial channel; to service those who don't have computers, the independent label Magnet Records handled CD releases, with a delay from the site sale.[1] They would also organize multiple online events for more direct interaction with their listeners.

As 1999 was also the 20th anniversary of the band's foundation, many activities were organized to commemorate its history, among them the rerecording of songs from the first four P-Model albums in the style of their accompanying live shows as the Virtual Live series of albums[2] and the release of a book chronicling the group's multiple aspects.

The concept of the album Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die is summed up on its first track, inspired by the frustration the P-Plant webmaster was having with the difficulties of copyright in the information age, "Logic Airforce": P-Model is locked on a battle of logic with the music industry. As an extension of the concept of Fune, the long voyage started on that album ends on a post-war battlefield, where people are rebuilding a new world, where all are invited to acceptance, things that would be called escapism and madness in the real world are celebrated, and evil spirits can show their faces.[3] However, to continue living inside the real world to some extent, people cast aside their "real names", instead living as "dust humanoids", or "DUSToids".[3]

Composition

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A theme present in the album is a proper revisiting of the core P-Model concept. To explore that, Kenji Konishi used the drum spatial processing from Perspective and whole tones, giving most of his songs a "concrete garage-like" sound and some periodic sampling of snare drums.[3] Further playing with the "retrieving industrial wastes" concept, he also recorded about 3 hours of sampling from construction sites and similar locations.[3]

The song that most closely realizes the "replay" concept, "Heaven 2000", is a combination of two songs: "Heaven", from Perspective, and 4-D's stand-alone single "After Dinner Party".[3] Both "Heaven" and "After Dinner Party" were part of both bands' regular repertoire in the '80s. While originally entirely unrelated, both songs can be read as complementary to each other, and that was the motivation behind the making of "Heaven 2000".[3]

Recording and production

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With the advances in technology, members sent each other demos as MP3 files, which are of a higher quality than RealAudio ones, which meant that each member could do their entire workload without meeting face-to-face.[4][5] Continuing that trend, P-Model experimented with "Remote Mixdown": backups of each member's hard disk recorder were sent to Hirasawa's Studio Wireself, were Masanori Chinzei engineered them, periodically sending MP3s to each member's computer. They would then communicate feedback and instructions to him through an exclusive chat system, which also featured webcam snapshots of Chinzei at work, refreshing once every 3 minutes.[4] The whole process could be seen by the public, who had their own chat and could listen to low-rate MP3s, all happening in real time.[4]

Because MP3 downloads were being considered as the primary method of distribution, P-Model made sure to compress the songs to about 3 to 4 MB, with 5 MB being the maximum; they also deliberately went for "festive" numbers to celebrate the new medium.[3]

Track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Logic Airforce" (論理空軍 Ronri Kūgun)Susumu Hirasawa3:20
2."Lauretian" (ローレシア Rōreshia)Kenji Konishi3:49
3."Recovery Ship" (回収船 Kaishū Sen)Hirasawa4:16
4."Moon Plant-II"Hirasawa3:55
5."Heaven 2000"Konishi3:18
6."Ancient Sounds"Konishi3:20
7."Rehash"Konishi4:37
8."Waste Cabaret"Hirasawa3:11
9."Mind Scape"Konishi4:12
10."DUSToid" (DUSToidよ歩行は快適か? DUSToid yo Hokō wa Kaiteki ka?, Oh DUSToid, is Your Walk Comfortable?)Hirasawa3:40

Personnel

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Release history

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Date Label(s) Format Catalog Notes
September 1, 1999 (1999-09-01) Chaos Union, Teslakite MP3 PP-00001 All songs are available for download individually (cat. nos. PP-00010 – 19).
September 22, 1999 (1999-09-22) Magnet Records, Teslakite CD MAGL-5002 Packaged on a smart tray jewel case, with a small booklet and a strip of magnetic tape with project logo, TESLAKITE logo and catalogue number printed on it.
May 10, 2002 (2002-05-10)
July 4, 2014 (2014-07-04)
Chaos Union, Teslakite CHTE-0014 Remastered by Hirasawa. Part of Disc 10 of the Ashu-on [Sound Subspecies] in the solar system box set, alongside Virtual Live-1 and "Moon Plant-I". Re-released with new packaging by Kiyoshi Inagaki.
  • "Logic Airforce" is included on the LIVE VIDEO Music Industrial Wastes〜P-MODEL OR DIE and MAGNET RECORDS/biosphere records PREMIUM DVD videos and the January 2000 Nikkei netn@vi and JAS SKI & SNOWBOARD 2001 CD-ROMs.

References

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  1. ^ "国内初のMP3音楽配信プロジェクトを「P-MODEL」が始動!!" ["P-MODEL" Starts Japan's First MP3 Music Distribution Project!!]. PC fan (in Japanese). Mainichi Communications. 31 May 1999. Archived from the original on 1 March 2000. Retrieved 15 November 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ Okiyama, Atsushi (31 May 1999). "プロアーティストとして日本初 - インターネット音楽配信の突破口となるか P-MODELが新曲をMP3で配信" [Japan's First Professional Artists - Will it be a Breakthrough in Internet Music Distribution? P-MODEL Delivers New Songs on MP3]. INTERNET Watch (in Japanese). Impress Corporation. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Takahasi 2010, p. 94.
  4. ^ a b c Takahasi 2010, p. 115.
  5. ^ Hara, Takeshi (31 May 1999). "テクノポップバンド"P-MODEL"、MP3による新曲配信を開始" [Techno-Pop Band "P-MODEL" Starts Distribution of New Songs Through MP3]. ASCII.jp (in Japanese). ASCII Corporation. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  6. ^ Takahasi 2010, p. 112.
  7. ^ Takahasi 2010, p. 114.
  8. ^ Takahasi 2010, p. 113.
  9. ^ "キミはゴミの風呂に沈んだことがあるか?" [Have You Ever Sunken in a Garbage Bath?]. The Aggregated Past KANGENSHUGI 8760 HOURS (in Japanese). Chaos Union. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
Bibliography
  • Takahasi, Kasiko (2010) [1999], 改訂DIGITAL復刻版 音楽産業廃棄物 [Music Industrial Wastes Rev.2.4], vol. P-Model Side – Open Source (3rd ed.), Fascination.
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