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Not wanting to be upstaged by The Mortal, Schaft has released a whole slew of new announcements!
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First, for those of you who didn't catch Schaft during their first tour back in the early 90's due to still being nothing but a latent possibility and vague tingle of lust in the gonads of your parents, now is your chance to make up for lost time! Schaft will be releasing a limited-edition box set of their old work. The box will contain FOUR whole discs, including one DVD with live footage from the first Schaft tour. While this footage was, I believe, available on VHS back in the day (omg guys remember VHS tapes???), this is the first time it has ever been released to DVD, so this is big news not only for fans of Imai and Fujii Maki, but also for fans of Raymond Watts, since he was heavily involved in the band's original lineup.
The box set will be released on January 20th, and cost 7000 yen including tax. Details of the contents are as follows:
Disc 1
A remastered version of Schaft's first album, Switchblade, first released in 1994
Disc 2
A remix disc including the following:
- All the tracks from Schaft's first remix album, Switchmix, first released in 1994
- The original version of Schaft's first-ever song, "nicht-title," originally released on the omnibus album Dance2Noise001 in 1991
- An all-new remix of "nicht-title" by Fujii Maki
- "SuperSchaftTrack," the remix offered by Schaft in 1999 for the zilch remix album
- A remaster of Raymond Watt's remix of "THE HERO INside"
Disc 3
A live CD recorded at Schaft's live show held at the Shibuya Kokaido on September 26th, 1994 (released to CD for the first time ever!)
Disc 4
A DVD version of Schaft's live video Switchblade -Visual Mix- (released to DVD for the first time ever!) The DVD also includes a bonus track of the PV for "Arbor Vitae"...and all I have to say is, fangirls, this collector's box is worth buying for the "Arbor Vitae" PV alone, because this is surely the only chance you will ever have to own a bona-fide DVD copy of Imai's one and only video appearance acting the role of a snuff-porn videographer. And if you don't find the very idea of that strangely titillating I suggest you leave the Buck-Tick fandom now.
As you can imagine, the box set will also come with an extra-super-duper-fancy booklet, though there is as yet no word on whether the booklet will include outtakes from the highly homo-erotic photoshoot of Imai and Fujii twined around each other wearing skin-tight ribbed tank tops that appeared back in the 1991 issue of Rockin' On Japan (the same issue also featured the now-famous photo series of Mr. Sakurai as pearl-clutching Yoshiki's personal European Nazi executioner/torturer as well as Issay dressed in a bedsheet doing a strip tease and a capsule behind-the-scenes anecdote in the back about Yoshiki locking himself in the dressing room to prepare, while Mr. Sakurai ranted to the photographers that he had been mistakenly labeled as the man in a tabloid scandal photo of a man and lady coming out of a love hotel, declaring "that guy isn't me, he looks nothing like me!" - as you can see folks, the 90's were exciting times so track down this magazine if you dare!)
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Second, the release of Schaft's new album has also been announced! The album will be titled Ultra and in addition to Messrs. Imai and Fujii, it will also feature Yow-Row from GARI (best known to Buck-Tick fans as the dude who did the mixing for "Melancholia -Electria-"), Mr. Ueda from AA= (who performed at Buck-Tick's 25th anniversary festival), and Yukihiro from L'arc-En-Ciel and acid android (who I think we can all agree is much better when he's not encumbered by Hyde's icky twinkiness...sorry, Hyde fans.)
The album will be released on January 20th, same day as the box set. As usual, it will be released in two versions. The limited edition will include a bonus DVD and cost 3780 including tax. The regular edition will just contain the album and will cost 3240 including tax.
Also, regarding this album, Schaft would like you to know that they most certainly very definitely DID NOT steal the title from Depeche Mode. Who would ever do a thing like that. After all, it's not like Mona Lisa Overdrive was the title of novel by William Gibson or anything.
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Third, in addition to the three tour dates already scheduled, Schaft have announced that they will be playing an additional two shows, as follows:
Sunday, January 24th - Yokohama Bay Hall (open 5PM/start 6PM)
Monday, January 25th - Liquidroom Ebisu (open 6PM/start 7PM)
For those of you who were twisting yourself into knots trying to skip work because all the fucking Mortal gigs AND all the fucking Schaft gigs are on fucking weekdays, now is your chance to see Schaft on a Sunday...but act fast! The pre-sale ticket lottery through Schaft's official website will be taking place between November 6th and November 16th, and this will be your best chance to get tickets, especially for the Liquidroom show, as it's a tiny venue and likely to sell out immediately.
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Aaaand...that's all for now. But there will surely be more to follow soon. If you would like Cayce's help or advice with ordering the tour tickets, the box set, or anything else, email us at themadaristocrat at gmail.
And yeah, I get it, folks. You don't care much about this, because you only care about Acchan-chan so as far as you're concerned Imai on his own is nothing but a weird guy who kind of looks like a potato who woke up in a dumpster after spending a whole night listening to a lot of bleepy-bloopy music that only really makes sense if you're high on acid. But if that's your not-so-secret opinion, shame on you. You should care about this. Because in addition to being a dumpster-clad acid potato, Imai is a once-in-a-generation genius and this is probably Schaft's swan song so it's well and truly history, and since someday, if you're lucky enough not to die young, you, too, may wake up in a dumpster to find yourself old and wrinkly and friendless, so the time to live is now, my friends. You should care.
Let's see some love for Imai in the comments section.
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Umn...I would love to attend the concerts if I could but sadly I have spent all I have on Acchan-chan and The Mortal. 😟 Will just have to wait for Cayce's report to experience this vicariously 😉
ReplyDeleteOh, 90's! VHS tapes~! I still have my player.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited for SCHAFT's new album.
Dumpster-clad acid potato! That line made my morning - thanks, Cayce!
ReplyDeleteI have to be completely honest here and confess that when I heard about Schaft's reunion I almost cried from joy and am more excited about this than The Mortal. I'm sorry Acchan-chan fangirls. :'(
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing some representation to this less-vocal contingent of B-T fandom!
DeleteAnd agree about Hyde's twinkiness. It's icky.
DeleteI'm very much excited to watch Arbor Vitae in mostly hi-def please shoot me I'm a sucker for Mai-Mai as a snuff-porn videographer.
ReplyDeleteI'm too excited I forgot to put a punctuation.
It's arguably the raciest role he has ever played, aside from Lucy's "Sweet Baby Sweet" ;)
DeleteIf only Mai-mai-chan had beaten Acchan-chan to the PR rush, he might have gotten all my money and time instead. As it is I will just have to make so with waiting for the album...
ReplyDeleteSo excited about the new album, and omg we'll get to see Imai and his short black skirt in video that doesn't look like it was processed by a meat-grinder <3 ('Cause Imai didn't always look like he woke up in a dumpster, unless of course the dumpster was near an SM-themed shop.)
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to despair though. As if all the misfortunes befalling my bank account as a B-T fan aren't enough, get this - apparently MERRY are touring Europe early next year! Now how am I supposed to find money for all that?
Imai 100% always looks like he woke up in a dumpster. It's just that you don't sleep when your high on acid so the more drugs he's on the longer he goes without returning to the dumpster to sleep and change his outfit.
DeleteAs for Merry, you should have gotten while the getting was good and gone to see them when they played a show with Buck-Tick back in 2012!
P.S. I mention Imai's Snoopy Flying Ace jacket from Buck-Tick: The Movie. I would have sworn it was the ugliest piece of outerwear ever made, till I saw the lumpy brown sweater he was wearing in the next scene. Dumpster diving: Imai did it before the hipsters made it cool.
DeleteHad to check out what you were talking about, I guess when I saw the movie I just took it for granted that it was something Imai would wear and didn't take notice. I feel your pain, Cayce. As for Merry and B-T, I would have loved to go - if not for the fact that in 2012 I wasn't even listening to B-T, let alone Merry! And that would have been the least obstacle. Your report from that show played a decisive part in deciding that Merry may be worth investigating though ^^
DeleteWell I don't think you need to be told that I'm part of the Schaft camp, since you currently hold the receipt for my concert ticket ;)
ReplyDeleteDo you know if the guest collaborators announced are the only guests, or just some of them? I was kinda hoping they'd collaborate with some western musicians again.
Anyway, I won't be needing your helping ordering these because for the first and probably only time I'll be able to just waltz into a shop in Tokyo and buy them for myself! :D
The guest collaborators for the tour haven't been announced yet, and based on all the announcements so far, I'm assuming there will be different guests for the tour than for the recording, so keep your fingers crossed.
DeleteAs for the tickets...if you want tickets to either of extra shows I highly suggest you ask me to enter the lottery for you, as I think these are going to sell out fast, especially the Liquidroom one. It's a tiny venue. Yokohama Bay Hall is a lot bigger but it's the only show on a weekend so I'm expecting those tickets will sell out quickly, too. As for buying the new album and box set, I suggest you check out Tower Records Shibuya just for the experience, as it's probably the best bricks-and-mortar record store remaining in this cloud-service obsessed world. They sell vinyls. There is a photo booth. There is even a bar on the top floor.
I wonder if the new album will be on ototoy...
ReplyDelete