S·Core recommendations

[Theodore]

Does anyone know Man Decade? It was a trio in the mid-'80s including Yutaka Tanaka, the guy behind S·Core. It's an extremely obscure project that released two tapes and a 7" according to Discogs. According to the site, almost no one has any of them. One track from one of the tapes is on YouTube and it's quite good. Would love to hear more. I guess there's no chance of this material ever being reissued due to the same reason S·Core stuff isn't being reissued either.

I had the Postlude tape and the track on YouTube / Discogs page is my rip / channel. As far as i remember it's not far away from S-Core sound / style. Some great tracks, some not so, overall very good, but i am not the right person to comment on S-Core cause i like everything haha. - I gifted the tape in return to a great gift i recieved. It's in good hands.

I recently bought two tapes: Gush from 1990 (at least that's the year of release) is very good, as has been stated in this thread already. Riutalistic, dark, suffocating lo-fi atmosphere. Undersong from 1987 is not as good, but this is partly due to the crappy sound quality. I don't know if my copy was just badly dubbed, but it sounds really weak and bassy, with a lot of details being lost or just barely audible.

I remember some years i had asked someone [A.B] who was selling Undersong . He had already sold it but told me it wasnt the finest dub. So unless you bought it from him, and we speak about the same copy, it is like that. - But really from S-Core / Man Decade tapes i have or had -very few unfortunately- and his contributions in VA CS i can tell he was recording / dubbing in low-volume, details are 'burried' on background. Even Pretension CS that has normal levels, you can understand the master was lower volume and boosted on dubbing, that applies to some compilations too. Collab with Bogart, i cant recall now, i think i have Bogart version judging by the tape. But my assumption that he was recording 'low' was made based on everything i have on tape. By that i dont mean they sound bad, or that they are bad dubs. I mean that was his choice, his intention, his style. - Interested for other's opinion ...

Someone must know what hapened to him ! Should we hire an investigator ? Seriously, it's a pity that we can listen his tapes only through crappy MP3 rips. Finding him, reissuing his works should be priority number one !

[accidental]

I never checked him out. But a while ago i got the Pretension cassette. Not impressed at all. The synth parts certainly didn't help me. Is all the 80's S*Core stuff like this?

[totalblack]

"Pretension" is an awesome tape, but if you didn't like it, you probably won't really care for the project. Every release (and sometimes track) sounds different, but there is a cohesion with all of his work. I haven't heard anything I dislike from the project, and am especially fond of the synth bits on "Gush".

The best releases are probably the first self-released tapes, "Dross", "Morbid Moppets" and "Alter", along with the P.D.B. LP in my opinion. If anyone is interested in selling any of the cassettes, I'm still missing a few and am looking to buy.

New S-Core interview in Special Interests was certainly good to read, but sad that there is no interest in any sort of archiving of the material, or revisiting any potentially unreleased works. For my tastes it's one of the more important contributions to industrial music from the late 80s-90s, and it's tragic that it's doomed to disappear. I mean, most of the stuff is basically impossible to find already.

[accidental]

"Pretension" is an awesome tape, but if you didn't like it, you probably won't really care for the project. Every release (and sometimes track) sounds different, but there is a cohesion with all of his work.

To each their own. The mumbling on "Lame meter" is bloody awful to my ears. And the "noise" elements on the same track i find rather lame. Without edge or depth. Arranged stylishly in a way that does not speak to me.

[acsenger]

Just got the new Special Interests zine and read the interview with Tanaka. I suppose he's been asked if there could be reissues of his work? Is he interested, or not? I'm sure even if the master tapes are lost, that shouldn't be a problem.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Just got the new Special Interests zine and read the interview with Tanaka. I suppose he's been asked if there could be reissues of his work? Is he interested, or not? I'm sure even if the master tapes are lost, that shouldn't be a problem.

Unfortunately he is not interested in reissues at this point.