This is a remix album, of sorts. Instead of remixing individual songs by using separated tracks as sources, these remixes sample pieces out of full Pizzicato Five songs and craft them into new recordings.

At least two of these tracks have been released before, although (as per usual) on smaller edition EPs and collector items like Pizzicato Five In The Bag. There are some variations in style: some pieces are almost straight-ahead cut ups, some take anthemic segments of two or three songs as the source and turn them into thick dancable hits, others pull from many sources. Some use turntables. Some slow things down. Some speed them up (Pizzicato X, previously from the 24 December Ep, speeds through much of the 90’s Pizzicato Five output over its 12 minute duration – most other tracks average around 6 minutes).

Some of the stand-outs, for me, are “Bossa Nova 3003” (mixed by Pizzicato Five, and previously available on Non-Stop to Tokyo EP and Pizzicato Five In The Bag); “PizziCUT Five UP Anthems” by Cubismo Grafico (uses Week-End heavily, which is one of my favorite songs. It gets a little repetitive, but it’s a fun piece); “Yikes! Peach Cut 5’24’!!” (another slightly repetitive party piece, but it feels good, borrowing a lot from the funkier Pizzicato Five tracks along with the words “you better watch out, you better not cry, come on everybody, it’s time to celebrate!”); “A revolt of turntable and p5” (slower, vari-speed, a little more experimental).

As someone who loves a lot of musique concrete, avant garde 20th century classical (particularly early to mid century), dadaism, etc, while also loving the hell out of Pizzicato Five, this album has been a treat. It never really strays into harsh experimentalism, nor does it stray into mundane electronica remixing. The horns, the strings, the choruses, the anthems, the Maki interviews, the funk, the jazz, it’s all here. Pizzicato’s strongest sounds, arranged and re-arranged by a collection of different artists.

This is a great collection of material from Playboy/Playgirl onwards to the end of the band. Some of the songs presented here are different mixes of album tracks while others are just the original.

There is enough sortof “new” material here to make this worth it for the Pizzicato Five fan. It opens with a new high speed piano and strings Jazz version of “I (All About Me)”. “Such a Beautiful Girl like You” appears with a nice heavy rolling analog synth bass line and harder acoustic guitar than the album version. “The Night Is Still Young” makes yet another appearance with a minimalist electronic mix, bordering at times on Ryoji Ikeda’s avant garde works.

A couple of tracks from “Sa e ra…” appear on this collection, but come from the EP’s, with more appearances by Maki Nomiya versus the album versions of the tracks.

The big standout piece is “Summertime Summertime” which originally appeared on a Pizzicato Five album from the 80’s (I believe it was on ‘Couples’). This version is a new recording, featuring Maki. It’s piano with a bit of big band thrown in.

The edition pictured here is the 2006 Reissue. This series of reissues features a large photograph on the bottom of the jewel case with ‘pizzicato’ in large type across the bottom. It’s nice for these to be released again, even if they’re not in the US, as it makes some of these albums easier to find. However! I would recommend finding an original of this one.

The original packaging has the exterior stylings of a formal party invitation. The packaging unfolds to reveal full pane video screenshots (all from ‘Twiggy Twiggy’, I believe) with phrases like “goodbye baby and amen”, cementing the fact that this collection was released to mark the end of Pizzicato Five. On the other side of these pictures are many TV screen shaped pictures of Pizzicato Five videos, photo shoots, and more. Inside the packaging is a small book with lyrics (in japanese) and numerous black and white pictures of Maki and Konishi from a couple of photo shoots – one in tennis gear, one with Konishi in a bear costume and Maki in an old polka-dot farm dress, one with them in band major uniforms. The 2006 reissue has none of this.

An interesting album that I believe was Pizzicato Five’s last studio album. It was never released in the USA. It differs from most of the 90’s material in that it involves a cadre of different artists and singers – including Sparks! Maki Nomiya only headlines a couple of songs on this album, to the disappointment of some. A few songs on this album have their own EP’s with versions that feature the more traditional Pizzicato Five line-up.

Over the course of a few articles in The Atlantic Monthly, I’ve become quite a fan of William Langewiesche. I was happy to find that this book had been printed, as I did not take the chance to read the initial articles.

This is the first book I’ve read by Paul Auster, but there will definitely be more in the future. This was a very enjoyable book featuring books within books within books, at times. Terrific New York and Kansas City imagery.

An excellent book. From the interesting story of the prime narrators journey from being a young girl and turning into a young boy (born a hermaphrodite) to his/her family’s history as an American epic – from the european / turkish area to Detroit, through Devils Night, and out to the Detroit Suburbs through three generations.

I hope to get back to this later…

This book has really lingered in my brain long after finishing it. The themes about addiction really stuck out at me, and has made me realize some things about my own life and relationships with some people in it.

And it’s a wickedly fun read.

It starts of with an exciting scene and then jumps around chronologically with weaves and turns and introductions and jaw dropping revelations.

I’ve heard a lot of Palahniuk fans say they lost interest in this book and didn’t finish it. But I found the final third to be particularly enjoyable and worth the read (which I never tired of, personally).