[Now accepting reservations] "Mino's Music" / Author: Mino

[Release date: June 9, 2025!! 】

[Now accepting reservations 】

[Shipping fee for this product is 550 yen nationwide]

▲Those who purchase from the BITTERS Store will receive a record band-shaped bookmark as a bonus.

*Distribution is on a first-come, first-served basis and will end once supplies run out.

Mino (Mino Music) will hold a concert on the theme of "Personal masterpieces that should be listened to for 100 years to come"

A new and exciting disc guide that introduces the artist's personal record collection!

"Mino" is a music creator who delivers the charm of popular music from all over the world to music lovers through his YouTube channel "Mino Music". He is well-versed in a wide variety of music from all over the world, past and present, and has selected various music works from his vast collection of treasured records under the theme of "personal masterpieces that should be listened to for 100 years to come". As a musician who creates music and as a listener who pours his mad love into music, he will introduce the masterpieces that have continued to accompany his musical life along with valuable stories.

The book, which is the same size as a 7-inch record (180 x 180 mm), contains over 700 records. In the full-color pages, the author talks about his deep love of music, including his first encounter with the Beatles, his encounter with a monaural single that shocked him so much that it overturned his concept of music appreciation, hidden masterpieces that live on in the backstreets of rock, his thoughts on the "self-produced and self-performed concept album" that was a turning point in Japanese music history, folk songs that are attracting attention as an alternative genre, and famous city pop albums that have been attracting a lot of attention both at home and abroad in recent years.

<Introduction>

In this day and age when you can easily listen to any kind of music at your fingertips, listening to music on records is clearly inconvenient and irrational. It takes up space, is time-consuming, and above all, is expensive. It's not efficient at all.

However, if you think about it, art itself is the polar opposite of efficiency and rationality. Even if we are moved by novels and movies and immersed in a world of fantasy, it doesn't fill us up. But we still seek out art, and we know that the experience enriches our souls. It is exactly in the place beyond efficiency and rationality that we find truly human time.

The act of enjoying music through records is filled with many irrational pleasures that are being lost as music appreciation becomes more rationalized. For example, the large, space-consuming jacket is a gateway to the world expressed by the musician. Spreading out the huge cover, carefully examining the lyric sheet, dropping the needle and becoming immersed in the sound is a time. Another unique charm of records is the way in which you can superimpose the memories and thoughts of a stranger onto the graffiti and sticker marks left by the previous owner.

<Omitted>

When you play a sound source that you have listened to repeatedly on CD or streaming on a record, a whole new charm emerges. A guitar riff that you thought was docile actually has violent distortion, and an ensemble that you thought was sparse actually moves as a huge, solid groove. It is full of discoveries. By playing it in its original form as a record, the true sound that the musicians at the time intended is revived.

The richness and depth that the irrational medium of records brings can never be obtained by pursuing rationality alone. It is this irrationality that makes listening to music on records the true luxury.

<Excerpt from this book>

When The Beatles were active in the 1960s, the sound they wanted to deliver to many people was closest to the "records". In addition, the members themselves were present at the mixing of the mono records. Therefore, the best way for me to reminisce about "that era" that I was not able to experience in real time is to listen to the records from that time. 

───Excerpt from "The Beatles"

In my case, this can be said about all works, but I can't honestly say that I like music unless I can listen to it while recreating the sound in my head - in other words, unless I have it memorized. This is because I want to avoid liking or disliking a song just based on its atmosphere without deeply understanding the structure of the song, including the sound of the instruments, the phrases, and the melody line. In that respect, I think the reason it took me a long time to like "Pet Sounds" is because the amount of information you can get from the song is so large that it took a long time to install the structure of the song in my brain. When I listened to this album after absorbing the complex arrangements that make use of a wide variety of instruments, I was amazed at Brian Wilson's genius sense.

───Excerpt from "The Beach Boys and Pet Sounds"

That was when I was 27 years old. It all started when an older music lover gave me the advice, "You can't experience the true charm of the Spector sound unless you listen to it with a mono-only needle." (Omitted) When I actually listened to it, it sounded completely different from a CD or a subscription. I was overwhelmed by the sound that resonated as one solid mass. It was a little frustrating, but I thought, "What that old man said was not wrong." Even now, when I think back on it, it was such a shocking event that it completely changed my view of music .

───Excerpt from "Phil Spector and the Wall of Sound"

I believe that Southern All Stars were the first in Japan to overcome the dilemma between popularity and spirituality that has plagued many rock musicians and establish a model for continuous activity over many years as "sustainable rock musicians." Why have they been able to continue to be active at the forefront of the music scene? It's because they made "creating high-quality pop songs" their number one priority, while taking on the greatest musical adventures within that framework. I call this approach the "Kuwata Keisuke model."

─── Excerpt from "Japanese Rock of the 1970s"

The most attractive point of Kyoko Koizumi's "Fade Out" for me is that the instrumental performance depicts the continuation of the lyrics. This song is about 8 minutes long, and after the last chorus "We'll just disappear into the highway together", a passionate saxophone solo on a four-on-the-floor beat closes the song. In other words, it is the instruments, not the words, that tell the end of the story. The song literally fades out with the fire-breathing saxophone, which symbolizes a fiery adventure. This is actually a technique that has been used for a long time, and the performance of "leaving the sexual depiction to the instruments without saying anything" can be seen frequently in past music works. For example, in "She" from Kiss's live album "Kiss Live: The Mad Beast of Hell", Ace Frehley starts playing a devilish and raging guitar solo right after singing "When she takes off her clothes". This is a classic "just figure out the rest" approach, but I feel that Haruo Konda's approach is similar to this.

─── Excerpt from <Female Singer>

<Table of Contents>

Side A ── OVER SEA / Masterpieces from Abroad

1. THE BEATLES

2. MOTOWN & MONO VIYNL / Motown and Mono Records

3. THE BEACH BOYS / "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys

4. PHIL SPECTOR'S WORKS / Phil Spector and the "Wall of Sound"

5. THE ROLLING STONES / The charm of a rock and roll band that keeps on rolling

6. BRITISH INVASION

7. 1960'S US ROCK

8.HARD & PROGRESSIVE/Hard & Progressive Rock

9. 1970's Hard Rock / The Golden Age of Gorgeous Rock

10. JEFF BECK

11.BLUES&JAZZ

Side B ── DOMESTIC / Japanese masterpieces

12. HAPPY END / Happy End and Japanese lyrics

13. ELECTRIC INSTRUMENTAL & GROUP SOUNDS

14. DOMESTIC ROCK MUSIC / 1970s Japanese Rock

15. JAPANESE PROGRESSIVE ROCK / Thoughts on Japanese Progressive Rock

16. JAPANESE RARE GROOVE/Folk song

17. SINGER / Female singer

18. CITY POP / Tatsuro Yamashita and City Pop

<Author profile>

Music critic and musician. Born in Seattle in 1990. Raised in Chiba. Launched the YouTube channel "Mino Music" in 2019. The channel has over 480,000 subscribers (as of February 2025). Also active as a rock band "Minotaur". Active as a radio DJ.

<Bibliographic information>

Title: "Mino's Music"

Author: Mino

Release date: Around June 3, 2025

Design/DTP: Ino Marina

Photography: Taichi Nishimaki

Specifications: 192 pages / 4C / softcover / B5 variant

ISBN: 978-4-9913867-0-1

Issued/distributed by: Bitters Co., Ltd.

Price: 3,000 yen + tax (3,300 yen)