my amazon japan order has arrived! these past couple of years, i tend to buy buck-tick albums 1 year after they are released. i finally own "mona lisa overdrive". i also ordered the more recent singles. looking at the songwriting credits for the album, i am surprised at how much hisashi contributed. he almost wrote the whole damn thing, lyrics and all. that man is amazing. i love his musicianship. he is bubbling over with creative instincts that buck-tick alone isn't satisfactory. i love hisashi!

i also ordered two ken morioka (soft ballet) solo albums, "questions" (1994) & "fantasia" (2001). around the time that his first solo album was released, someone taped a copy for me. i really liked it but wasn't able to find a copy when i visited japan in 1997--or maybe i was just so overwhelmed with all the amazon record shopping that wasn't looking for it at every store. during that trip, i did buy maki fujii's solo album and when i heard it i knew where all the talent was in soft ballet. i haven't heard any of ryuichi endo's solo works. i see that in the credits for "electronica" ken thanks maki. i guess we now know where the rift was in soft ballet! they did reform in 2002 but i want to get all of their old albums before i hear the new stuff. the albums i am missing are their first ones: "earth born" (1989) and "document" (1990).