Online Enka - help!
 

My dad is putting his photos of Japan into a computer slide show, but he was hoping for a decent soundtrack to go with it.

My collection ranges from Pizzicato 5 to The Boredomes and is a bit too 'up-tempo' for him, Geinoh Yamashirogumi is too weird.
I'm pretty sure he's after Enka or something similar (I'm completely ignorant on this front).
Does anybody know of anywhere I an get some songs that are in the public domain for download. I found a couple, but they're meant to be played on-line only and won't allow you to save them.

Or recommendations that I can purchase myself in Japan next month would also be appreciated.

Are you sure that enka is what he wants? I love it and have several albums, but for a slide show and 'traditional' music, I might opt for something like koto/shakuhachi music.

Do you do Usenet? I've downloaded several enka singles and albums and a smattering of j-pop from alt.binaries.sounds.jpop. I might even be willing to post some if I knew you were going to get it.

Failing that, a quick search of Amazon.com will get you a lot of both, albeit not for free. :D

JR

To be honest, I have a huge collection of vinyl and CDs, when the time came to start obsessig with MP3s and downloads I started going to Japan instead (couldn't afford to do both!).

The only music player on my Dad’s computer is Real Player, I'm afraid I don’t know anything about Usenet. I’m happy to pay for some songs, I just don’t want to waste money or find I’ve subscribed to some dodgy website.

My parents can’t listen to koto or other traditional music for any length of time, but I did point out some Enka music in Japan and they loved it (it’s very similar to the ballads my mother grew up with in Spain.)

My experience with Enka is kind of limited to the Red & White show they put on at New Years. I know nothing about which singers to start investigating.

There was a bit of a cross over between England & Spain/Italy in the late 60s, some Spanish/Italian singers were popular in Japan (one Italian singer is still a regular guest on Japanese chat shws), a few Japanese singers were relatively popular in Spain.
A peculiar coincidence highlighting the links between my two families is that my mum's favourite singer is a guy called Adamo, MrLapLap's mother was extremely fond of him too. I'd be surprised if many people who read FT knew much about Adamo at all.

EDIT: Crossover example is Koshiji Fubuki (or Koh chan) who covered some Adamo songs.