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Sim City (album)

Sim City
Susumu Hirasawa - Sim City.png
Studio album by Susumu Hirasawa
Released August 2, 1995 (1995-08-02)
Recorded January – March 1995
Studio
Genre
Length 49:49
Language Japanese, Thai
Label Polydor K.K.
Producer
  • Susumu Hirasawa
  • Yūichi Kenjo (Executive)
Susumu Hirasawa chronology
Aurora
(1994)
Sim City
(1995)
Siren
(1996)

Sim City is the fifth solo album by Susumu Hirasawa.

In 1994, Susumu Hirasawa got the suggestion to try a Pink Floyd-like sound for his next solo album from his neighbor, editor-in-chief Mikio Moriwaki. His original plan was to make a '90s version of The Dark Side of the Moon, which would cover similar ground to Virtual Rabbit.

Sometime afterward, he came up with the idea of the World Inspection Tour (万国点検隊 Bankoku Tenken Tai?), a role-playing game held in an overseas country for members of his official fan club Hirasawa Bypass. It was decided that it would happen in the Thai city of Phuket, since the airplane trip would be short and it didn't have a lot of Japanese tourism; because of that lack of Japanese reference, Hirasawa took a trial visit to see if it would be a good place for the tour, his first time in the country.

He had no idea what to expect and had something like the Vietnam War in mind, but on that night he attended a show at the Simon Cabaret, performed by a cast consisting entirely of the country's transsexuals, and that was formative on his impression of Thai culture. He befriended them through subsequent trips to the country, through which he got fascinated with their way of being, as well as the socio-technological disparities he saw in Bangkok. The cultural shock experienced with these trips affected Hirasawa profoundly, and he took to composing, writing and recording in the Thai capital.

Due to the irresponsible nature of the Thai studio used and Hirasawa's lack of trust of their dealing with his gear, he only brought a small hard disk recorder to the country for work, and the only material recorded there were vocals both his and from Simon Cabaret performers. Although Hirasawa is not proficient in Thai, he wrote some of the lyrics in it by cross-referencing four language guidebooks, but the meaning of what he originally wrote is completely different from what he wanted to convey.


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