Light In The Attic US Vinilo y CD

Review: U.S label Light In The Attic has previously served up compilations exploring various Japanese takes on Western music, most notably folk, rock, ambient and new age. Here they switch tack, curating a brilliant double-album set that showcases the best Japanese synth-pop, AOR and boogie recorded between 1976 and '86. The quality threshold remains impressively high throughout, from the blue-eyed-soul breeze of Taeko Ohnuki's "Kusuri Wo Takusan" and the Chaz Jankel-meets-Thompson Twins style throb of Haruomi Hosono's "Sports Men", to the talkbox-sporting late night AOR-pop flex's Hiroshi Satoh's "Say Goodbye" and the glistening, Latin-influenced jazz-funk brilliance of Masayoshi Takanaka's steel pan-sporting "Bamboo Vender".

Review: U.S label Light In The Attic has hit gold with this hugely popular series. It has done three volumes by now but here comes a welcome reissue of the first from a few years ago. After compilations exploring various Japanese takes on Western music, most notably folk, rock, ambient and new age they switched tack, curating a brilliant double-album set that showcases the best Japanese synth-pop, AOR and boogie recorded between 1976 and '86. The quality threshold remains impressively high throughout, from the blue-eyed-soul breeze of Taeko Ohnuki's 'Kusuri Wo Takusan' and the Chaz Jankel-meets-Thompson Twins style throb of Haruomi Hosono's 'Sports Men', to the talkbox-sporting late night AOR-pop flex's Hiroshi Satoh's 'Say Goodbye' and the glistening, Latin-influenced jazz-funk brilliance of Masayoshi Takanaka.

Review: As the third installment brings attention back on this crucial series, Light In The Attic are running a repress of their second voyage into the plentiful realm of Japanese city pop - another extended cruise through impossibly slick '70s and '80s groovers with that golden studio sound. There's sultry slinkers like Eiichi Ohtaki and sensual funk from Kimiko Kasai on "Vibration (Love Celebration)". Watch out for the heavy bass and subtle synth inflections of Yu Imai's incredible "Kindaichi Kosuke Nishi E Iku" and the impossibly catchy whistlealong 'Hot Sand' by Piper. It's not a competition, but if you crave that US AOR sound, it might just be that the Japanese did it better.