Back catalogue: Soul

Review: On a new compilation, 180g Japan zero in on a distinct '60s movement in soul jazz, tracking the development of the genre across improbably vast Pacific waters, from the United States to Japan. Rocketing to prominence in Japan after Nippon Columbia upheld contracts with US labels the likes of Buddah and Blue Thumb Records - in turn spurring sax player and NC label head Jiro Inagaki to release such music as Gladys Knight and Curtis Mayfield in conjunction with Japanese counterparts, such as Tan Tan, Kenji Niinuma, Masaaki Sakai and Mieko Hirota - the music you hear here is a dense and perhaps still untapped look at the ingenuity of transmarine soul-jazz. The target locale here is Tokyo's Akasaka neighbourhood: not only was it the hub and hotspot of soul jazz in Japan, but it was also the first municipality to host a discotheque in all of Japan. Most of these recordings were not previously available outside of the nation, marking a Pandora's lid opened on a crock of sweetly produced, brightly lit, downbeat soul delights.