Tags: Balearic Disco

Review: While he has released original music, many of Mori-Ra's most potent singles and EPs have been those where he has delivered Balearic-minded or dancefloor-focused ready re-edits of some seriously obscure music, mostly from his native Japan. As the title suggests, Japanese Breeze Edits sees him continue the latter approach, serving up a fantastic selection of gently beefed-up revisions of mostly synth-heavy 1980s fare from the Land of the Rising Sun. Musically, most of these tweaked obscurities sit somewhere between far-sighted electronica, Japanese takes on American minimalism, city-pop, jazz-funk and spaced-out post-disco, though there are also forays into horn-heavy disco-funk, AOR, new age ambient and percussion-rich curiosities. A brilliant collection of lightly tweaked musical obscurities: don't sleep!

Review: Probably one of the most fascinating Japanese compilations to ever receive a release since 'Diggin' In The Carts', Time Capsule's 'Anime & Manga Synth Pop Soundtracks 1984-1990' takes a thorough look at the genre when it was well underway and in its heyday, charting just eight cuts of the sauciest lo-fi bangers for the cartoon style. Opener 'Honowo' is a proto-sinogrimey, synthpoppy slice of city pop for the period manga Yume No Ishibumi. Meanwhile, 'Utage' recalls Eurythmics or Talking Heads with a retro-classic, quantized groove. A great snapshot of Japanese music media from a time of upheaval.

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: New label alert! Takashimashuzo comes from Japan and opens with some blissed-out Balearic deep house from Kammoushiki on this hand-stamped white label. 'Cosmic Sea' has archetypal Balearic guitars noodling in amidst endless synth modulations and over breezy house beats. It's a beautiful cut that takes you to the Med in an instant. 'Geronimo' brings jazz-funk vibes, languid guitar work and tumbling drums over shuffling kicks. It's fresh, colourful, inviting stuff that kicks off this new label in enough style to mean we will be checking in again soon.

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.

Review: To kick off new label Takashimashuzo, Kammoushiki - who is presumably the boss - is dropping two new 12"s in the same week. This is the second and like the first, it is inspired house music that takes its cues from the 80s Ibiza party landscape. 'Magic Hour' has gurgling basslines riding up and down the scale with innocent keys and lazy drums. It's heartwarming stuff from sundown. 'Nakanaide' then ups the Balearic quotient with even more prominent and arcing guitar licks over bongos and soulful chords.