Tags: Jazz Funk Disco

Review: For its last few outings, Gamm has rather been heading back to its roots. But now the label reverts away from hip-hop and back towards the Latin and disco sounds it has become best known for. And that's no bad thing as Koichi Toyama turns on his machines and gets the scalpel out to serve up some distinctive edits of four fiery broken beat and nu jazz gems. There are playful sax leads on the opener, muted vibes on the shuffling samba stylings of 'Santa Monica' and busier Rhodes chords on 'Grama Grass' before the jazz dancer that is 'Samba Chimba' offers another golden moment to close.

Review: Shuya Okino is a DJ, club owner, writer and producer as well as being a part of the Kyoto Jazz Massive, and has been a vital figure in the Japanese club scene for over three decades. He is involved in a wide range of projects from Cosmic Village to Root Soul to Mondo Grosso, but his work with brother Yoshihiro as Kyoto Jazz Massive might be his best. This new album is another standout fusion of synth, broken beat and nu-jazz styles. Some of the tunes are pure dance floor heaters such as the prickly vibes of 'Get Up' while others gaze off to a cosmic future such as the gorgeous synths of 'Visions Of Tomorrow'. Essential.

Review: Deep house producer Shuya Okino shows his class once more on another tasteful outing, this time via the Extra Freedom/Village Again labels out of Japan. For this one he revisits his 2011 album Destiny which was made with help from the Japanese funk, boogie and jazz-funk outfit Root Soul and replays and remakes the tunes. The originals become more disco-leaning and horn lead jams here with Okino's warm, rubbery basslines, P-funk synths, loose live beats and cute keys. The result is an album that sounds like Earth, Wind & Fire making modern soul and it will improve your life no end.

Review: Shuya Okino and Pirahnahead, two Japanese producers of soulful house and jazz, present the first of a bundle of new releases, 'Shine'. A subsequent two versions of the eponymous track, which flaunt the lilting vocals of the divine Diviniti, hear a driving yet heavenly song play out over two sides, with its echoic calls of "the sun will rise..." calling out over an impressive instrumental dawn chorus of bass and strings.

Review: In the late 1970s and early 80s, disco swept through dancefloors across the world, with musicians, producers and labels in all four corners of the world recording and releasing their own local variations on the New York-pioneered sound. This fine compilation digs into the Japanese interpretation of the sound, offering up a selection of gems pulled from the vaults of the Nippon Columbia imprint. As you'd expect, there are some genuinely soaring and delightfully over-the-top cuts on show (see Godiego's 'The Odyssey Begins - Monkey Magic' and the disco-funk mania of Ikue Sakakibara's bilingual 'This Is Hot'), alongside such forgotten or lesser-celebrated gems as Yumi Moreta's rubbery bass-propelled 'Krishna', the strings-and-synth-drenched brilliance of Pink Parachute's 'Disco Great' and the ridiculously grandiose 'Hazumi De Daitte (A Woman Inside a Man's Body)' by Hatsumi Shibata.

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: Japanese keys wizard Hiroshi Sato recorded many albums across his career, bringing the vibrant sound of synthesis into earshot with his earliest albums in the late 70s. Orient was his third solo album, released in 1979 on Kitty Records in a pitch-perfect daydream of AOR goodness. Tracks like 'Son Goku' sum up the persistent appeal of Sato's music, fusing the smoothest compositions with some playful sound design approaches, which show he was having fun with the studio gear beyond writing exquisite melodies. Elsewhere, he had fun going into full freak mode with the madcap ear candy of 'Donkama'. If you can't get enough of that era of Japanese synth pop, this reissue is an absolute must.

Review: Acclaimed DJ, singer, remixer and songwriter DJ KAWASAKI shows another side to himself on this new double album for his own label. On it, he serves up instrumental tracks inspired by Afro, jazz, and funk. Every single sound you hear is played live and guests include artists like Sauce81, who you will know from labels like Eglo, and jazz vocalist Ayana. A host of musicians have helped to realise this most lively and upbeat album including Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Kenichi Ikeda of ROOT SOUL and Venue Vincent, Hiderow Nishioka of CENTRAL. It is a real triumph that comes 11 years after his equally acclaimed Paradise album from 2010.

Review: Acclaimed DJ, singer, remixer and songwriter DJ KAWASAKI is a beat maker who does it all from broken beat and nu jazz to hip hop and deep house. Bridge Into The Future: Recreated Tracks finds him cooking up his own newly constructed takes on a range of classic source tunes. It makes for a broad and brilliant collection. 'I'm So On Your Mind' (feat Rasiyah - DJ Kawasaki Recreated Disco mix) is a gloriously sunny sound with louche breakbeats at its core, and the Diana Ross classic 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' (feat N'Dea Davenport - DJ Kawasaki Recreated Latin Disco mix) becomes a salsa tinged and gloriously steamy anthem.

Review: Boo is a solo Japanese boogie vocalist who was largely active in the noughties; his most eminent album 'Post Soulman' was released in two volumes, and did thrilling justice to Boo's soulful vocals and faux-Philadelphia street beatstyle. Now rereleased as a single (originally one of the tracks from the album), 'BOOGIE DRIVE 678' gets a good look back on. With a busy mix and lyrics reflecting on the butterflies one feels when encountering someone who makes us feel "high inside", this reissue also comes with the venerable steel pan mix on the B.

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.