Japanese City Pop Collection Remastered on Double LP!
Summer Fun Edition Pressed on Blue/Pink & Green/Pink Vinyl!
Limited to 500 Copies!
Pacific Breeze documents Japan's blast into the stratosphere. By the 1960s, the nation had achieved a postwar miracle, soaring to become the world's second largest economy. Thriving tech exports sent The Rising Sun over the moon. Its pocket cassette players, bleeping video games, and gleaming cars boomed worldwide, wooing pleasure points and pumping Japanese pockets full of yen.
Japan's financial buoyancy also permeated its popular culture, birthing an audio analog called "city pop." This new sound arose in the mid '70s and ruled through the '80s, channeling the country's contemporary psyche. It was sophisticated music mirroring Japan's punch-drunk prosperity. City pop epitomized the era, providing a soundtrack for emerging urbanites. An optimistic spirit buzzed through the music in neon-bathed, gauzy tableaus coated with groove-heavy strokes.
Pacific Breeze is an expertly compiled collection of choice cuts that range from silky smooth grooves to innovative techno pop bangers and everything in between. Long-revered by crate diggers and adventurous music heads, this music has never been released outside of Japan until now. Including key artists like Taeko Ohnuki and Minako Yoshida, as well as cult favorites Hitomi Tohyama and Hiroshi Sato, the long-awaited release also features newly commissioned cover painting by Tokyo-based artist Hiroshi Nagai, whose iconic images of resort living have graced the covers of many classic city pop albums of the 1980s.
Many of the key city pop players evolved from the Japanese new music scene of the early '70s, as heard on Light in the Attic's acclaimed Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973, the first release of the ongoing Japan Archival Series. In fact, you could say city pop set sail with a champagne smash from Happy End, the freakishly talented subversives who included amongst their ranks Haruomi Hosono and Shigeru Suzuki, both featured on this compilation. As Michael K. Bourdaghs noted in his book Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon, this music was, "Deconstructing the line between imitation and authenticity." Some of the best city pop teeters in this zone - easy listening with mutant exotica, tilted techno-pop, and steamy boogie bubbling beneath the gloss.
Features
- Summer Fun Edition - Limited to 500 Copies
- Double LP
- Pressed on 1 Blue/Pink Vinyl & 1 Green/Pink Vinyl
- Remastered Audio
- Compiled by Andy Cabic, Zach Cowie & Mark "Frosty" McNeill
- Deluxe Wide-Spine Jacket
- Cover Art by Hiroshi Nagai
- Extensive Liner Notes & Bios
- Oversized Fold-Out Booklet
- Full-Color Printed Inner Sleeves
- Custom Die-Cut OBI Card
- Made in Czech Republic
Selections
Side A:
- I Say Who - Tomoko Soryo
- Kusuri Wo Takusan - Taeko Ohnuki
- Midnight Driver - Minako Yoshida
- Subterranean Futari Bocci - Nanako Sato
Side B:
- Sports Men - Haruomi Hosono
- Coffee Rumba - Izumi Kobayashi
- In My Jungle - Friends of Earth (F.O.E.)
- Sun Bathing - Akira Inoue, Hiroshi Sato, Masataka Matsutoya
Side C:
- Say Goodbye - Hiroshi Sato
- Drip Dry Eyes - Yukihiro Takahashi
- Bamboo Vendor - Masayoshi Takanaka
- Lady Pink Panther - Shigeru Suzuki
Side D:
- Mykonos No Hanayome - Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, Masataka Matsutoya
- L.A. Night - Yasuko Agawa
- Exotic Yokogao - Hitomi Tohyama
- Machibouke - Tazumi Toyoshima