Ocean Blue

 

Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki & Tatsuro Yamashita - Pacific [MHJL 151 JPN 2020 24-Bit 88.2kHz  FLAC]

Another re-post of a rip originally featured here on Needle Time in December 2020 which appears to be still in demand.

Originally released on CBS/Sony Japan in 1978, here is the unusually groovy  Pacific Island nostalgia trip by Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki & Tatsuro Yamashita, augmented amongst others by a pre-YMO Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi. This is the 2020 repress on clear sea blue vinyl from Sony Japan's Great Track subsidiary, complete with replica poster, inners and obi.

The Japanese label employed the services of the legendary Bernie Grundman to perform the analogue mastering from the original master tapes for this project, so expect no compressed nonsense. There is hardly any noticeable noise from the coloured vinyl ....all you hear are the sounds of the waves crashing around you.

Pacific is a blend of lounge, funk, disco, rhumba, smooth jazz, Latin fusion and synth pop; around the two minute thirty mark on Walking On The Beach, Tatsuro Yamashita even takes a moment to break out his Beach Boy harmonies. This album is fun and very much 'tongue-in-cheek', or whatever the Japanese translation is for the phrase. Cosmic Surfin' is in total contrast to the remainder of the record, with a euro-synth groove, it jolts you back to reality after the preceding oceanic bliss and is a taster of what is to come.

Some of you will love this, the rest will just be missing out.

A1   The Last Paradise (最後の楽園)

A2   Coral Reef (コーラル・リーフ)

A3   Nostalgia of Island (Part 1: Wind Bird)

                                        (Part 2: Walking on the Beach)

A4   Slack Key Rumba (スラック・キー・ルンバ)

B1   Passion Flower (パッション・フラワー)

B2   Noanoa (ノアノア)

B3   Kiska (キスカ)

B4   Cosmic Surfin'