Needle Time

  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 ...

  Sketch Show - Audio Sponge [CTJR-96031/2 JPN 2021 24-Bit FLAC] It became an expensive vinyl summer when Japanese label, Cutting Edge Records decided to release the Sketch Show albums on lusciously packaged vinyl for the very first time ever. These two masters of electronica (you should know their faces by now ...I would hope) began their careers in psychedelic rock, city pop and eventually evolutionarily electronics as two-thirds of Yellow Magic Orchestra. You shouldn't be surprised to know that the other third contributes on various tracks with keyboards and gets a writing credit. So does that make this a YMO album ....almost, I guess? I posted the more organic, second album Loophole back in October, here is their first Audio Sponge in full-resolutionary quality to blow your minds. The duo's use of crackle & pops as percussion is evident throughout and does more than enough to help your ripper while away a few more hours making comparison references to his original 200...

  Sketch Show - Loophole [CJT-96034~5 JPN 2021 24-Bit FLAC] For quite some time, between the late eighties and the recent 2010's, very little vinyl came out of Japan. Our nipponic brethren were focused more on digital products such as the compact disc and the format's higher resolution upgrades. These days, roles are beginning to reverse and labels have begun to dig through their vaults seeking out suitable work for analogue re-release. I can be quoted as suggesting that most modern electronica is more suited to digital formats, however these tend to suffer audio distortion as twitchy fingered engineers still cannot resist the urges to compress and over-limit.  Tokyo label Cutting Edge Records, who once focused on licensing Western artists, have pulled out a gem here (well actually make that three gems) and have released analogue vinyl platters of three albums by Sketch Show. The duo will be better known as two-thirds of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haroumi Hosono and Yukihir...

  Makoto Kubota & The Sunset Gang - Hawaii Champroo [WWSLP57 FRA 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Makoto Kabota was once the guitarist in the Japanese take on The Velvet Underground turned noise terroroists, Les Rallizes Denudes. In between times he also recorded and released Japan only albums of his unique interpretations of psychedelic ragtime, Dixie and Hawaiian music. His chief partner in crime and joint-protagonist was Haroumi Hosono who played drums and also produced. Hawaii Champroo was recorded in Honolulu (a popular destination for the Japanese over the years) and originally released on the Showboat label in 1975. Let's just say, you have probably never heard anything quite like this before! Enjoy folks!! A1 Steel Guitar Rag A2 Moonlight Hula A3 Walk Right In A4 Shoka No Kaori A5 Hai-sai Ojisan A6 Itsu No Hi Omae Wa (I Love You So) B1 San Francisco Bay Blues B2 Shanghai Gaerl B3 Kokkyo No Minami (South Of The Border) B4 Bye Bye Baby B5 Oh Senor...

  Harry & Mac - Road To Louisiana [MHJ7-14 JPN RSD2021 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on a ridiculously rare album on Epic Records (Japan) in 1999.  Haruomi Hosono (ex-Happy End, YMO & Sketch Show etc) and life long chum Makoto Kubota (ex-Sandii & The Sunsetz and Les Rallizes Denudes) recorded this album of New Orleans influenced southern blues rock and bayou soul using an ensemble of American and Japanese musicians at the end of the last century. Originally pressed in limited quantities, it has finally been repressed (again as a limited run) for RSD2021 in Japan. I managed to obtain a copy through a local distributor who shares a similar taste for Japanese musical obscurities. Harry & Mac cover themselves and a few others (inc. Van Morrison) in Japanese & English languages, often skillfully swapping between tongues on some tracks.  Expect vinyl mastering of the highest quality on this delightfully pressed gatefold package ...which doesn't come...

  Haruomi Hosono - Hosono House [FJLP-1005 JPN 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Another of my Shubiya purchases made in May 2018, here is the double vinyl 45rpm pressing from the original analogue tapes of Haruomi Hosono's debut solo album Hosono House . Let's just mention now that this sounds amazing. The album title is a reflection on one of Japan's most prolific musicians life in Sayama, Japan following his early psychedelic years with Apryl Fool and Happy End. He lived in an area filled with houses built for US servicemen and their families. Samaya became a hub for creative types escaping the hustle & bustle of Tokyo and his new surroundings clearly influenced this album with it's very unique mixture of Japanese and American music styles. His home became a live in studio for his full band, which clearly led to the album's title.  In March 2019, Hosono revisited this album in the studio and reinterpreted it in a more modern style, in case you overlooked it, my rip of that v...

  Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, Masataka Matsutohya - エーゲ海 The Aegean Sea  [MHJL-153 JPN 2020 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on CBS/Sony Japan in 1979, here is the last of the four albums dedicated to travel and sunnier climes, courtesy of YMO's Haroumi Hosono and chums.  This album is a blend of sea breezy city-pop, jazz fusion interspersed with harps, mandolins and orchestral strings. Its charm and the skill of musicianship reach well beyond any initial perception of potential naffness. This is likely the best chillout album you will hear this week. I warn you, some of these mandolin melodies will remain firmly implanted in your eardrums. This is the 2020 clear vinyl repressing with another excellent mastering job by Bernie Grundman's team. If only all modern vinyl releases were mastered and pressed with the same care. Right, let's head down the taverna, order up a bottle of cheap retsina with an ouzo chaser and soak up all that vitamin D among those white washed...