Bread & Butter / Eiichi Ohtaki / Kimiko Kasai / The Mystery Kindaichi Band / Tetsuji Hayashi / Anri / Momoko Kikuchi / Tomoko Aran
Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese City Pop, AOR And Boogie 1972-1986
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

2020 2LP Limited edition "LA Twilight" vinyl variant from Light In The Attic. Includes insert and top-cap Obi-style hype strip. "Almost exactly a year after Light in the Attic released Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986, the label followed up with a finer sequel covering a longer timespan and more ground. This volume ventures farther beyond the three styles noted in the title. Take Eiichi Ohtaki's lolling "Yubikiri" (1972), akin to Traffic with a Southern soul slant (and what sounds like a nod to the Zombies' "Time of the Season"), or Yuji Toriyama's "Bay/Sky Provincetown 1977" (1985), a shimmering amalgam of new age and smooth jazz. Even the two selections inspired by the same series of Seishi Yokomizo detective novels are quite distinct, vaulting from the CTI-style slick disco of Mystery Kindaichi Band's "Kindaichi Kosuke No Theme" (1977) to the sophisticated funk of Yu Imai's "Kindaichi Kosuke Nishi E Iku" (1978), a midpoint between Noel Pointer's "Phantazia" and Average White Band's "Stop the Rain." A pair of highlights are from Nippon Columbia's Better Days subsidiary, whose visionary catalog was anthologized in 2016 with the Japan-only compilation More Better Days. Eri Ohno, a singer who once had enough ambition to give a Phyllis Hyman song a shot, is behind "Skyfire" (1981), a dancefloor jazz-funk bolt as energizing as anything by Judy Roberts or Flora Purim. Equally notable is Kyoko Furuya's sparse and live-sounding "Harumifutou" (1982), more on the jagged art-rock end. Given that vaporwave artists have rifled through Japan's commercial electronic pop for their synthetic '80s nostalgia trips, it's a funny coincidence that the cuts ripest for the picking here, Momoko Kikuchi's "Blind Curve" (1984) and Tetsuji Hayashi's "Hidari Mune No Seiza" (1986), were issued on a label called VAP, short for Video Audio Project. A marzipan-sweet tune from the soft-rocking Sadistics (featuring Yukihiro Takahashi) and jazz-pop interzone nuggets by Kimiko Kasai and Junko Ohashi & Minoya Central Station (not to be confused with Larry Graham & Graham Central Station) add to the set's whimsical charm." All Music Guide – Andy Kellman