(2021) VA – Tokyo Glow: Japanese City Pop, Funk & Boogie  


Review:
Tokyo Glow deepens an affiliation between the French reissue label Wewantsounds and the fathomless catalog of Japan’s Nippon Columbia. In addition to reissuing Ryuichi Sakamoto’s crucial Thousand Knives, Wewantsounds previously trawled the margins of the Nippon Columbia archive for Tokyo Dreaming. That compilation favored the esoteric side of the label’s ’70s and ’80s catalog. This, selected by Tokyo native DJ Notoya, emphasizes what is loosely classified as city pop — relatively commercial recordings across a vast, smooth, and bright landscape of post-disco R&B, adult contemporary pop and soul, soft rock, and even fusion. It therefore complements Light in the Attic’s Pacific Breeze and Pacific Breeze 2 sets, making the material accessible far outside Japan and beyond hardcore record collectors. The one artist this has in common with Tokyo Dreaming is the charismatic and effervescent singer Hitomi “Penny” Tohyama, whose “Tuxedo Connection” is sophisticated dancefloor funk clearly influenced by Quincy Jones’ early-’80s productions for the likes of the Brothers Johnson (with a bit of Skyy’s “Here’s to You” to it). A few hew closer to art pop, such as the crystalline “Aamar Jabar” by Midori Hara, the most distinctive vocalist here for the way she stretches notes while wrapping her voice around what sounds like the low end of a Yamaha DX7 held down by a skilled Chuckii Booker acolyte. The few ’70s selections — from Sumiko Yamagata, Hiroshi Sato, and Makoto Iwabuchi — all take easy, pleasant strolls down the middle of the road. Among other more fascinating curiosities are Mizuki Koyama’s vivacious pop-R&B hybrid “Oh! Daddy” (with all-English lyrics), Kumi Nakamura’s capering “Kimagure” (somewhere between Michael Franks and Seawind), and Haruo Chikada & Vibra-Tones’ Kid Creole-indebted “Sofa Bed Blues,” the only one that whoops it up (if politely so).





Track Listing:
01. Kumi Nakamura - Kimagure 03:06
02. Miyuki Maki - Indo No Michibata 03:36
03. Haruyoshi Yamashina - Osake To Joke 03:37
04. Sumiko Yamagata - Natsu no Hikari Ni 03:23
05. Hatsumi Shibata - Party Is Over 04:47
06. Makoto Iwabuchi - Moonlight Flight 03:58
07. Hiroshi Sato - Saigo-no Tejina 03:44
08. Arakawa Band - Paradise's Dream 07:10
09. New Generation Company - I Wander All Alone (Part III) 02:56
10. Kiyohiko Ozaki - Ojosan Oteyawarakani 04:34
11. Kengo Kurozumi - Juggler 04:12
12. Takeshi Nishizaki - Koi No Paradigm 05:00
13. JADOES - Simply Another Love 04:54
14. Midori Hara - Aamer Jabar 04:50
15. Hitomi Tohyama - Tuxedo Connection (2021 Remaster) 03:24
16. Mizuki Koyama - Oh! Daddy 03:42
17. Haruo Chikada & Vibra-tones - Sofabed Blues 03:40
18. Mitsuko Horie - Chigasaki Memory 03:50


Media Report:
Genre: funk, pop, R&B, soft rock
Country: Japan
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits