WEWANTSOUNDS
VARIOUS ARTISTS - TOKYO GLOW VARIOUS ARTISTS
Following the recent success of the 'Tokyo Dreaming', Wewantsounds comes with another compelling set, this time compiled by City Pop expert DJ Notoya who has dug the rich Nippon Columbia catalogue to bring a breezy selection of funky gems by Hiroshi Sato, Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama, Midori Hara, many of which making their vinyl debut outside of Japan. The 2-LP gatefold album has been designed by Optigram and is annotated by DJ Notoya with Nick Luscombe. The audio has been newly remastered in Tokyo by Nippon Columbia.
Nippon Columbia is one of the most important and oldest labels in Japan. It has amassed an incredible back catalogue over the decades. Particularly strong in the 70s and 80s, the label was one of the main purveyors of great music at a time when Japan was entering its greatest economic boom and labels had budgets at hand to create the highest quality music. As Notoya explains in the liner notes "Back in the day, the record companies had big budgets and could afford to have many great musicians playing on one record, plus strings and horn sections, top drummers and keyboardists. It all made for a very rich sound, which is generally very different to today’s music." Keen to emulate the music created in the US by their American counterparts, Japanese musicians came with their own blend of funk, Boogie and Soul that has come to be known as City Pop.
The selection on Tokyo Glow is full of such gems and starts with 'Kimugare' a relaxed mid tempo track by Kumi Nakamura, actually a famous actress who only recorded one album in 1980 for Columbia. The set continues and flows effortlessly with the sunshine grooves of Miyuki Maki, Hatsumi Shibata and cult keyboard player Hiroshi Sato before the pace starts going faster and funkier with New Generation Company, Kengo Kurozumi - with his superb boogie, 'Juggler' - and one of the queens of the genre, Hitomi 'Penny' Tohyama with 'Tuxedo Connection'. Tokyo-based DJ Notoya is from a new breed of Japanese DJs there focusing on nippon music and is an expert on Funk, Modern Soul and Boogie from the Island. With 'Tokyo Glow', Notoya says he "focused more on the slightly more underground tracks from the era, rather than the bigger, well-known releases. For me that was a more fun and satisfying approach."
Another fine example on the set is the mid-tempo groove of "I Wander All Alone Part III" by New Generation Company, an aggregate group of some of the best Japanese session musicians led by arranger Katz Hoshi and including Hiroyuki Namba (key), Kazuo Shiina (gtr) and Yutaka Uehara (ds) who all played with Tatsuro Yamashita among many others. There are many other fine examples in 'Tokyo Glow', showcasing the diversity and specificity of Japanese City Pop during the late 70s and 80s. Collaborating with Nippon Columbia who have opened their much guarded vaults and remastered the tracks in Tokyo, Wewantsounds is delighted to propose a unique insight into one of the most creative period in Japanese music with 'Tokyo Glow', a double album full of groove and slickness.
Track List
1. Kimagure KUMI NAKAMURA2 - Indo No Michibata MIYUKI MAKI
3. Osake To Joke - HARUYOSHI YAMASHINA
4. Natsu No Hikari Ni SUMIKO YAMAGATA
5. Party Is Over HATSUMI SHIBATA
1. Moonlight Flight MAKOTO IWABUCHI
2. Saigo No Tejina HIROSHI SATO
3. Paradise's Dream ARAKAWA BAND
4. I Wander All Alone (part III) - NEW GENERATION COMPANY
1. Ojosan Oteyawarakani - KIYOHIKO OZAKI
2. Juggler - KENGO KUROZUMI
3. Koi No Paradigm - KEN NISHIZAKI
4. Simply Another Love - JADOES
1. Aamar Jabar - MIDORI HARA
2. Tuxedo Connection - HITOMI ‘PENNY’ TOHYAMA
3. Oh! Daddy - MIZUKI KOYAMA
4. Sofa Bed Blues - HARUO CHIKADA & VIBRA-TONES
5. Chigasaki Memory - MITSUKO HORIE
Pickup available at Cambridge
Usually ready in 24 hours. Unless it's a Pre-Order
Product information
Shipping
We aim to keep postage costs as low as possible while making sure your records arrive safely. All orders are packed securely using Defenda MusicMax stiff cardboard mailers, with plenty of “FRAGILE” tape, to provide the best protection in transit.
Shipping costs are calculated automatically at checkout based on the weight and destination of your order, along with packaging materials.
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Pre-orders
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On the subject of pre-orders, please note than release dates can change (sometimes not until the scheduled release date). Please keep an eye on our website
Returns
Returns Procedure
If you wish to cancel or return an order, you need to notify us by email (quoting your order number), and wait for us to get back to you before returning goods.
We will email you with instructions and a returns reference number. When returning items to us, you will need to take reasonable care to ensure they are not damaged in transit and that they are labelled clearly with the correct address & reference number (as provided by us) :
Relevant Record Café,
260 Mill Road
Cambridge,
CB1 3NF.
We reserve the right to not process returns sent to us without prior permission.
It’s your responsibility to retain possession and to take reasonable care of the goods in the period prior to return and until you send them back to us.
Your Right To Cancel An Order
Your right to cancel your order starts from the moment you place the order, and ends 14 days from the time you receive your order.
Non-Faulty Products
If you wish to return a product because it’s unwanted or it was ordered in error, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
We’ll happily accept a return as long as the product is still in its original shrink-wrapped packaging and is completely undamaged. You have 14 days from when you receive your order to notify us that you wish to return your order.
By opening a sealed product in any way (or using any digital download code accompanying your order), you waive your right to cancel or return your order.
Obviously we’d rather offer you store credit (in the form of a gift card), but if you’d prefer a refund, we promise to get this sorted within 14 days of receiving your return.
Please take care when ordering!
Faulty Products
If you believe you have purchased a faulty or damaged record, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
Once we receive your record, it will be tested by a member of staff in store.
If your record is deemed as faulty, you will be entitled to a refund, swap or store credit (to the same value as your initial purchase).
If this record is not deemed as faulty, we will not cover any additional postage and packaging costs incurred by either you or us, and we will not be able to offer you a refund, store credit or swap.
Basically, please be absolutely certain the record you have purchased is faulty before following the returns procedure. If possible, we suggest testing the record on different turntables and weighting the tone arm differently.
Steepletone and Crosley Record Players
After having several “faulty” records returned to us (that in actuality had nothing wrong with them), we cannot guarantee that any records we sell will play correctly Crosley or Steepletone branded record players.