Nippon Columbia has announced a reissue of their 70’s and 80’s catalog, with the release of the albums of Juicy Fruits, Haruo Chikada & Vibra-tones, Yumi Murata, and others on streaming services for the first time. Throughout 2020, the rest of their highly anticipated reissue catalog in 70’s and 80’s J-Jazz, Rock, Soul, Rare Groove and City Pop, which have never been officially released on streaming by now, will also be available.
For Japanese music diggers outside Japan, Nippon Columbia also launched “J-DIGS” playlists on Spotify or Apple Music today, which aimed to introduce their hidden gems catalog from 70’s and 80’s. The 1st playlist of J-DIGS starts with a selection of world-renowned Japanese Jazz masterpieces and performances, including Hiroshi Suzuki’s “Romance”, Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media’s “Breeze” and more.
A new collection of urban pops from mid 70’s to 80’s named “Tokyo Dreaming“, compiled by Nick Luscombe and inspired by the theme of Tokyo is to be released on July 29. Nick is a DJ on BBC Radio and has a strong knowledge and deep passion for Japanese music. According to Nick, “Tokyo Dreaming is a look back to an incredible era of Japanese music, that still sounds and feels like the future. It was a moment when brand-new music tech from Japan helped forge new ideas and experiments that permeated pop, soul and jazz and helped create new forms of music including electro and techno. The perfect meeting point that would help create a new soundtrack for modern living“ The compilation features music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yasuaki Shimizu, Shigeo Sekito, Kazumi Watanabe, Juicy Fruits, Haruo Chikada & Vibra-tones and more. Find the track list and album art below. The track “THE WORD II II”by Shigeo Sekito is known for the samples by several established artists such as Mac DeMarco, Honcho Jack (Travis Scott’s Project).
The music of J-DIGGS is available on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6KZh3FDNg6bOYOYPSnhDZw?si=blyeKXzGSwWK965m7nkIsg), Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/jp/playlist/japanese-jazz-best-selection/pl.2fa71d5d2f4f4e029d20c28d9462a48b) and other popular music outlets.
“Jenny Gets Angry” by Juicy Fruits Juicy Fruits is Japanese techno pop band, featuring a female vocalist Iriya in 1980. The combination of blip-blop synth sounds on precise beats and their female vocalist, Iriya’s lolita voices. Their debut single titled in Japanese, was recognized as very novel and recorded a smash hit at the time. Since then, it has been covered by many artists from rock bands to idols and Vocaloids. The song was able to make its mark in Japanese music history as a masterpiece of techno pop. “Soul Life” by Haruo Chikada and Vibra-tones Haruo Chikada is composer, producer, citric and a big man in Japanese popular music industry. He formed New Wave band in 1980 and the track, Soul Life, is from the debut album of the band. The Post-Punk tunes with tight beats reminiscent of “The Police” and lingering sounds-conscious lyrics are very impressive It is the overlooked Japanese New Wave gem. The track is composed by Yutaka Fukuoka, who was a member of the band and later formed another band, called PINK ”KURISHNA” by YUMI MURATA/ The Mariah Project’s Diva, Yumi Murata. Her2nd album KRISHNA is produced by Mariah Project: Yasuaki Shimizu, Masanori, Sasaji, etc. From a funky vocal style similar to “Chaka Khan” to soft & husky vocals, a “kaleidoscopic” vocalist, Yumi Murata, who is indispensable for the Mariah Project.
Nick Luscombe Radio DJ and broadcaster in the UK. A highly respected and influential music influencer who discovers great music from all over the world and shares it internationally through his many radio shows and DJ sets. He has been in charge of music selection for various radio programs since 1999, and since 2010, has been the DJ for the popular BBC Radio music program “Late Junction”. He has also curated and presented music shows for Monocle and British Airways radio stations. He has worked as both Chief Music Editor at iTunes and Director of Music at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and is the founder of Musicity, an international sound project that fuses music, architecture, memory and experience.
Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd Nippon Columbia is Japanese Music Label with the longest history in Japan Has more than 160k songs as catalogs while releasing a variety of music as follows: Jpop/Idol/Animesongs/Rock/Japanesemusic/Enka/Jazz/Classical/Crossover/Kumamon and etc.
The company will be celebrating their 110th anniversary in October 2020.
For more information contact: global@columbia.co.jp
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Website: music.apple.com/jp/playlist/japanese-jazz-best-selection/pl.2fa71d5d2f4f4e029d20c28d9462a48b