Please recommend me some Japanese new wave...

some choice cuts from the Vanity label on that comp

i only know the mkwaju tracks. that's midori takada's first project before her solo debut, "through the looking glass".

i have both of the mkwaju albums and they're super good! not quite as reich-ian as "through the looking glass", more funky and percussive. the use of african drumming and percussion gives it a very "fourth world" feel.

not sure i'd call it either pop or new wave though, definitely seems like the odd track out

oh man, I love chakra and mishio ogawa's solo records. the track on that comp is kind of an anomaly tho. it's a hosono production and you can tell, nothing else on that album or in her catalog sounds much like it. sorta prefer her lush 90s anime ballad stuff that came afterwards myself tho.

maybe one for the listening thread and i'm sure a lot of you have all those songs somewhere anyway, but i've just been enjoying this v old UK comp. still copies out there for cheap (i found mine for a fiver somewhere a few years back):

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1884/1683/products/IMG_6961_grande.jpg

tracklist:

Hikashu - New Tribe
Akiko Yano - Rose Garden
Earthling - You Go On Natural
Yukihiro Takahashi - Mirrormanic
Shoukichi Kina - Mimichiri Bozu
Lizard - Sa Ka Na
Hikashu - The Model
Salon Music - Hunting On Paris
Akiko Yano - Canton Boy

this is what the blurb on the red light records website says about it:

"Killer compilation of Japanese wave and experimental pop with a few exclusive versions of tracks that only appear on this LP. David Claridge who complied the record traveled around Tokyo with a hand-held Sony cassette recorder ( as featured on the front of the album ) and inserted snippets of ambient city sounds and overheard conversations between the cuts of the album. Fullest recommendations!"

All good so far yes? So the whole punchline for this and what tickled me is that the guy who made the compilation will be extremely familiar to any who grew up in the UK.

It's a guy called David Claridge, just check out who his alias is on Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/741684-David-Claridge

any 'Hunting On Paris' is my new favourite song, so thank you Mr RRSS for bringing it into my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txW08c5-Mbo

'anyway'

Great comp! I think I may have come across it on the Mutant Sound blog. I had that exact same walkman when I was a kid, it was really small, lasted for years and years, and had two headphone jacks. Amazing detail about Claridge tho', I had no idea!

It blew my mind! Turns out he was the guy that ran the Mobile Suit Corporation label, who put out not just that comp, but all the Monsoon records and also had a massive hit when they released Trio's 'Da Da Da' in the UK. Never going to think of RR the same way again!

Weird, I was sure that I'd been on this thread to post about Portray Heads before. Their album was reissued last year and it is fucking fantastic stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5A4NaFaIgw

neat stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT1st0QZPNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YkHJJi-tc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMMA4Da0qRo

This is amazing. Apart from Mariah, I can't find most of this on streaming.

https://www.mixcloud.com/andy_browntown/japanese-80s-post-punk-underground/