The Mystery Kindaichi Band: The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke [WEWANTSOUNDS]

Why you'll love it

Wewantsounds remastered this reissue from the original tapes and added an obi strip and a four-page insert, making it the album's first official issue outside Japan. Arranger Kentaro Haneda leads a crack Tokyo session crew through ten instrumentals packed with breaks.

This edition

• Remastered from the original tapes
• Obi strip
• 4-page insert

About the album

Kindaichi Kosuke is Japan's best-loved fictional detective, a scruffy genius in a battered hat who has been solving murders in Seishi Yokomizo's novels since the 1940s. In 1977, with the films packing cinemas, King Records gave him something no detective strictly needs, a disco-funk theme album, with most tracks named after his cases.

Pianist and composer Kentaro Haneda, later the composer of the Wizardry video game music, arranged it all and called in the cream of the Tokyo scene: Hideo Ichikawa on piano, Jun Moriya on drums, Tadaomi Anai on percussion, Koji Hadori on trumpet and Takeru Muraoka on saxophone. Kimiko Yamauchi's koto and Koji Yamaguchi's French horn add a touch of mystery to the strut. "Kindaichi Kosuke No Theme" sets the scene, and from "Yatsuhakamura" to "Inugamike No Ichizoku" the grooves ride hard disco and funk breakbeats. The new insert reproduces the original artwork by illustrator Ichibun Sugimoto, with fresh notes from journalist Anton Spice.

For years it was a sought-after record among collectors of Japanese funk. Now you can own one without having to solve anything first.

Also at Kops: more The Mystery Kindaichi Band on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Wewantsounds / King Records (cat# WWSLP31HHV), a reissue of the 1977 album.