V/A: Wamono A to Z Vol. I - Japanese Jazz Funk & Rare Groove 1968-1980 (180g) [180G]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing was mastered and cut at Timmion Cutting Lab. It gathers ten licensed Nippon Columbia and Victor Japan masters, issued outside Japan for the first time, selected by the authors of the Wamono A to Z guidebook.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Mastered and cut at Timmion Cutting Lab

About the album

Japanese records have long been the deep end of the pool for groove collectors, and this set throws you straight in. DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite.jp has been spinning in Japan since the late 1980s, and Chintam runs the Blow Up record shop in Tokyo's Shibuya district; together they wrote the 2015 Wamono A to Z guidebook, and this LP is the soundtrack to it.

The mix of old and new is the thrill. Toshiko Yonekawa's "Soran Bushi" and Kifu Mitsuhashi's "Hanagasa Ondo" put traditional folk melodies over funky drums, Tadaaki Misago and the Tokyo Cuban Boys turn a Tsugaru folk tune into "Jongara Reggae," and Takeo Yamashita's "A Touch of Japanese Tone" does exactly what it says. Chikara Ueda & The Power Station's "Cloudy" and Chumei Watanabe's "Downtown Blues" bring the jazz funk, Monica Lassen & The Sounds deliver "Incitation," Norio Maeda swings, and Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffalo take on "The Sidewinder" before Masahiko Sato signs off.

French label 180g licensed the tracks properly and put Tokyo artist Yoxxx on the cover. The compilers run a record shop, so we feel a certain professional kinship, though theirs is in Shibuya and ours has the Queen streetcar.

Also at Kops: more Wamono A to Z on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On 180g (cat# 180GWALP01), the 2020 compilation.