V/A: Wamono A To Z Vol. II - Japanese Funk 1970-1977 (180g) [180G]

Why you'll love it

This 180g LP comes in a reverse board jacket, mastered and cut at Timmion Cutting Lab in Helsinki from licensed Nippon Columbia and Victor masters. It's the second volume of a series built on the compilers' sold-out Wamono A To Z guide book.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Reverse board jacket
• Mastered and cut at Timmion Cutting Lab, Helsinki
• Licensed Nippon Columbia and Victor masters

About the album

Wamono is the Japanese collector's word for home-brewed grooves: the jazz, funk, soul and rare groove Japan was making from the late 1960s on. DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite, spinning since the late '80s, and Chintam, who opened the Blow Up shop in Shibuya in 2018, literally wrote the book on it; their 2015 guide Wamono A To Z sold out fast.

This second volume goes straight for the funk. Mieko Hirota opens with the theme from the cop film Doberman Cop, Hiroshi Sato lays down "Bad Junky Blues," and Sammy teams up with Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media for "The In-And-Outer-Stomp-And-Shouter." Fujio Tokita's "Watashi No Beatles" and Bread & Butter's "Devil Woman" add a pop edge, while Kan Mikami, Akira Yasuda & Beat Folk and Pinky Chicks bring in folk songs and festival rhythms bent into heavy grooves.

The 180g label licensed every track from the original masters, most of them available outside Japan for the first time, with artwork from Tokyo's Yoxxx. Two professional record hunters did the digging here, so you don't have to fly to Shibuya with an empty suitcase.

Also at Kops: more Various Artists on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On 180g (cat# 180GWALP02), the 2021 compilation.