A well-done batch of music for the initial season of Japanese TV show Long Vacation – served up with a sense of variety and depth that's a great change from American television music for a program of this nature! Cagnet put the whole thing together, but they've got a good sense of variety throughout – shifting singers and styles of music, and moving between vocal numbers and instrumentals that have a nice mix of beats and soundtrack elements. Titles include "Long Vacation" by Anna McMurphy, "Silent Emotion" by Calin, "Little By Little" by Section S, "To Live & Die" by David, "What Will I Do" by Natalie Burks, and the tunes "Tiny Tale", "Back Ground", and "Short Wave Radio". CD

A record with a cover that references the Beatles, but a sound that's very different overall – as Japanese combo Happenings Four take the tunes in lots of weird and wonderful directions! The record's maybe much more psychedelic than the original recordings by the fab four – lots of fuzz and distortion at times, and some especially cool use of piano – which gets jazzy at times, but with offbeat twists and turns that further keep things interesting – as does the use of organ on a few of the cuts! The arrangements are great – hardly respectful of The Beatles' originals at all, and really opening up the tunes – to serve up fantastic unusual versions of "Drive My Car", "Don't Let Me Down", "Lady Madonna", "Fool On The Hill", "Ticket To Ride", "She Loves You", "Penny Lane", "Yesterday", and "Revolution". LP, Vinyl record album

A really beautiful record from the Japanese electro scene at the start of the 80s – a record that's got some of the catchy synth modes of the period, but which also has a fair bit of other elements going on too! Logic System features keyboards from Hideki Matsutake – best known for his keyboard programming with YMO – and here, his style expands into some wider modes that almost remind us of our favorite French soundtrack styles of the period – slight currents of sentiment, and a richness of expression that goes way past the more familiar simpler forms of the keyboards. There's definitely some catchier tunes too, and the balance is very nice – on a set that's mostly instrumental, save for some occasional vocoded bits. Titles inlcude "Metamorphism", "Equivalent", "Be Yourself", "Prophet", "Morpheus", and "Venus". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal bit of Japanese rock from the early 70s – performed by a group that included Haruomi Hosono, and who has a style that borrows from the best of the LA scene of the late 60s! The tunes are extremely catchy – done in a folksy style that has compressed guitars and spacious production that evoke bits of The Byrds, Graham Parsons, Beau Brummels, late Association, and some of our other favorite work from those magical years. Lyrics are all in Japanese, but sung in a simple and compelling style that somehow makes you forget that fact! (Rock, Japanese) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the rarest Japanese hard rock albums of the 70s – and one of the heaviest too – a record that's definitely got plenty of the "too much" promised by the title and group! Juni Rush handles lead vocals, but the guitar work of Tutomu Ogawa may well be the equally strong main attraction – a searing, burning approach that really adds a lot to Juni's surprisingly soulful vocals, sometimes a bit freewheeling, other times with plenty of influence from blues and soul, and sung in English too! The group clearly have an influence from blues rock, but open up to much harder, heavier territory – on titles that include "Song For My Lady", "Gonna Take You", "Grease It Out", "Love That Binds Me", "Love Is You", and "Reminiscence". LP, Vinyl record album