VIA PRESS RELEASE | Light in the Attic Records continues its excavation of Japan’s deep musical legacy with Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1972-1986, the hotly anticipated sequel to the label’s groundbreaking and trendsetting compilation that helped bring the City Pop genre to the global masses. Expertly curated by Andy Cabic (Vetiver) and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), and once again featuring the iconic artwork of Hiroshi Nagai on the cover, the latest release in Light In The Attic’s Japan Archival Series makes available another set of sought-after songs, much of which have never been released outside Japan.
Now available for preorders, Pacific Breeze 2 will be released May 15th on CD, double LP, cassette and as a digital EP featuring highlights from the album. Exclusive bundles and merchandise featuring Hiroshi Nagai’s art will be available from the Light In The Attic online store, including a 24” x 24” felt blacklight responsive lithograph print, a deluxe full-color 30” x 60” beach towel, and a custom-designed long-sleeve t-shirt. A one-of-a-kind “Pacific Breeze” koozie will be added to all vinyl purchases from the LITA online store while supplies last. “L.A. Twilight” color wax will be available exclusively from the LITA online store, and “Violet Sky” color wax will be offered as an exclusive to indie retail stores.
To commemorate the release of Pacific Breeze 2, the first Pacific Breeze will be repressed on a new tri-color vinyl as a limited Summer Fun Edition (500 copies) exclusive to the LITA online store. A brand new t-shirt design featuring the classic Hiroshi Nagai cover art from the first volume will also be available from the online store.
When Light In The Attic released Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986 in 2019, it was the first collection of its kind to be released outside Japan. It proved to be just what music fans had been waiting for—a compilation of sought-after tracks that had been nearly impossible to obtain unless you were well-connected with dealers and collectors, or traveled regularly to the countless record stores in Japan. Pacific Breeze included Minako Yoshida, Taeko Ohnuki, Hiroshi Sato, and Haruomi Hosono among other key players of ‘70s-’80s Japanese City Pop, the nebulous genre that encompassed an “amalgam of AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie and disco, all a touch dizzy with tropical euphoria,” as we described it the first time around.
With Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1972-1986 we dig deeper into those sounds of bubble-era Japan, from the proto-City Pop funk of Bread & Butter and Eiichi Ohtaki to the crate-digger favorites Kimiko Kasai and Piper. Tomoko Aran and Anri, also included in this compilation, are just a few of the artists who have gained popularity in recent years thanks to Vaporwave, the meme-genre that heavily samples Japanese City Pop to create its particular aesthetic.
TRACKLIST:
1. Bread & Butter – Pink Shadow
2. Eiichi Ohtaki – Yubikiri
3. Kimiko Kasai – Vibration (Love Celebration)
4. The Mystery Kindaichi Band – Kindaichi Kosuke No Theme
5. Tetsuji Hayashi – Hidari Mune No Seiza
6. Anri – Last Summer Whisper
7. Momoko Kikuchi – Blind Curve
8. Tomoko Aran – I’m In Love
9. Yu Imai – Kindaichi Kosuke Nishi E Iku
10. Sadistics – The Tokyo Taste
11. Piper – Hot Sand
12. Junko Ohashi & Minoya Central Station – Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break
13. Eri Ohno – Skyfire
14. Yumi Murata – Kanpoo
15. Kyoko Furuya – Harumifutou
16. Yuji Toriyama – Bay/Sky Provincetown 1977
More about Pacific Breeze & the City Pop Genre | By the time the ’70s were in full swing, thriving tech exports sent The Rising Sun over the moon. Its pocket cassette players, bleeping video games, and gleaming cars boomed worldwide, wooing pleasure points and pumping Japanese pockets full of yen. Japan’s financial buoyancy also permeated its popular culture, birthing an audio analog called City Pop. This new sound arose in the mid ’70s and ruled through the ’80s, channeling the country’s contemporary psyche. It was sophisticated music mirroring Japan’s punch-drunk prosperity. City Pop epitomized the era, providing a soundtrack for emerging urbanites. An optimistic spirit buzzed through the music in neon-bathed, gauzy tableaus coated with groove-heavy strokes.
Many of the key City Pop players evolved from the Japanese New Music scene of the early ’70s, as heard on Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973, the first release of the ongoing Japan Archival Series. In fact, you could say City Pop set sail with a champagne smash from Happy End, the freakishly talented subversives who included amongst their ranks Haruomi Hosono and Shigeru Suzuki, both featured on this compilation. As Michael K. Bourdaghs noted in his book, Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon, this music was, “Deconstructing the line between imitation and authenticity.” Some of the best City Pop teeters in this zone—easy listening with mutant exotica, tilted techno-pop, and steamy boogie bubbling beneath the gloss.
