Yuji Toriyama & Ken Morimura - "Night Together" (4:47)
Chie Sawa - "Sea Gull" (4:07)
Review: Way back in 1982, Japanese musicians and producers Yuji Toriyama and Ken Morimura joined forces to deliver Aerobics, a soundtrack for exercise classes (really) that joined the dots between boogie, disco and city pop. 'Night Together', a superb electrofunk instrumental rich in picturesque synthesizer melodies, jazz-funk guitar solos (Toriyama was a guitarist by trade), squelchy bass and drum machine beats. It's certainly well worthy of being reissued - as this tidy "45" from Pony Canyon amply demonstrates. Curiously, it's not backed by another gem from that set, but rather another slept-on Japanese classic - 'Sea Gull' from Chie Sawa's 1974 hybrid folk-rock/psychedelic rock album 23 - Twenty Three Years Old. It's decent, but the A-side is the real winner.
Review: The difficult second from Senior Templeman takes his short but pretty sweet back catalogue in a bold new direction. Acid pop? Maybe. Theatrical soft rock? Possibly. Something else entirely? Definitely. Shades of glam guitar cool? For sure. All that's by the byes though, really - we could spend a lifetime splitting hairs about genre and still not quite hit the nail on the head. Featuring production from the legendary Nile Rodgers, super-cool Karma Kid, Oscar Scheller, Will Bloomfield, Justin Young, Josh Scarbrow and Charlie J Perry, this is a restless but rewarding listen, rarely hanging around in one stylistic place before moving on to another. What's remarkable about this soul-inflected, funk-fuelled, psychedelic hued odyssey, though, is just how natural the whole thing feels.
Review: This is a festive stunner from Thalia that mixes up traditional holiday melodies with her signature Latin pop style. With a mix of heartfelt renditions of classic Christmas songs, this album evokes both warmth and nostalgia while infusing the music with a touch of melancholy. Thalia's emotive voice brings a unique depth to each track and captures the vibes of the holiday season with a blend of joy, longing and reflection. The album features a range of instruments and arrangements from orchestral strings to Latin rhythms which make it a rich and beautiful listening experience.
Review: Jupiter were kings of the middle of the road indie sound that dominated back at the turn of the millennium. If you don't remember the name you will remember the music as they topped charts and got heavy TV play, not least for most notable single 'I Wish You Would'. All in all this is an album of heartwarming and emotional indie pop niceness you're likely to fall head over heels for again, hence the fact it has been covered by innumerable stars since its initial release. In many ways, once you know the story the track takes on a very different form - far less amorous and much more about longing and lamentation. This latest reissue comes in red and black marble vinyl.
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