Coming soon: Funk

Review: Part of a dedicated reissues campaign of much of Japanese funk and prog instrumentalist Masayoshi Takanaka's discography, we're now privy to one of the best records within it: the esteemed, sensitively embellished, and patently instrumental super-opus, All Of Me. The only compilation record to be reissued as part of the series, All Of Me was first put out in the same period as the early treats Brasilian Skies and Jolly Jive, which sealed the deal on Takanaka's (successful) career, and saw to the unstoppably decades-long period of fun that followed, and more or less lasted until 2011. Intro'd superbly, and with a sense of amicable drama, we hear segues into 'Sweet Agnes' and 'Izu Amanatsu Natto Uri'; both are gateway drugs for atmospheric music enjoyers to get into funk, amping up the mood of ease, and building on Takanaka's self-fashioned surf scene adjacency.