Ariola Japan Vinyl & CDs

Review: Acclaimed Japanese producer, singer and songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita is the man credited with laying the early foundations for the city-pop sound. He put out a great run of albums, live albums and compilations and many of them are now being reissued. This one is a great hits collection on heavyweight vinyl that came in 1982 and rounds up the many standout works of his early period. All the tracks have had a fresh mastering job for this release and so classics like 'Sweet & Dangerous Scent', 'Draw Ai Let's Kiss The Sun' and 'The Door Into Summer' all sound as good as ever.

Review: Jazz and soul flavours from Tatsuro Yamashita, the Japanese guitar megastar whose original covers releases are coveted all over the world. In turn, you reap what you sow; many of his originals are likewise the targets of covers artists, and this isn't the first time we've encountered his song 'Ride On Time'. Yamashita's sixth single, it's a popular myth that the track marked the very beginning of the genre 'city pop'; true or not, the accompanying tracks on this album version are equally as slick.

Review: Tatsuro Yamashita's It's a Poppin' Time is one of the many albums of his that are being reissued right now as part of a campaign focussing don his work for RCA. It arrives on nice heavy 180g vinyl and is the first of two live albums he put out. This one came in 1978 and an expanded remaster came in 2002. At the time he was an already established Japanese singer-songwriter and record producer who had very much helped to define the early city-pop sound that has endured to this day. He dropped a wealth of studio albums from the seventies onwards and as this one shows had more than enough skill to carry that magic over to the live arena.