Forest Jams US Vinyl & CDs

Review: While he has released original music, many of Mori-Ra's most potent singles and EPs have been those where he has delivered Balearic-minded or dancefloor-focused ready re-edits of some seriously obscure music, mostly from his native Japan. As the title suggests, Japanese Breeze Edits sees him continue the latter approach, serving up a fantastic selection of gently beefed-up revisions of mostly synth-heavy 1980s fare from the Land of the Rising Sun. Musically, most of these tweaked obscurities sit somewhere between far-sighted electronica, Japanese takes on American minimalism, city-pop, jazz-funk and spaced-out post-disco, though there are also forays into horn-heavy disco-funk, AOR, new age ambient and percussion-rich curiosities. A brilliant collection of lightly tweaked musical obscurities: don't sleep!

Review: Big sleazy keys, bare-hipped guitars, sultry drums and twisted faraway vocal textures comprise this debut EP for Cali trio Basil & Rogers. Coming on strong like some long-lost offspring of Chromeo and Fly-Lo, each cut is a fuzzy fusion of 80s funk, modern day studio techniques and 23rd century arrangements. Highlights include the 360 dizziness of hooks and eventual saxophone release of "Saturday Morning", the heavy breath disco stomps of "Flavie & The Wolf" and the dubbier ripples of "Mirror Mirror". Sweaty stuff... Towels not included.