Time Capsule Vinyl & CDs

Review: The more erudite record digger will know that Japan has long since had a thriving ska, dub and reggae scene. This new entry in the Nippon series from London's Time Capsule label proves that - Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 dives deep into its early days when J-reggae artists were looking to the likes of UB40 and The Police for inspiration rather than the Jamaican originators. And you can hear that here in this fine collection of backbeat gems which are playful, loose and catchy, with subtle hints of city-pop and new-wave sounds. These tracks have only been available in Japan before and are now sure to find a welcome new audience on European shores.

Review: Time Capsule exposes a few of the myriad pathways in Japan's 70s psychedelic soul wormhole, when a bountiful crop of music emerged from musicians inspired by homespun hero Haruomi Hosono's Happy End project, as well as the meandering ballads emerging from the dissolution of the 1960s protest movements. From the charming, Hosono-esque Francophile lounge funk of Hiroshi Kamayatsu's 'Have You Smoked Gauloise?' to the Tadashi Goino Group's strikingly sparse drum machine n' synth incantation 'Jikan Wo Koero Go Beyond Time', almost sounding like Goino is flanked by Vega and Rev at times, to the theatrical, almost duul-esque closing ballad 'Heya No Naka In The Room', the heads at Time Capsule assemble a compelling and kaleidoscopic anthology of forgotten Japanese gems.