Tatsuro Yamashita
Spacy
Spacy, originally released in 1977, boasts an impressive lineup of Japanese legends including Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Minako Yoshida, Kenji Ohmura, and Hiroshi Sato. The album features all the usual Yamashita elements, such as euphoric vocals, innovative string arrangements, glistening keyboards, and funky guitar riffs, but the rhythms on this one are a little more forceful.
Pacific
2024 repress. Victory present a reissue of Pacific, originally released in 1978. Reuniting the best session musicians Japan had to offer to make an album that would evoke the atmospheres of the South Pacific islands, the kind of places Japanese people spend their vacations. Pacific is a treat to the ears; its theme of the southern Pacific ocean and its warm cerulean waters relax its listeners with a fusion of city pop, soft jazz, and that good old 1970s funk while remaining surprisingly fully in…
The Aegean Sea
Victory present a reissue of Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, and Masataka Matsutoya's The Aegean Sea originally released in 1979. The album is somewhat of a companion piece to the previous year's Pacific (V 25AH426). A beautiful piece of Japanese smooth fusion-jazz with elements of traditional Greek music and Balearic grooves, it's one of Hosono's cleanest and most focused works to date. Long sought-after by collectors, this record is nearly impossible to find in original pressings outside of…