TOKYO DREAMING by VARIOUS ARTISTS

A major exploration of Tokyo's cutting edge 80s sound through the music of cult japanese label Nippon Columbia and its Better Days imprint, selected by british radio presenter and DJ Nick Luscombe.

‘Tokyo Dreaming’ is a superb selection picked from the highly collectible Nippon Columbia label and its Better Days sub-label. For the occasion, WWS has teamed up with journalist and Japanese music expert Nick Luscombe who was granted rare access to the much-guarded Nippon Columbia's vaults for a masterful selection encapsulating the fascinating sound of Tokyo in the late 70s and 80s. The selection mixes electro, synth-pop, funk and ambient and features such artists as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mariah, Shigeo Sekito, Juicy Fruits, Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama and Yumi Murata. The tracklist includes many sought-after rarities and hidden gems which have never been released outside of Japan and the set has been newly remastered by Nippon Columbia. The album has been designed by famed London-based designer Optigram and is annotated by Nick.

Nippon Columbia, one of Japan's oldest music labels is also one of its most collectible thanks to its sub-label Better Days which, in the late 70s, became a hotbed for Tokyo's new generation of pop artists eager to experiment with ambient, electro and funk. Armed with a string of new Japanese-made synthesizers and drum machines that would soon take the world by storm, they made cutting-edge music, which has since become highly sought-after by a new generation of Japanese music lovers. Nick Luscombe, who has long been a leading advocate of Japanese music from this era, has handpicked a selection of some of the sharpest music released on these labels at the time.
 According to Nick, “Tokyo Dreaming is a look back to an incredible era of Japanese music, that still sounds and feels like the future. It was a moment when brand-new music tech from Japan helped forge new ideas and experiments that permeated pop, soul and jazz and helped create new forms of music including electro and techno. The perfect meeting point that would help create a new soundtrack for modern living.“

Tracklist Vinyl:
LP1
1. THE END OF ASIA Ryuichi Sakamoto
2. SHINZO NO TOBIRA Mariah
3. SELF CONTROL Chika Asamoto
4. TREASURE HUNTER Jun Fukamachi

1. WATASHI NO BUS Yumi Murata
2. RAINY DRIVER Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama
3. LA MAISON EST EN RUINE Yumi Seino
4. TOKYO Kyoko Furuya

LP2
1. CHINATOWN ROSE Kazue Itoh
2. TOKYO JOE Kazumi Watanabe
3. (Jenie Gets Angry) Juicy Fruits
4. SOUL LIFE Haruo Chikada&Vibra-tones

1. HEARTBEAT Colored Music
2. ROOM Akira Sakata
3. SEMI TORI NO HI Yasuaki Shimizu
4. THE WORD ? Shigeo Sekito