Ed Motta - Japanese City Pop Mix Vol. 2.

October 21, 2016 6:31 PM

Brazilian musician, Ed Motta, created a good mix of Japanese 70s-80s AOR music titled: Japanese City Pop Mix Vol. 2.

Motta: "City Pop is a sub-genre of J-Pop (Japanese Pop), but it’s more specific with a soulful element and influences from West Coast pop and soft rock, starting in the mid-’70s with the first groups formed by Tatsuro Yamashita and Haruomi Hosono. City Pop is really AOR and soft rock but with some funk and boogie too. "

Comments from Ed Motta available at Wax Poetics.

Tracklist:

1. Char – 「かげろう」(1976)
2. Buzz – 「ガラス窓」(1974)
3. Chu Kosaka (小坂忠) – 「Ryusei Toshi」(1975)
4. Haruko Kuwana (桑名晴子) – 「あこがれのサンダウン」(1978)
5. Yoshino Fujimaru (芳野藤丸) – 「Who Are You?」(1982)
6. Hitomi “Penny” Tohyama (当山ひとみ) – 「Love Is the Competition」(1983)
7. Yasuhiro Abe (安部恭弘) – 「Irene」(1984)
8. Hi-Fi Set – 「Two in the Party」(1979)
9. Junko Ohashi (大橋純子) – 「Telephone Number」(1984)
10. Spectrum – 「Paradise」(1981)
11. Michihiro Kobayashi (小林みちひろ) – 「銀色の雨」(1980)
12. Yukari Ito (伊東ゆかり) – 「マリコ」(1982)
13. Toshiki Kadomatsu (角松敏生) – 「If You…」(1984)
14. Bread & Butter – 「Paradoxical Love」(1980)
15. Tetsuji Hayashi (林哲司) – 「Silly Girl」(1980)
16. Ken Tamura (ケン田村) – 「A Little Bit Easier」(1982)
18. Hiroyuki Nanba (難波弘之) – 「夏への扉」(1979)
19. Gingi Ito (伊藤銀次) – 「こぬか雨」(1977)
20. Kazuhito Murata (村田和人) – 「So Long, Mrs.」(1983)

posted by gen (13 comments total)

My wife and I are taking Japanese because we like so much music from there. I wasn't aware of this kind of stuff though. Sugoi!
posted by freecellwizard at 7:15 PM on October 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is dope.
posted by furtive at 8:20 PM on October 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

oooh this looks great!
namin my first child / next pet Haruomi (for Hosono-san).
posted by cluebucket at 8:23 PM on October 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

This mix has no Tatsuro Yamashita, but he's the anchor of this genre, so track down a few of his albums like 「RIDE ON TIME」（1980年）,「FOR YOU」（1982年）, 「MELODIES」（1983年）.
posted by gen at 8:27 PM on October 21, 2016

I've been really into Taeko Ohnuki recently, especially Sunshower. Her early stuff definitely fits into the early City Pop mold.
posted by chrominance at 8:45 PM on October 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm studying Japanese as well and love music from the 1970s, so this is fun stuff to listen to while I study. Thanks for sharing it.
posted by mogget at 8:54 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I never knew how much I needed this. Thanks, gen.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:06 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

We streamed the whole list to our Sonos system today while doing chores and I have to say, this mix is INSTANT PARTY!
posted by freecellwizard at 12:15 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thank you for sharing this! Lots of new discoveries.

Recently I've been listening to these City Pop/AOR mixes from YouTube user ‘music surf ride’. Each video has about an hour of music from the uploader’s record collection.
posted by ormon nekas at 3:02 PM on October 23, 2016

I've also enjoyed 'music surf ride' 's mixes on YT.

It's hard to find information on City Pop in English and although I read Japanese and understand the lyrics, I wasn't listening to City Pop when it was popular, so it's relatively new to me too.

Ed Motta has another AOR mix on WaxPoetics with a few Japanese tracks on it, including Tatsuro Yamashita and Noriyo Ikeda (who has sung behind Yamashita) which are both excellent tracks. The Noriyo Ikeda album 'Dream in the Street' is especially excellent and was recently re-released a few years ago on both CD and vinyl, so that should be easier to get a hold of (and it's on YT too.)

It would be great if there was more City Pop info in English on the web. Most of the resources are in Japanese for obvious reasons.
posted by gen at 2:29 AM on October 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

One fairly decent list of City Pop artists is in Japanese on Wikipedia: シティ・ポップ　アーティスト

Pretty good blog post of the 2012 Noriyo Ikeda re-issue is here: DREAM IN THE STREET ／ 池田典代
posted by gen at 2:59 AM on October 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

*jamming at my desk*
posted by Quasirandom at 9:43 AM on October 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've been to this blog before, but Kayokyou Plus has a huge selection of City Pop for our perusal.
posted by gen at 5:23 AM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]