Light In The Attic: can they do no wrong?

For I am the Centre, the record collector (and coiner of the term PINA) Anthony Pearson was involved via Douglas McGowan.

its mentioned in the Numero records Periodical:New Age Issue, which is pretty much essential for anyone who liked IATC.

I guess, its getting a genre head to do some research and look into what rights can be obtained.

its tracking down the artists that needs old fashioned research and networking.

Douglas says that he first asked JD Emmanuel for the compilation, and I guess it might be a gathering of momentum as artists agree and that helps other agree to be on it.

Quite a few have had reissues since that compilation (Joanna Brouk, Michael Stearns, David Sylvian etc.) So its getting an impetus for them to find the original tapes, and once they are found its easier for subsequent labels to reissue retrospectives/album reissues.

that comp might be the best packaged and pressed vinyl I have, its a thing of wonder.

finally picked up a copy of Somewhere Between, made it nearly all the way through Side A before realizing it was a 45 RPM

sounds damn good at 33 though

Haha, I did the exact same thing a few weeks back.

I know Douglas a little bit and that description of his working methods seems accurate.

xp For info about Native North America, I'd recommend checking out this podcast interview with compiler Kevin Howes and featured artist Duke Redbird: http://vishkhanna.com/2014/12/04/ep-152-kevin-sipreano-howes-duke-redbird/

just now catching up to the kankyo ongaku — whoa, this rules!

^^^ yeah, I dig it all, in particular the Joe Hisaishi track "Islander" is incredible. I wish it was twice as long. Quite an obscure find too - it's actually by the one-off project Wonder City Orchestra, before any of Hisaishi's well-known work. These folks really know their stuff. It's inspired me to get some Hiroshi Yoshimura & Inoyama Land LPs, but I think this compilation is way beyond any individual release.

still been regularly playing Pacific Breeze & Somewhere Between as well. I wonder if the popularity of Pacific Breeze/City Pop in general is somehow linked to vaporwave? So much of it sounds like sample fodder. I'm surprised Somewhere Between hasn't been picked up on like the other two. Maybe it just goes a little too far in the weeds and doesn't have the same appeal. But I've been researching some of the acts on it quite a bit. There's so much out there to discover. My favorite might actually be the last track, as short and insubstantial as it is.

I wonder if the popularity of Pacific Breeze/City Pop in general is somehow linked to vaporwave?

I had assumed so!

kept forgetting there was a second Pacific Breeze. you know, I think this was more along the lines of what I was expecting the first time. obviously I love all the YMO family stuff but come on it is not "City Pop". this one has a much more chill, coherent feeling to it. also I counted three tracks already that were sampled in various vaporwave things I've heard

Edd Hurt and I discuss LITA's 2021 Country Funk 3 quite a bit over on Country Funk?, with links.
Also:
every time I listen to this stuff a cigarette magically appears in my mouth

― frogbs, Thursday, March 10, 2022 9:47 PM (three weeks ago)

There's some 70's rootsy stuff in that second Pacific Breeze volume that isn't really City Pop either, but frankly I welcome it - I admit full comps of that genre end up sounding too samey for me.

Second Pacific Breeze also gets points for not having a track liner note in the form of a spiral, rendering it unreadable.

Agreed all around: they're both fairly essential, but PB2 is the one I got back to more often.

Second Pacific Breeze also gets points for not having a track liner note in the form of a spiral, rendering it unreadable.

Comforting to know I'm not alone in my annoyance at this lol.

They should pick another MPB guy to champion, those Marcos Valle and Erasmo Carlos reissues never get old.

ha I saw this thread title and thought "letting those Valle reissues go out of print was wrong" ;_;

They also picked the wrong version of "O Beato" for a bonus track on "Vento Sul"

we get Number Three

https://lightintheattic.net/releases/9228-pacific-breeze-volume-3-japanese-city-pop-aor-boogie-1975-1987

sweet. And it's available as a towel.

Someone's made a YouTube playlist. Love that last song by Chiemi Manabe. Heard it a mix one of the compilers did a while back.

its out now and it rules. on first listen I was able to pick out a ton of highlights. kinda blends the approach of the first two I think - lots of forward thinking stuff here but not in the "is this even City Pop" way you get on the first one. also the record sounds insanely good. gotta say LitA restores my faith in great sounding and clean vinyl. it is possible after all.

It's easily my favourite of the three volumes so far. Just a brilliant selection of songs and none that I want to skip in the slightest.

In an industry of absolute shit and constant disappointment I increasingly believe that it's important to acknowledge the few people and labels doing commendable work.

About a week ago, LITA had some big warehouse cleaning sale, and I impulse bought a few things, including the big Lee Hazlewood CD box. It was such a steal at $30, I actually thought it might have been a pricing glitch, and almost expected the order to get canceled. I didn't even know whether it was the deluxe version or the regular version (the website wasn't very clear about this), but given the very, very low price for this incredible multi-disc box with a flexi disc and book, I would have been happy either way.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be the deluxe box. At that price, which is over $70 less than the lowest priced copy on Discogs at the moment, I probably would have been OK if they'd just sent the damn thing in a pizza box. Instead, they sent it separate from the other records I ordered, and packaged it like it was a set of crystal champagne flutes. They included those little cardboard corner thingies to avoid dents, secured it in bubble wrap, and shipped it in a big, heavy box with cardboard fillers. The package probably could have survived a toss over an overpass.

I'm not even a big stickler about cosmetic damage and corner bends and stuff, but I really appreciated the care they put into shipping something that probably doesn't even cover their manufacturing costs, especially when I regularly receive exorbitantly priced LPs from overseas that are sent in what is little more than a manilla envelope. Anyway, just wanted to give LITA some props.

Don't know if they are still running the sale, but if they are, it's worth a look!

Damn I don’t even want to think about what I paid for that thing back in the day.

It's still on sale: https://lightintheattic.net/products/there-s-a-dream-i-ve-been-saving-lee-hazlewood-industries-1966-1971

I was stoked to find it used at Amoeba years ago (and paid a lot more than $30). Worth it for the book alone.

now out of stock

https://lightintheattic.net/products/alfa-yen-records-1980-1987-techno-pop-and-other-electronic-adventures-in-tokyo

looks amazing but I have a lot of these tracks already

same. with tespattern included, maybe that means their album will finally receive a reissue?

the instrumental for “beat the rap” is extremely dope, I made a vaporwave-y edit of it years ago

On a LITA tip, I dug the recent Emerson brothers biopic. Never really thought about what really happens when a long-forgotten and completely ignored record gets discovered and feted by hipsters some 30 years later.

haha see also: delta blues

yeah, that yen comp looks cool... but damn, vinyl is so expensive and I have a lot of that stuff already too...

speaking of things that are expensive, there's also a new-ish japanese "blu-spec CD" that collects all of the tamao koike yen stuff:
https://www.discogs.com/release/29252209-Tamao-Koike-Tamao-Complete-Yen-Years

oh that’s great, the stuff of hers I’ve heard on various YEN/Alfa comps is marvelous