Wewantsounds

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Roughly translating to "dinner is ready," the double-LP was recorded with Yellow Magic Orchestra and originally coproduced with Ryuichi Sakamoto across Tokyo and Los Angeles. The 14-track album showcases Yano's move away from her pop and jazz funk origins towards a synth pop sound. Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and a longtime YMO affiliate. This reissue follows two Yano albums rereleased on Wewantsounds this year, Japanese Girl and Iroha Ni Kompeito. – Resident Advisor

Alice Clark's highly sought-after Soul Jazz classic produced by Mainstream Records' Bob Shad in 1972. Featuring such classics as "Don't You Care" and "Never Did I Stop Loving You" and remastered from the original tapes, this release is the first official reissue of Alice Clark’s original album for decades, a long-overdue release of one of the best Soul albums ever recorded. – Bandcamp

Following the reissue last year of Fairuz's classic 1979 album "Wahdon", Wewantsounds pursue their exploration of great Lebanese music with the reissue of Fairuz's highly sought-after LP "Maarifti Feek," released in 1987. Recorded in Beirut around 1983-84, the album features the Diva's superb voice combined with Ziad Rahbani's jazz and funk orchestration, making it one of the most in-demand albums on the Arabic funk scene. – Bandcamp

Following the reissue of Ziad Rahbani's "Abu Ali" album earlier this year, Wewantsounds pursue its exploration of great Lebanese music with the reissue of "Wahdon," released in 1978 by legendary Middle Eastern diva Fairuz, recorded during the Abu Ali sessions and including the Lebanese dancefloor cult classic “Al Bosta“. - Bandcamp

The early '70s were rife with political and racial conflicts, indicative of the pressures surrounding the scandal of Watergate and Richard Nixon, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the painful continuation of the Vietnam War. As explosive as the times were, Frank Foster's The Loud Minority reflected all of those mounting tensions while remaining hopeful in a self-determining way that gave rise to the "I'm Black and I'm Proud" sentiment. Foster assembled a giant of a big band featuring dual instrumentation all around, including keyboards, basses, and drummers to power a horn section chock-full of the best mainstream jazz and progressive players of the day. Because funk-fusion was flowering, electrified elements of guitar and Fender Rhodes piano identify the music with the times, while vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, never known as a protest singer, reads powerful poetry and screams freedom at the top of her lungs, inspired by a band that knows no bounds or limits, at its core a mighty modern jazz orchestra removed from Foster's work with the Count Basie band. "J.P's Thing" provides the ultimate in memorable melodic invention, vibrant layers of call and response, and the kind of shout-out energy every jazz fan craves. It's a driving, funky number, very much representative of the time period, full of hope and spirit, with low-end bass clarinets firing off the rest of the horns -- a great track! "Requiem for Dusty" is for a late, favored German Shepherd, a sad ballad with Foster on his rarely played alto sax and Stanley Clarke's arco acoustic bass solo with drama confined to smaller spaces, almost Greek epic, elegiac for sure. New York DJ Ed Williams is paid tribute to in "E.W. -- Beautiful People," a free and light Latin piece with Foster's soprano sax wailing in a darkly dramatic hue, with fine solos from acoustic pianist Harold Mabern and trumpeter Charles McGee. The title track is a composition with Bridgewater identifying icons of change and liberation from oppression, with statements that the Loud Minority is not a nonprofit, and the profit is in the victory "as opposed to you know whooooooooo." A united front of furious funk and churning rhythms via Airto, Elvin Jones, Richard Pratt, and Omar Clay with the Rhodes of Jan Hammer and electric guitar of Earl Dunbar under Foster's spirited horn chart makes this one leap out of the speakers. Notable soloists include trumpeters Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson and Cecil Bridgewater, baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Kenny Rogers, and trombonist Dick Griffin. A different, less virulent edition of the Loud Minority came down the pike several years later, but this was the first and clearly the loudest, and not minor by any stretch of the imagination. – All Music

"The world of rare Japanese Funk & Soul is a vast and expensive one to visit. The kind of realm that can be dangerous for your record budget once you start falling deep into. But there is something absolutely irresistible about the pop music that was coming out of Japan in the late 70’s and early 80’s...

...Filed under “Experimental Synth-Pop” is probably where you’d find this gem by Hiroshi Sato sorted at your local record store. Except you won’t. It’s one of those rare treasures that won’t appear magically in a dollar bin near you. You’ll have to pay a couple hundred dollars for an original of this one but thankfully it has been reissued a few years ago and will probably come around again. Back to the record in question: “Orient” (released in 1979) was Sato’s third album in a very productive period that saw him release 8 albums in 12 years (from ’76 to ’88)." - Music Is My Sanctuary 

"If you like synth-pop, you’ll love this obscure, cult-ish, previously hard to find and expensive treat. Actually, it’s synth-pop meets jazz-funk with more than a touch of exotica and Oriental proto-electronica...

...Originally released in 1979 (on Kitty Records in Japan only), it was a distant Japanese relation of M, Flying Lizards, Buggles, Gary Numan, The Human League et al. And it is now being made widely available (digitally remastered from the original tapes), six years after the death of its creator, Hiroshi Sato, a keyboardist, composer, arranger, producer, sound engineer and – some say – near-member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (apparently he turned down the offer to join the collective and they drafted in Ryuichi Sakamoto instead)." - Classic Pop Mag

"Sato, was a member of Happy End and had things turned out slightly different, he could have been a part of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The position was offered to him by Haruomi Hosono but was later taken by the great Ryuichi Sakamoto. Needless to say, it is a testament to Sato’s musical chops, all of which are on full show on Orient. With Haruomi Hosono featuring on bass, Sato took on vocals, keyboards and synthesizer, kalimba, drums, writing and production duties for the album." - Electronicbeats

"Digitally remastered from the original tapes, Orient features the cream of Japanese musicians including Shigeru Suzuki on guitar, Haruomi Hosono on bass, Pecker on Percussion and Sato himself on keyboards and synthesizers. This highly sought-after album on the Balearic scene is a superb breezy mix of Japanese synth-pop and exotica with subtle touches of mid 70s Herbie Hancock-style funk and AOR." - Bandcamp | Wewantsounds

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Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release on deluxe LP and CD of Jaye P. Morgan's cult private press originally released in 1976. This lost classic recorded in LA at the legendary Sound City Studios is also the first full-blown production by David Foster two years before he co-produced Earth Wind & Fire's album "I Am" and went on to become one of the hottest producers on the scene. Featuring an extraordinary line up of the best LA musicians including Harvey Mason, Ed Greene, Jay Graydon, Ray Parker Jr. Tower of Power, Ernie Watts and many more, it's probably one of the most expensive private press ever produced! The album is a delight of sophisticated Los Angeles funk featuring Jaye's superb soulful vocals. - Bandcamp

1981 SYNTH CLASSIC BY JAPANESE KEYBOARD WIZARD AND YMO PROGRAMMER HIDEKI MATSUTAKE REISSUED OUTSIDE OF JAPAN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS. REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES WITH STRIKING ORIGINAL ARTWORK BY LEGENDARY ILLUSTRATOR PATER SATO WITH STUNNING FULLY ILLUSTRATED 8P COLOUR INSERT

​His name may not be instantly familiar, but Hideki Matsutake has had a huge influence over Electronic music. Starting his career as the assistant of Japanese Electronic Music master Isao Tomita in the early 70s, he went on to work with Ryuichi Sakamoto before joining Yellow Magic Orchestra as the group's keyboard programmer and unofficial fourth member. In 1981 he started his own Logic System project recording "Venus" that year in Los Angeles with Don Grusin, Nathan East and Michael Boddicker, brilliantly mixing Synth Funk, Ambient and Boogie with a touch of Smooth Jazz predating Vaporwave by 30 years. Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue this visionary album, which comes remastered from the original tapes and features Pater Sato stunning artwork including the rare beautiful 8-page insert that only came out for the first Japanese pressing with an exclusive interview of Hideki Matsutake by Hashim Kotaro Bharoocha. - Bandcamp

Instrumental cult classic LP by legendary Egyptian Guitarist Omar Khorshid, first released on the label ‘Voice of Lebanon’ in 1978 and reissued here on vinyl for the first time!

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO'S LANDMARK 1981 ALBUM REISSUED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES OUTSIDE OF JAPAN IN ITS RARE JAPANESE EDITION . REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES BY BERNIE GRUNDMAN.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's third solo album "Hidari Ude No Yume" (Left Handed Dream) was originally released in 1981 on the Alfa label. Save for a small-scale Dutch vinyl release in 1981, it is the first time the album's original Japanese edition is released outside of Japan (the European release on Epic Records included significantly different tracks and mixes). Newly remastered from the original tapes by renowned engineer Bernie Grundman, this LP edition comes with original artwork featuring a striking cover shot by famous photographer Masayoshi Sukita (sourced from the original negative), OBI strip and 4-page insert with new introduction by journalist Anton Spice. – We Want Sounds

The ‘imaginary’ soundtrack to the adventures Of Kindaichi Kosuke, the cult detective book series by writer Seishi Yokomizo is on many DJ want-lists. Arranged by soundtrack master Kentaro Haneda and featuring a mysterious group of the best 70s Japanese Funk musicians, the album is pure undiluted Disco Funk. This reissue is the album's first official release outside of Japan. Remastered from the original tapes, it features artwork by renowned illustrator Ichibun Sugimoto, OBI strip and a 4 page insert with a new introduction by British journalist Anton Spice. - Bandcamp