Review: Norio Maeda's Rock Communication Yagibushi, originally released in Japan in 1970, now comes reissued on Wewantsounds. Rock Communication Yagibushi has since become a Japanese jazz-funk cornerstone, owing to its incredible, complex mutative movement of 14 traditional Japanese folk songs into jaw-dropping jazz-funk versions. Maeda's killer arrangements fit perfectly somewhere on the stylistic intersection of David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin; the album likewise is increasingly experimental as it progresses, with the big band bombast of the likes of 'Saran Bushi' mixing seamlessly yet also contrastingly with the vibraphonic improv shakedown 'Edo Nihonbashi', our highlight.
Review: When popular 1950s singer Jaye P Morgan first released this eponymous album in 1976, she would undoubtedly have hoped it would reignite her career. Sadly it didn't, but the album - a curious but hugely enjoyable mix of saccharine, synth-laden slow jams, disco-fired dancefloor workouts, Broadway style torch songs and fuzzy funk - went on to become a cult classic amongst Balearic-minded diggers. As this essential reissue proves, much of the material has aged rather well. Check, for example, the laidback AOR disco chug of "Can't Hide Love", the Barry White style seductiveness of "Here Is Where Your Love Belong" and the spine-tingling rush of Morgan's killer disco cover of Detroit soul staple "You're All I Need To Get By". Don't sleep!
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