HMV Japan 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Contemporary Hammond B3 maestro Booker Gee (real name Guillaume Metenier) has delivered some seriously good slabs over the last couple of years, and this wholehearted tribute to the JB's could well be the best of the lot. 'Popcorn' is a sparse but seriously heavy deep funk cut, with Metenier's inspired Hammond licks and solos riding a sweaty, break-fuelled groove courtesy of acclaimed modern funk multi-instrumentalist Slikk Tim. Over on the flip, the French musician and producer gives his interpretation of Sound Dimension's 'Granny Snatch', delivering a cosmic funk take full of weighty bass, flanged guitars, jazzy solos and deliciously dubbed-out sounds. It's not quite as instantly accessible as 'Popcorn', but it is certainly equally as potent.

Review: Moonlight Mystery by Issei Okamoto is one of the many much loved and AOR and city pop records from the Far East. Light In The Attic Records have done us a favour and put together a proper reissue job which comes two years after they reissued Okamoto's debut album Moonlight Singing. It is "a full analog reprint" and has much to love. There is a swaggering urban groove in the form of 'Jamaican Night', while the sentimental and jazzy soft rock sounds of 'Just A Little More' soon soothe. Even more mellow delights await on the rest of the b-side.

Review: World Standard is a stylish pop unit that incorporates a wide range of music from rock, techno to ambient.Their memorable first album, which debuted in 1985 on the Teichiku Non-Standard label produced by Haruomi Hosono, will be remastered and reissued under the supervision of Soichiro Suzuki! This is the second analogue release by Warsta, whose LP "Asagao" (released in September 2020 by conatala record), a collection of world standard demos, has been well received and is now attracting attention from around the world.