Aoyama Nights [Import]

• 1xLP pressed on Black Vinyl
• Recorded between 1982-1986
• Newly remastered

Surfing on the wave of 1980s Nippon’s bubble of electronics and economics, fashion and the femme fatale, the explosion of its pop culture and computerized technopop, and the world’s sudden fascination with everything Japan, a group of young studio musicians stemming from Tokyo’s downtown of Akihabara and Kanda came together for ad hoc recording sessions between 1982-1986.

Their goal… produce the next domestic hit album, a travelogue of city pop inspired by the urban yet lonely sprawl of now globally admired Asia. Yet their vision of the concept album under the City Heights moniker never came to see the light due to the group’s sudden disbandment after the tragic loss of love.

Led by the guitarist come arranger-producer HASEGAWA Joe (Jô) and keyboardist KATSURAG Mariko, the City Heights sessions drew from Tokyo’s musical melting pot of the early 1980s with a distinct blend of jazz, funk, and boogie, spiced with a local touch of Nippon’s finest electronic instruments.

Now, restored, remastered, and occasionally redubbed by Japanese music connoisseur Sten Saluveer aka MILDHANS, this second, highly anticipated volume will take you on a journey through the love-longing nights of Aoyama, to the festive matsuri bustle of Jô’s hometown of Kanda, the Jasmine dreaming of Taipei, and a quirky nod to a then legendary musical superhero.