This Video Of A Guy DJing Rare '80s Japanese City Pop Records Is Basically Perfect

Japan’s hedonistic ’80s sound is captured perfectly in this all-vinyl mix.

If you like your music oozing cosmopolitan class and shimmering in neon-hued funk, then city pop might be the style for you. The unique brand of ’80s Japanese boogie has received its fair share of attention over the past few years thanks to a slew of reissues and mixtapes. Revelling in urban glamour and tales of late-night excess, city pop brought a new element to the Japanese funk and disco sound with a bleary-eyed hedonism underlying the tracks’ infectious electronic grooves.

Now, the YouTube channel My Analog Journal have put together a sensational 15-track mix of some of the most obscure Japanese city pop, jazz and soul around. Played directly from vinyl, it will be sure to turn the headiest diggers amongst your friends green with envy. For the rest of us, it’s a beautiful primer to the unique sound emanating from Japan during the buzz of the ’80s. Listen in full above and check out the tracklist below.

Tracklist:

Tatsuro Yamashita – Dancer

Junko Ohashi – クリスタル・シティー

Marlene – The Cheater

Hitomi “Penny” Tohyama – Tuxedo Connection

Toshiki Kadomatsu – I Can’t Stop The Night

Hitomi “Penny” Tohyama – Sexy Robot

Anri – Cat’s Eye (New Take)

Tatsuro Yamashita – Love Space

Noriko Miyamoto – 熱い風

大上留利子 (Ruriko Ohgami) – ふわりふわふわ

Mai Yamane – My Saturday Man

大上留利子 (Ruriko Ohgami) – Sexy Woman

Yasuha – Thinking of You

Kimiko Kasai – Use Me

柳ジョージ + Nadjaバンド – Dream Racer 1