Dubby & Antal – Techno Kayo Vol. 1 –  Japanese Techno Pop 1981 – 1989

From denim to reggae to kaizen, the Japanese have long mastered the art of refining and reinventing. Techno pop deserves its place on that list, and Tokyo record shop owner Dubby joins Rush Hour founder Antal to prove it with this authoritatively compiled set. It traces the roots of kayōkyoku as it morphed into its sleek electronic descendant, techno kayō, where songs brim with retro-future drums, sleek synths and impossibly catchy melodies. And they’re all killer, from future Balearic gems like The Peter’s kooky and percussive ‘Happy Time’ to Kazuo Ohtani’s ‘Last Battle’, which is club-ready and strobe-lit, via Hikashu’s dubbed out Adrian Sherwood-style experimentalism on ‘Melonno Nakano Hitsuji’. Imagine Kraftwerk, not in Düsseldorf, but reborn on a neon-lit Tokyo beach in the 1980s.