ANIME & MANGA SYNTH POP
SOUNDTRACKS 1984-90 / VARIOUS - LP

UPC: 650245289793
Label: TIMECA
Format: LP
Release Date: April 20, 2022
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• First ever release of this compilation outside of Japan
• Pressed on black vinyl
• Curated by Kay Sazuki and Rintaro Sekizuka from Vinyl Delivery Service
• Artwork by Japanese artist Kazuki Takakura

Trailblazing instrumental synth pop experiments created to soundtrack Japan’s booming 1980s cartoon and comic industries. The brightly futuristic instrumentals on this collection reflect the mindset of composers and musicians who believed in a technological future where everything was possible.

In the late 1980s Japan experienced a brief but heady period where societal changes combined with new-found wealth to open up a world of possibilities. A huge influx of cash – artificially created by slashed interest rates after an agreement with the US to weaken the dollar relative to the yen – resulted in the inflation of real estate and stock market at a rapid pace. While the economic bubble it created was unprecedented and impossible to sustain, for a while money was in plentiful supply.

The musical genre City Pop reflected the aspirations of the country’s booming leisure class. Video games flourished with Nintendo’s 1983 launch of their Family Computer (or FamiCom). Studio Ghibli was founded 1985 to later became one of the most famous and respected animation studios in the world, and Anime and Manga were established as major forms of entertainment for all generations of the Japanese public.

Music was no mere footnote to the anime and manga boom: the two forms of media often went hand in hand, and not simply through the presence of background melodies. With generous budgets available, even two-dimensional static manga comics could be released with an accompanying soundtrack of original music known as an ‘Image Album’.

• 1Kan Ogasawara - Honowo

• 2Ichiro Nitta - Shadow Rhythm

• 3Kazuhiko Izu - Act 2 Scene 26

• 4Yoshinobu Hiraiwa - Into The Jungle

• 5Takashi Kokubo & Nobuyoshi Koshibe - Kiki (Jungle At Night)

• 6Kan Ogasawara - Utage

• 7Open Sesame! - Scrab

• 8Keiichi Oku - Ryoko’s theme