I'm back again with my favorite Japanese jazz band from the 90s, ORIGINAL LOVE. Apparently, this is a double album, but the person I ordered this from didn't have the second disc so it's incomplete. Whoops! It's still worth a listen even without Part-2. Deep French Kiss and Let's Spend the Night Together are the highlights of this album for me.
Here's a bit of a rare item - LaB LiFe's debut mini-album released in 1997. I believe this was an indies release? Not sure, but it's a superb mini and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Salon Music started out as a new-wave duo in the early to mid 80s, but when the 90s came around their sound morphed into a shoegaze/grunge hybrid. To go along with the times, I suppose.
I don't know much about this group or release, but I do know M*A*S*H is a great album and a must-listen!
I first stumbled upon ORIGINAL LOVE after listening to Bellissima! by Pizzicato Five. Takao Tajima, the front-man for OL, joined Pizzicato Five for a brief period in 1988 to 1989 and provided vocals for P5's Bellissima! and On Her Majesty's Request albums. I really enjoyed his vocals on Bellissima! so I just had to check out Tajima's other band....and I immediately fell in love with them.
Soul Liberation is ORIGINAL LOVE's second album and it topped at 10 on the Oricon chart. It contains the singles "月の裏で会いましょう" and "The Venus". It's an all-around great 90s jazz album, so check it out!
LaB LiFe were an techno-pop duo founded by Oya Yusuke (now known as SPENCER for his solo project) and Odate Kenichi back in the mid 1990s. They first released a mini-album on an indies label back in 1997 and a year later were picked up by a major label, making their debut with PLANET HEADPHONE.
A nice blend of 90s feel-good pop and techno music, Planet Headphone is a solid 90s electro album.
A year after Planet Headphone's release they released their second and last album titled WORLD'S eND. In the new millennium they provided J-pop star Ayumi Hamaski with a remix of one of her songs, then disappeared from the music scene. Yusuke was soon spotted again fronting the band Polaris, but Kenichi was never heard from again. I really do wonder what happened to him. Did he just tire of making music? Most likely, but it will remain a mystery.