Light in the Attic released the first
Pacific Breeze compilation in 2019 and followed up swiftly the next year with
Pacific Breeze 2. The enterprise seemed like it might have been a done deal until the label announced the third volume, which arrived in 2023. Although many of the tracks throughout the compilations have been accessible to those outside Japan via streaming platforms, selectors
Mark "Frosty" McNeill and
Yosuke Kitazawa survey and contextualize the country's '70s/'80s urban musical landscape in a discerning way that considers both collectors on a budget and curious listeners with no idea about where to start.
Pacific Breeze 3, a truffle harvest, is a little more colorful and illuminating than the two overviews that preceded it. It's lighter than the others on '70s selections. Ex-
Apryl Fool frontman
Chu Kosaka sounds amiable and wise over a
Haruomi Hosono production indebted to early
Jackson 5.
Teresa Noda's "Tropical Love" is candied reggae with strings, produced in Jamaica by
Ryuichi Sakamoto with
Rita Marley and
Compass Point All Star Mikey Chung also on the session. A bounding synthesizer delight from
Osamu Shoji is in the realm of
Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Computer Game" and
Change's "The End" (and preceded both). In a way, the 1978
Shoji track points toward the prevailing '80s material with electronic gear figuring prominently in virtually everything from the later decade. The influence of U.S. contemporary R&B is strong in "Bewitched (Are You Leaving)," smooth, high-tech boogie voiced breathily by
Naomi Akimoto. (The harmonica solo could be mistaken for the work of
Stevie Wonder.) It's even stronger in
Miho Fujiwara's
RCA-issued "Heartbeat," sophisticated and peppy electro-funk that can fit between
Angela Bofill's "Can't Slow Down" and
Midnight Star's "Operator" -- appropriately enough, it was recorded for an anime set in Southern California. Further highlights veer from charmingly mannered new wave to oddball art-pop, from
Susan's "Ah! Soka," featuring
Hosono,
Sakamoto, and their
YMO brother
Yukihiro Takahashi, to
Miharu Koshi's "Scandal Night," the most
YMO-like track here, a jittering wonder produced by
Hosono with human propulsion from former
ABC drummer
David Palmer. Those exploring the seemingly bottomless well of
YMO-related projects are treated even more by
Pizzicato Five's "Boy Meets Girl" and
Mari Iijima's "Love Sick." Other noteworthy tracks involving none of those three giants include
Hiroyuki Namba's Balearic delight "Tropical Exposition [Who Done It? Version]" and
Yukako Hayase's glistening "Suiyoubi Madeni Shinitaino," production-wise a collision of
Scritti Politti and
Ultravox with at least some of the lyrics at odds with its ecstatic vocal. As
Kitazawa notes in the liners, the approximate English translation of the title is "I Want to Die Before Wednesday." ~ Andy Kellman
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