sophisti-pop

Thomas Leer: The Scale Of Ten (1985)

2020/02/04

Was the world ever ready for Thomas Leer? Listening back to Thomas’s The Scale Of Ten one can hear all the potential there. It’s this theme of tweaking a recipe. Here it was to make his once abrasive, experimental blue-eyed soul into a chromed-out beast, outfitted in Fairlight CMI clothing, permeating with giant-sized hooks. In…
Terese De Sio: Sindarella Suite (1988)

2020/01/14

There’s something I really admire about Naples’ own Teresa De Sio’s way of thinking. When I went around digging through interviews to find a little more about the backstory for 1988’s Sinderalla Suite, I encountered Teresa’s fuller story. In it, Teresa painted a much bigger picture than I was expecting.
Yuki Saito (斉藤由貴): Love (1991)

2020/01/10

I have a confession to make. I have a distinct aversion to “girl” singers. I like my male singers to sound like adults. I like my female singers to sound like adults, too. Basically, I can’t stand when someone plays the role of a tart (with no irony), no matter what gender normative noun they…
Andy Davis: Clevedon Pier (1989)

2020/01/07

The changing of decades always seem to introduce truly amazing albums that fall through the cracks. Be it because they are caught in between eras. Be it because they’re simply made outside of any prevailing trend. These albums, unfortunately, reveal their true brilliance (sometimes) only in hindsight. Recently, I’ve had that aha! moment with Clevedon…
Kip Hanrahan: Days And Nights Of Blue Luck Inverted (1987)

2019/11/19

American Clavé. What a name. Kip Hanrahan is one of those musicians that deserves, mightily, to be a large household name, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, never quite could break that final barrier. No matter how perfect his blend of outsider jazz and instantly “getable” ideas were. We’re worse off as a music culture…
Mix 23. Stronger Than Pride

2019/03/22

I always found it odd that a musical style tailor made for our generation is both a) little-known (outside of Anglophile circles) and b) devoid of noted umbrella genre. Sophisti-Pop is a made-up termed coined after the fact. Musicians like Paul Weller, Sade, Paul Buchanan, Green Gartside, Roddy Frame, and Paddy McAloon, might have (in…
KEDGE: Complete Samples (1988)

2019/03/15

And now for some early magic from notable J-Pop producer and songwriter Keiichi Tomita aka Tomita Lab. Complete Samples by KEDGE, for all intents and purposes, is the work of one mind: Keiichi’s. A superbly fun and surprisingly complex work, it reminds me of some of the best stuff from Japan’s earlier City Pop and…
Paradigm Shift: The Rain Child And The River King (1986)

2018/07/20

Seems like the perfect time to sneak this one through ye olde FOND/SOUND blog. Led by Makoto Matsushita, proud creator of one of City Pop’s timeless gems (First Light), and Chris Mosdell, proud creator of this totally slept on “Japanese” techno-pop gem, comes this decidedly different collaboration called Paradigm Shift. Like its namesake, it actually does…
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin: Up From The Dark (1986)

2018/05/08

I think the right phrase for this one is: “all my Christmases came at once”. Never before had I thought I’d be able to bring up someone from my very, very early blog past, in this latest version of it, in a way that made perfect sense. Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s Up From the…
南佳孝, 観, 太田建: 882 Studio (1985)

2017/10/24

These are the kinds of records that just mean the world to me. They’re the ones so full of potential, yet profoundly this…close to being lost in the cracks of history. What you’ll hear in 882 Studio is a very short and sweet compilation by three artists from the Japanese label Fitzbeat, a label mostly…