In the late-70s, after several decades spent recovering from the devastation of World War II, Japan was entering the peak of their post-war economic miracle. These releases helped forge a new Japanese identity in modern pop music, painting vivid, folksy pictures of life in Tokyo, and essentially creating the foundation for what would soon become city pop. “They were very conscious about singing in Japanese, with lyrics often about living in the city and nostalgia towards a bygone era.” “Artists like Happy End and Hachimitsu Pie, whose members had grown up during those post-war occupied years and had been exposed to American pop culture, played music that had roots in American music, but was uniquely Japanese,” says Kitazawa. Before he had formed Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hosono’s band Happy End brought American and Japanese music closer together than ever before when they released their self-titled 1970 folk-rock debut, sung entirely in Japanese (breaking with the popular Japanese rock convention of singing in English). Music journalist Yutaka Kimura described it simply as “urban pop music for those with urban lifestyles,” making city pop one of those things that you just know when you hear it.Īs with so many other groundbreaking forms of music to emerge over the last several decades, the story of city pop can be partly traced back to the work of Haruomi Hosono. While the term “city pop” itself is highly malleable (with fans often debating over which releases should even be considered as part of the genre), what defines the music is ultimately more of a feeling than it is a rigid framework. Yet beneath its plastic sheen lies a deeply sincere approach to production and songwriting that has captivated listeners around the world. wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/CasiopeaSelfTitleAlbumCover.“Many Japanese people who grew up with this kind of music considered city pop as cheesy, mainstream, disposable music, going so far as calling it ‘shitty pop,’” says Light in The Attic’s Yosuke Kitazawa, who has spearheaded the label’s reissues of Haruomi Hosono as well as curating their ongoing Japan Archival Series.Tunes like Black Joke are part of the multiple performances and variances along Casiopea's career. The album includes the participation of some notable contemporary jazz players such as David Sanborn on the saxophone, giving a special touch to Issei Noro's compositions. Recorded between December 1978 and March 1979 in Japan, "Casiopea" is Casiopea's self-titled debut album. The cover depicts two racecars racing each other on a raceway. Casiopea is the debut album of the jazz fusion group Casiopea which was recorded between 1978-1979 and released later that year.Studio "A", Shibaura, Tokyo from December 1978 to March 1979.wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/CasiopeaSelfTitleAlbumCover.jpg?width=300.
The cars featured on the album cover are based on Can Am cars running in the japanese Fuji Grand Champion series at the end of the seventies, most likely a Lola T290 Mazda and a March 74s from the 1978 & 1979 championships. This album was recorded on LP in 1979 as ALR-6017 and years later in 1986 on CD under the 32XA-104 catalog numbers, being the first editions on both LP and CD.