Friday, July 17, 2026 • Vinyl Finds from Around the World
Kaleidoscope Suite -Best Mix and Remixes-
A special project curated by Jazzy Hip-Hop heavyweight Kenichiro Nishihara himself — a seamless self-mixed Best Mix plus a remix showcase from a stacked roster, distilled into 14 tracks. Contributors include Hidefumi Kenmochi (Wednesday Campanella), re:plus and Yusuke Nakamura (BLU-SWING), letting his genre-spanning charm — jazz roots, hip-hop soul and electronic sheen — shine at once.
Plays Songs
The fourth chapter of Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's 'The Piano Sings' series, arriving after a year and a half. Reuniting with engineer Hirohiko Kamiya — the golden pair behind the legendary BLUES FOR K trilogy — it weaves hummable melodies through Yamamoto's delicate touch, drawing on standards by writers like Matt Dennis. Recorded March 2026 at ONKIO HAUS with Yamamoto (piano), Yutaka Kagawa (bass) and Toshio Osumi (drums): instrumental jazz to keep close at hand.
Funky Super Fly
Mr Bongo reissues Bobby Williams' coveted 1974 funk classic 'Funky Super Fly'. Deeply indebted to James Brown — raw, gritty, free-flowing grooves that DJ Shadow, Coldcut and others have sampled endlessly. Fiery horns, choppy guitar and infectious basslines over heavy breakbeats make it a 70s funk gem.
Apples for Isaac
After more than a decade, Echo & The Bunnymen finally deliver a brand-new album, its guitar-anchored post-punk voice unchanged. Their drummer died during the making of it, and the band memorialises that loss with the same urgent post-punk pulse and the ever-shifting bright-to-dark guitar work. An age this guitar-heavy is rare now — one for the nostalgic.
All of Me
A vinyl repress of Japanese guitar hero Masayoshi Takanaka's 1979 live double album 'All Of Me'. Fusion, Latin and surf-rock melt together under his bright, soaring guitar — a signature work of Japan's golden fusion era.
Brasilian Skies
A repress of Masayoshi Takanaka's celebrated 1978 album 'Brasilian Skies' on blue vinyl. Sunshine, surf and Brazilian rhythms weave his most iconic tropical fusion soundscape — cuts like 'Blue Lagoon' are now touchstones of Japanese city music.
Ita
A dreamlike fusion of ambient and free jazz — 'Ita', the third studio album from Polish improv trio Hinode Tapes. The group toured Japan for the first time in 2025, meeting influences like Inoyama Land and Chihei Hatakeyama in the audience. Hatakeyama mixes the new record, joined by bassist Hiroki Chiba (a collaborator of Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Otomo Yoshihide), whose double bass drifts freely between ambient and free jazz for a quietly desolate, beautiful soundscape.
Sunrise (サンライズ)
The second album, from 1977, by the legendary band Zerosen led by maverick composer Katsunori Ishida in the 1970s. Top Japanese players — Ponta Murakami, Akira Okazawa, Mikio Masuda, Kenji Omura, Tan Tan — build a tight, polished sound, and opener 'Sunrise' brims with wa-sei rare groove. Reissued for the first time on high-fidelity Pure Vinyl via Yusuke Ogawa's PROJECT Re:VINYL series.
Wajazz Legends: Jiro Inagaki
Compiled by Yusuke Ogawa and co-released by Universounds, HMV and 180g, this collects Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media's peak 1968–1980 output — including unreleased cuts — across sixteen tracks on gold double vinyl. The ultimate anthology marking the legendary Japanese saxophonist's 90th birthday, distilling the finest of Japanese jazz, jazz funk and early Japanese rock fusion.
Zelda & Jazz
The Deku Trio — GameChops founder Chris Davidson with Chillhop's Rob Araujo — pay jazz tribute to The Legend of Zelda. A clean trio setting reinterprets beloved themes from Ocarina of Time (the Song of Storms, Zelda's Lullaby, the Great Fairy's Fountain) through delicate piano, bass and soft drums — a near-out-of-print rarity, back in stock.
Asphalt (アスファルト)
The debut album 'Asphalt' by Zerosen, the legendary band briefly led by maverick musician Katsunori Ishida in the 1970s. With a fluid lineup, the group vanished after a short run, leaving just two records originally made as audio-component check discs. Even so, the debut is fully realised: opener 'Scramble' drives on heavy bass with vivid, nimble keys, showing off precise arrangement and groove. Reissued on Pure Vinyl for the first time via PROJECT Re:VINYL.
End of Asia
Ryuichi Sakamoto's modern-classical masterwork, released only in Japan back in 1982, given its first global vinyl issue this Record Store Day. It sold out fast on arrival, limited to one per customer — this is the final RSD 2026 allocation, restocked this month.
Osaka-based composer 7FO reunites with EM Records for 'The Stone I Picked Up Broke', a strange-sounding new work sparked by an inexplicable moment when a stone split in his hand. Centred on 'mass' — not the surface heaviness of noise or walls of sound, but dense low end, sculptural sound-blocks and subtly wavering gravity fields. Recorded 2024–25, it distils drum machine, guitar and synth into eight tightly packed structures, drawing on pre-war American blues and Ethiopian traditional music.