P-Vine 2000s 5 Items

Kazumi Nikaido is probably most known within Japan for her composition of the main theme song for Isao Takahata's Studio Ghibli birdsong "Princess Kaguya", but a dedicated career of fine tuning and experimentations fall either side, and her 2006 album "Nikaido Kazumi no Album" is exemplary of an artist in full creative flow and P-vine is delighted to be releasing it as a 2xLP for the first time. It is hard to match a genre to the work as it meanders through tracks filled with jazz rhythms and cabaret extroversion into halls of ambience and electronica, but Nikaido is always closeby with a hand to guide listeners through its various sharp weaves and turns. One of its lead tracks "Kyou wa Tou" throws the kitchen sink at listeners with a loving touch as a stream-of-consciousness outpour from Nikaido leads an orchestra of jazz, handclaps and turntable scratching as it builds to a wall-of-sound climax. Those who keep up to date with j-pop will be well aware of some of the guest contributors to the album with various members of Sakerock assisting with arrangement and Hoshino Gen playing guitar on a number of tracks. Japanese jazz pianist Takeshi Shibuya's support heavily features and there is a guest appearance by Tenniscoats' Saya.

Nikaido is also no stranger to activity in the west. Through her extensive career she has traveled far and wide, and in 2011 linked up with Tara Jane O'Neil to release a collaborative self-titled LP on K-Records that saw the two artists bridge across their respective cultural backgrounds, and meet in the middle with a work that dared the other to build anew. Other excursions lead to a collaboration with Bill Wells on Lemondale, his collaborative project with Japanese musicians, after meeting the Scottish composer at Glasgow's Celtic Festival. More recently in 2018 she also supported Mount Eerie at Kobe's Guggenheim House and continues to remain active as both a solo artist as well as performing alongside the Gentle Forest Jazz Band.

P-vine is delighted to be bringing the modern J-pop classic by the legendary Yoko Nagisa to vinyl for the first time with a record that celebrated the Showa era of Japanese Kayokyoku at the dawn of the millenium. Throughout her lifetime, Nagisa's dedication to music was unquestionable and when she wasn't hard at work at the studio, she could be found spinning records at her bar Nagisa in the world-famous Golden-Gai district of Tokyo. Produced by Ken Yokoyama of the Crazy Ken Band fame, these two together invite audiences on a trip back to 70s Japan at a time when style and fashion were arguably at their peak. In desperately sad circumstances, Nagisa is no longer with us, but we are assured that her legacy lives strong through her incredible catalogue.

For every success of R&B and neo-soul albums in the 90s, there's another to tell of those whose qualities were unfairly sidelined or destined for obscurity after being dealt a hand of bad luck. Jeff Redd is today a grammy award-winning record executive known for his work at MCA Records and boosting the profile of Mary J Blige, but various events outside of his control halted the release of his second album. Down Low has the air of an R&B classic: Redd's vocal boundaries feel limitless, and the smooth production values he co-produced with Dinky Bingham bring the album to life with its crisp swing rhythms and genre-defining palettes. From its opener "Show You" to the closer "Take It Off" there's a distinct maturation of sound compared to the lively new jack-swing on debut album A Quiet Storm, and it's a shame we only have this document of his emerging neo-soul sound. P-vine is thrilled to be bringing this album to vinyl format for the first time, and we can only hope it sheds more light on a true godfather of R&B.