Collection: Various

Compiled by Tsunaki Kadowaki artwork by Yoshirotten mastering by Kuniyuki Takahashi Tsunaki Kadowaki, a staff member at Kyoto’s record store Meditations, the supervisor of "New Age Music Disc Guide", and the founder of Sad Disco, curates the fourth installment of "Midnight in Tokyo" themed around Ambient Kayo. The Midnight in Tokyo series by Studio Mule focuses on Japanese music, serving as a soundtrack for Tokyo nights—whether for home listening, club play, or as a driving BGM, transcending location and space. After a six-year hiatus, the fourth volume takes "Ambient Kayo" as its new perspective, compiling genre-defying tracks released between 1977 and 1999 to explore the intersection of Japanese ambient and pop music. For this long-awaited fourth installment, selections were made regardless of record label status (major or independent), era, format (vinyl or CD), original release price, or prior reissues. Instead, the focus was on music that deeply moves the listener, is open-minded and evocative, brims with inspiration and spiritual insight, and embodies the "utagokoro" (singing heart) of Japanese artists. Opening the compilation is "Umi e Kinasai" by Yosui Inoue, a legendary Japanese singer-songwriter whose works have recently gained renewed interest as hidden gems of Walearic and ambient pop

Various

Cat: TRNS 015

12" limited to 200 copies

Various

Previous offerings on No Fuss have featured the likes of Saison, Crispin J. Glover and Dean Zepherin, and now the upfront house label brings together another selection of party heaters from a range of producers. Saison makes a welcome return with the feisty "Till The Day I Die", a richly produced vocal jam with plenty of uptempo shuffle in the drums. Risk Assessment lean on the keys to create a melodic mood on "I Don't Understand" and then Saison does it again with the bright and breezy "The Riff". That leaves it to Natasha Kitty Katt to finish things up with the heavy funking disco licks of "Plenty Good" - a get-down cut for all seasons.

Nothing Is Lost