In Time

The last couple of years have thankfully brought me in touch with the vast amount of pure quality music coming from Japan, mostly through Mule Musiq and assorted labels' releases (and thanks to Kompakt's distribution); a vast field left unexplored to most of the rest of the world until recently. And what a shame that was, since it seems that over there we might trace all creativity that somehow seems to have become rare in the more traditionally active scenes of Europe, UK, etc. And I'm really happy that those guys have finally been recognized for their high quality productions, their deep knowledge of music history and excellent artistic sense. I only have to name Kuniyuki Takahashi, Tokyo Black Star or the mighty Force Of Nature as examples. And surely Kaoru Inoue, here as Chari Chari. He recently became very well-known through the Todd Terje disco remix of 'The Secret Field'; this is from 2002, but his discography goes much further back.

So few info I've found around the web on this one that it makes you wonder (it's not even mentioned in his personal site). But it's a wonderful, wonderful album, on occasion deep and tranquil / organic and beautiful / weird and mysterious. With excellent artwork I should add, a well-printed booklet and everything; such a pity all I found was this tiny pic.

Even though certain tracks would fit perfectly in such a set, it's not just another nu-disco record. It could be hastily classified as 'lounge music', but its multitude of influences referenced, the complex instrumentation and impeccability of performance and production set it far apart from the multitude of homogenized, ethno-sampling crappy 'music for restaurants' CDs that flooded the market at about the same time it came out (which might be a perfect reason why this rather excellent album went so unnoticed).

For similar stuff, I'd recommend the Mule showcases 'I'm Starting To Feel OK' and 'The Definitive Japanese Scene Vol.1', as well as Innervisions' 'Muting The Noise 01' compilation. Don't miss this one.

Kaoru Inoue presents Chari Chari - 2002 In Time
Info here.

P.S.1 Courtesy of jasl, Chari Chari's 'Spring To Summer' album here (MediaFire link). Thanx again man.
P.S.2 Original post 2010-03-05.