When I traveled to Japan earlier this year, it wasn’t like being a kid in a candy store. It was more like being a kid in 17 candy stores simultaneously, all of which were filled to the brim with things I didn’t know existed and couldn’t wait to explore. Record stores were no exception.
One of the best was in the city of Osaka, where I stumbled upon Rare Groove. I’m a big fan of leftfield dance music, and decades old Japanese pop music in general, so the prospect of this hidden gem made me pretty excited. It turned out to be even more awesome than I imagined, stocked with all manner of ambient electronic music that’s perfect for after-hours listening, new wave and a little bit of everything in between.
The store is run by Sato, who’s an absolute whiz when it comes to discovering and stocking obscure records. He’s been known to drop by and spin records with touring DJs like Ben UFO and BENEDEK, so it’s no 大阪 レコーディング wonder that he’s a key stop for anyone visiting Osaka looking for far-out after-hours rhythms.
He also curates the store’s jukebox, and there are many, many, awesome, obscure and just plain weird songs to be heard when you listen to the mix at this link.
It’s an amazing and very eclectic collection, and it was a real pleasure to spend some time soaking it all in. The sounds of the jukebox are mixed with recordings from the store itself, and I recorded the whole thing using head-worn Core Sound binaural microphones through an ATI ML200 analog mic preamp into a Zoom H2 flash recorder at 44.1 kHz/24b. All of the tracks are available to download from the jukebox and the shop’s official Soundcloud account.
This is just a sampling of the great stuff that’s there, but I could have spent much longer in this record store. The next time I’m in Osaka, I’ll definitely be making a point of stopping by here again.
In addition to running Rare Groove, Sato is a music writer, promoter and founder of the Kansai underground label Horen Records, and a member of Osaka punk band Ultra Bide. He has a Ph.D in History from Tenri University, and currently lives on the Eastern outskirts of Osaka near the city of Ikoma. He has released many albums as a musician, including the critically acclaimed album Osaka Popstar And The American Legends Of Punk with Misfits guitarist & producer Joey Cafiero, which features an impressive pedigree of guest musicians for its debut backing band. He has also edited the acclaimed book Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone and directed the chart topping documentary on legendary underground punk band Ramones Raw. In addition, he has collaborated on limited edition vinyl toy releases with Topps (the creators of Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages) and worked with animated video artists such as Space Monkeys designer Butch Lukic and superhero illustrator Tragnark.
