"aor City"

Nine-track compilation of Indonesian music recorded between 1979 and 1991, compiled by Munir Septiandry of the influential Indonesian DJ collective Midnight Runners.

This summer, dive with us into the often-overlooked sea of late ‘70s/early ’80s Italian Soul, AOR and Disco. Compiled by journalist, producer and digger extraordinaire David Nerattini (with a little help from our own Pierpaolo De Sanctis), PAISA’ GOT SOUL is the smooth and near-danceable soundtrack to a decade that is somehow still with us. A time of gentle grooves, summer loves and sweet escapism – one beautifully captured by Claude Nori in his photographs of Italian beaches and summer holidays. Welcome to the mood of an era.

Elliot Lurie (born August 19, 1948) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the band Looking Glass from 1969 to 1974. He wrote and sang lead on their 1972 #1 hit single "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" and their 1973 Top 40 single "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne". After leaving the band in the mid-1970s, Lurie released a self-titled album and a single, "Disco (Where You Gonna Go)", both on Epic Records. Neither reached the Billboard Top 100. He later signed with Arista Records, and also worked writing songs for Chappell Music and Screen Gems Music. In the 1980s, Lurie wrote and produced music for private business use. He moved to Los Angeles in 1984, and in 1985, became head of the music department at 20th Century Fox. That year, he produced the soundtrack album for the John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis film Perfect. Since then he has worked as music supervisor on numerous mainstream films, including Alien 3 (1992), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), I Spy (2002) and Spanglish (2004).

When Light In The Attic released Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986 in 2019, it was the first collection of its kind to be released outside Japan. It proved to be just what music fans had been waiting for—a compilation of sought-after tracks that had been nearly impossible to obtain unless you were well-connected with dealers and collectors, or traveled regularly to the countless record stores in Japan. Pacific Breeze included Minako Yoshida, Taeko Ohnuki, Hiroshi Sato and Haruomi Hosono among other key players of ‘70s-’80s Japanese City Pop, the nebulous genre that encompassed an “amalgam of AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie and disco, all a touch dizzy with tropical euphoria,” as we described it the first time around.

Contemporary cuts, but with a vibe that resonates with the best modes of 70s mellow soul and AOR – an impeccable selection of tracks that we might have missed otherwise, pulled from a range of releases from around the globe! Some of these are artists that have more presence in the digital market than the physical one, others are maybe older acts that have continued to make great music underground – and together, the 19 tracks in this set deliver plenty of the promised sparkle throughout! Titles include "Fireplace" by Penthouse, "On The Very Low" by Ivan Ave, "Call It Home" by Ginger Root, "1/7 (10*9)" by Julia Wu, "Goddess" by Matt Johnson, "You'll Never Get To Heaven" by Workshy, "Lose June" by Randy Goodrum, "Whatcha Gonna Do For Me" by Young Gun Silver Fox, "Another One" by Mandoo, "BMPD" by Smooth Reunion, "Aim High" by 9m88, "Cauliflower" by Jak Lizard, and "Live Learn" by The California Honeydrops.

Pacific Breeze documents Japan’s blast into the stratosphere. By the 1960s, the nation had achieved a postwar miracle, soaring to become the world’s second largest economy. Thriving tech exports sent The Rising Sun over the moon. Its pocket cassette players, bleeping video games, and gleaming cars boomed worldwide, wooing pleasure points and pumping Japanese pockets full of yen.