The London-based reissue label is reviving rare soundtracks to Japanese animation, offering a unique insight into the country’s “bubble economy”
“The brightly futuristic instrumentals on this collection reflect the mindset of composers and musicians who believed in a technological future where everything was possible,” read the liner notes for London-based label Time Capsule's forthcoming LP Anime & Manga Synth Pop Soundtracks 1984-1990. It’s a fitting insight into an era where a heady mix of economic prosperity and new technologies bookended a period of fascinating creativity in Japan.
Shipping in late-August and available to pre-order now on Qrates, the record is as much a boon for collectors of musical rarities as it is a unique document of the country's recent history. It follows a moment that saw at once the rise of video game giants like Nintendo, and in which manga comics and their anime-film counterparts became increasingly popular across Japanese society, soon cementing themselves as some of the country’s most recognizable influences on wider pop culture. It is the musical worlds of the latter that are celebrated in Time Capsule’s latest compilation, delving into slick studio sounds of Japan’s 1980s “bubble economy,” where animation was able “to flourish with plenty of budget for merchandise opportunities.” Take, for instance, the early techno soundings of ambient pioneer Takashi Kokubo and Nobuyoshi Koshibe's "Kiki (Jungle at Night)," with its computerized four-to-the-floor grounded rhythms, and unmistakably digital synth chimes. Or the lush electronic arpeggios and ambient piano lines that open Kan Ogasawara's "Utage," leading into driving jazz-guitar soloing with a maximalist sound.
Still to this day, we recognise the household names of Sony, Mitsubishi and Yamaha, but it was during this time when Japanese electronics truly changed the shape of international music culture. This was the era of Sony’s Walkman, revolutionary not only as a novel means to take music on the go—something ubiquitous in today’s age of smartphones and Spotify apps—but also in shifting listening behavior from home stereos and shared listening into deeply personal experiences. It’s hard to fathom nowadays, but so unusual, anti-social even, it was to listen to music completely on one’s own, that the original Walkman was installed with two headphone jacks. In the West, the portable music player became a symbol of a 1980s shift towards rampant individualism, and also, pejoratively, of yuppie culture—of strutting through the urban landscape in a power suit with headphones, shutting oneself off from passers by.
Jared D
Businessmen “spent thousands of dollars in swanky bars and restaurants, even sprinkling gold dust into their drinks”, as the Time Capsule compilation’s liner notes explain. The musical soundtrack to this period was heavy on synthesizers, and a smooth yacht rock-inflected genre that came to be known as city pop. With artists such as Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi, this markedly ‘80s Japanese sound has decades later found new audiences in the West, thanks to popular YouTube uploads and heavy sampling in the vaporwave subculture.
This is evident most iconically in Roland’s TR-808 drum machine. Released in 1980 as a much cheaper competitor to US drum machines the Oberheim DMX and Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the 808 was prominently heard on wax with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s B-2 Unit album that same year. One track in particular from the record, “Riot in Lagos”, had a towering influence in the US on electro hip-hop and early techno, for which the 808 became the musical backbone. Still to this day, Roland’s singular kicks and snares are synonymous with the evolution of hip hop, as the primary drum sound behind trap music.
Jared D
The 1980s would see manga and anime both mature as art forms, as well as increase in popularity both at home in Japan and globally. The famed Studio Ghibli—later creators of classics such as Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle—was founded in 1985, and more adult-oriented anime such as 1988’s Akira would receive international interest, becoming among Japan’s most iconic recent cultural exports. Music played an important role in all of this, “music was not a footnote to the 1980’s anime and manga boom: in fact the two forms of media often went hand in hand, and not simply through the presence of cartoon background music,” Time Capsule explains. “With generous budgets going around, even ‘static’ tales of manga could be released with an accompanying soundtrack of music.” These scores came to be known as “Image Albums,” evoking moods of the manga through musical illustrations, such as the album created by Kazuhiko Izu for Akira author Katsuhiro Otomo’s “Take Domo,” from which a track features on Anime & Manga Synth Pop Soundtracks. With its title corresponding to a section of the comic, Izu’s “Act 2 Scene 26” enlivens the printed medium for listeners through driving drum machines and a dramatic synth-pop sound.
There’s no doubt the music of this era has both an enduring and ever growing influence. One need only look towards the countless streams of Japanese Kankyō Ongaku (ambient music) and city pop populating YouTube these days, and their impression on online subcultures. Focusing on musical crossovers with popular culture-at-large, Time Capsule’s latest compilation excavates some of the lesser known, but vastly important corners of these pop music milestones, situating them in a fascinating period of Japan’s economic and social history.
By Jared D
July 26, 2022