SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE MYSTERY KINDAICHI BAND – THE ADVENTURES OF KINDAICHI KOSUKE (REISSUE)

The Mystery Kindaichi Band
The Adventures Of Kindaichi Kosuke (Reissue)
We Want Sounds

French reissue label We Want Sounds is one of the rare ones operating today that really makes an effort to do things properly. The motto is obviously pick slow, but pick right. Oh, and pick something that big outlets overlooked or don’t care about.

So here they are with yet another gem – The Mystery Kindaichi Band and their only 1977 release The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke. It seems that We Want Sounds have found a golden streak of gems in Japan, at least for all the jaded Western ears.

What we get here is an imaginary soundtrack to a cult series of Japanese detective books. Kentaro Haneda, the mastermind behind this one-off project has collected the best session musicians he knew in Tokyo. These are the guys who played with the likes of Joe Henderson, Joe Hisaichi and Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haroumi Hosono, among others.

One of the traditions of the Japanese scene is that when you pick your sounds from elsewhere, it is not whether they are ‘supposed’ all to belong to a certain genre, but whether or not they sound good together. Haneda not only knew which musicians to pick, but what were the right sounds to mix together. From funky jazz akin to pianist Bob James, inescapable sound reminiscent of Isaac Hayes soundtracks, as well as Ennio Morricone and the Fifties film noir masters.

And yes, it really works! No wonder DJs around the world were paying big money for the original copies of this one.

We Want Sounds Links