Virginia Astley — A Summer Long Since Passed
from Hope in a Darkened Heart (1986)
Rainy day music… this whole album is a gem. Produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Haruomi Hosono — Chattanooga Choo Choo
from Tropical Dandy (1975)
All aboard you tropical dandies! Grab your vinyl Samsonite… throw on your Panama hat… undo a few buttons on your floral shirt. Haruomi Hosono is most famous as a founding member, along with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi, of the pioneering Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra.
But this album catches Hosono between his stints as psych rocker and electronic dial-twister, moonlighting instead as a tropical jetsetter, playing his ultra-cheesy brand of ‘exotica‘—wanna-be tropical music with wave sounds, flutes, vibraphones and the like, played by someone with a sock tan. Pair this with a piña colada and you’re in business.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you check out dublab’s fu-ku-kai mix, where I first heard this track.
