Various Artists 'Sushi 3003' (1996) & Sushi 4004 (1998)

Subtitled 'A Spectacular Collection of Japanese Clubpop' and 'the Return of Spectacular Japanese Clubpop' respectively.

These are the original shibuya-kei introductory compilations unleashed on an unsuspecting world (at least the portion that had never heard Pizzicato Five) through German label Bungalow. In keeping with the spirit of some recent posts, shibuya-kei happens to be a Japanese brand of international pop, a melting pot of many ingredients with the defining featuress being:
An electronica/hip-hop influence, a 60's hipster aesthetic (song titles like 'Bond Street'), twee indie-popness (thanks to the Monochrome Set and Would-Be-Goods in particular) and a heavy dose of the difficult-to-categorise Serge Gainsbourg... French pop, lounge jazz and bossa nova. It's tough to narrow down, but the end result is eclectic enough to keep you guessing from track to track before the glorious masterplan becomes apparent.

Shibuya-kei simply means 'Shibuya style', Shibuya being the trendy district of Tokyo in which the music first gained popularity in the mid-late 90s. Since then shibuya-kei has covertly infiltrated games, anime and Western movies, gained a few fans along the way (Pizzicato Five and Cornelius are only 'stars' you might recognize on here), and eventually dissipated as a coherent club-oriented genre. Its legacy endures in Nippon since being absorbed into modern J-pop, and elsewhere with the likes of the Yoo-Kayz Momus.

Hardly any of these artists embraced this tag at the time anyway, making shibuya-kei seem all the more like a fortunate accident. Also, Soft Machine fans will not believe their ears when they hear the Kahimi Karie's 'Good Morning World' on 3003. Ees craytsee.
My personal favourite of the two is 4004, the first two tracks of which are in the first upload becausetherewasn'tanyrooooom... Incidentally, Cornelius was previously in the lubly Madchester-influenced band Flipper's Guitar (see post before last), so as usual everything is connected.

Very cool 'Legacy of Shibuya-kei' articles (links are in post @ top of page)
Shibuya-kei on Last.fm

David Byrne 'Rei Momo' (1989)

This is sort of connected to the last post, because Ruichi Sakamoto and David Byrne not only collaborated on 1987's beautiful 'the Last Emperor' soundtrack, but both have well-earned reputations as purveyors of worldbeat. Worldbeat hit it's fashionable peak in the late 80's onwards, and a number of great albums came out of it. It's music aiming to be made from a truly multi-cultural perspective, fusing ethnic styles left, right and centre and pushing post-modern Western styles into the background. As such the challenge calls for a cosmopolitan (typically Manhattan-dwelling?), multi-instrumentalist type with international connections. Both Sakamoto and Byrne's (no doubt picking up where he left off with the African stylings of late Talking Heads) eclectic solo careers emphasise a collaborative creative process above all else - rarely will you find a song where they are not backed or assisted by other musicians, often outside their usual comfort zone. That's the ethos of 'worldbeat', and with this album Byrne set his sights on Latin America.

Long influenced by and a champion of Afro-Latin styles (Byrne's Luaka Bop label is responsible for turning English-speaking music fans on to Os Mutantes and Tom Zé, among others), on 'Rei Momo' Byrne seeks to (un)cover seemingly every Latin folk-fusion rhythm, backed by the real musicians of course, combining it with his own herky-jerky style and deceptively workaday voice. Surprisingly, neither suffers as a result and you end up with an inspired, celebratory and enriching pseudo-folk album, peppered with Byrne's amusingly observational and optimistic lyrics.
The carnaval vibe is by no means exclusive to Brazil but is disseminated through many interconnected Afro-Cuban/Afro-Hispanic dance rhythms, lovingly documented on 'Rei Momo' (Portugese for King Momo, the king of carnivals).
Again this is a 320 job, artwork on request. On the back cover of the CD each track is listed along with the regional rhythm represented, I'll replicate that here along with the country of origin!

Uno Dos
Many of these are prevalent across Latin America:

1. Independence Day (Cumbia - Colombia)
2. Make Believe Mambo (Orisa - presumably a reference to the Yoruba religion, the song is in mambo which is of course Cuban)
3. The Call of the Wild (Merengue - Dominican Republic, named derived from meringue!)
4. Dirty Old Town (Mapeyé - Puerto Rico)
5. The Rose Tatoo (Bomba/Mozambique - presumably a reference to this Puerto Rican dance music being an African import)
6. Loco De Amor (Salsa/Reggae - Cuban, Caribbean)
7. The Dream Police (Cha-cha-chá - Cuba)
8. Don't Want To Be A Part of Your World (Samba - Brazil, African roots)
9. Marching Through the Wilderness (Charanga - Cuba, fusion of European classical music and African rhythms)
10. Good and Evil (Rumba - slower Cuban percussive rhythms of African origin)
11. Lie to Me (Merengue - see above!)
12. Office Cowboy (Pagode - Brazilian samba derivative, it's complicated)
13. Women Vs. Men (Bolero - slower tempo Cuban version in 2/4, not the Spanish 3/4 form)
14. Carnival Eyes (Mapeyé - see above!)
15. I Know Sometimes A Man Is Wrong (nothing here, just a short outro with a harmonium and some samples of jungle noises)