Japan has a peculiar relationship with music from outside. It absorbed rock and roll, soul, funk, electronic music, then made something distinctly its own without losing the original energy that made those forms matter. The Japan Groove Library exists to document that process, or at least one thread of it.
This first Japan volume runs through underground Tokyo circa 2020 and 2021. This was a period when the city's music scene was doing what it always does, finding a way to be alive under difficult conditions. The synths are wiry and bright. The rhythms are clipped and urgent. There is the occasional guitar that sounds like it was recorded in a room the size of a wardrobe, which it probably was.
This is not easy listening. It is interesting listening, which is a different and better thing. The mix runs an hour and forty-three minutes and does not repeat itself once.