Make Up City

Make Up City
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 21, 1980
Recordedfrom July 7 to September 16, 1980
StudioStudio "A", Shibaura, Tokyo Japan
GenreJazz fusion
Length39:16
LabelAlfa Records
ALR-28007
ProducerShunsuke Miyazumi
Casiopea chronology
Thunder Live
(1980)
Make Up City
(1980)
Eyes of the Mind
(1981)

Make Up City is the fourth album and the third studio album by Casiopea released on November 21, 1980.

Description

This album is the first time that all members have contributed songs. Noro had been in charge of most of the compositions for the previous three albums (the only exceptions being Sakurai's "Sailing Alone" and Steve Karmen's "I Love New York", both on Super Flight), and Noro had planned to compose most of this album as well, but in the middle of writing the songs, Noro was hospitalized, and the other members suddenly decided to each write one song and bring it in. Mukaiya created an instrumental version of "Reflections Of You," which was featured on Judy Anton's "Smile" released on October 25, 1980. In particular, Jimbo had no prior experience in composing music, but by enthusiastically learning how to compose from Noro while he was in the hospital, he created "Ripple Dance," this was Jimbo's first step as a songwriter.

All songs were performed by Casiopea members only, but Hideki Matsutake fully participated as the synthesizer manipulator.

The album was recorded using 3M's newly developed 32-track digital tape recorder, and was billed as Japan's first digitally recorded album. At that time, the latest model of 3M's DMS (Digital Audio Mastering System), the same one that had been in use since the late 1970s at the studios of American A&M Records, an affiliate of Alfa Records, was used for recording directly under Alfa Records. It was introduced at Studio Alfa, 'A' studio, but coincidentally this album was the first to be used due to recording schedules. Not only does it create a buzz, but it also contributes to the clarity of the sound. However, in a later magazine interview, leader Issei Noro reflected on the sound of those days and said, "The drawback of digital recording was that the sound was flat, so we decided to solve that problem by adding analog processing."

However, this album itself was not Japan's first digital recording work, as the Japanese company DENON had developed and operated the world's first practical PCM recording device, the DN-023R, in the 1970s.

The album title was chosen from the beauty term makeup , with the meaning of "creating a city." The jacket also features an illustration reminiscent of a futuristic city. However, the title literally translates to "Clean up the city." In fact, member Minoru Mukaiya, who was the MC for the tour at the time, said that Harvey Mason, who produced the bands' next album "Eyes of The Mind," said to him, "I was surprised, you guys, are you going to clean up the town?" "Eyes of Mind," which was included in the second song of this work, was also pointed out by Harvey Mason that "Wouldn't it be weird if THE wasn't included?" so it was written as "Eyes of The Mind" from then on.

Track listing

All Arranged by Issei Noro, except "Reflections Of You" by Minoru Mukaiya & Issei Noro.

Side A
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Gypsy Wind"Issei Noro4:06
2."Eyes of Mind"Issei Noro5:54
3."Reflections of You"Minoru Mukaiya4:28
4."Ripple Dance"Akira Jimbo4:57
Total length:19:25
Side B
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Life Game"Issei Noro4:58
2."Make Up City"Issei Noro5:22
3."Pastel Sea"Tetsuo Sakurai4:11
4."Twinkle Wing"Issei Noro5:20
Total length:19:51

Personnel

CASIOPEA are

Issei Noro - Guitar (YAMAHA SG-2000 & SG-1000 Fretless, Acoustic guitar)
Minoru Mukaiya - Keyboards (Fender Rhodes 73, Acoustic Piano, Prophet-5, Mini Moog, YAMAHA SK-20 & CS-30, KORG 800DV, Roland VP-330)
Tetsuo Sakurai - Bass (YAMAHA BB-2000 & BB-2000 Fretless, Fender Jazz Bass, Kramer DMZ-6000B)
Akira Jimbo - Drums (YAMAHA YD-9000R)

Production

  • Executive Producer - Syoro Kawazoe
  • Producer - Shunsuke Miyazumi
  • Engineer - Norio Yoshizawa
  • Assistant Engineers - Atsushi Saito
    Recorded at Studio "A", Shibaura, Tokyo Japan from July 7 to September 16, 1980 with 3M 32 track digital recorder.
  • Illustrator - Kazuyuki Takimoto
  • Design - Hidetake Awano
  • Cover Coordination - Toshinao Tsukui
  • Liner notes - Jun Takemura
  • Remastering engineer - Kouji Suzuki (2016)

Charts

Chart (1982) Peak
position
US Jazz Albums 46

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalog Note
Japan November 21, 1980 Alfa Records 30cmLP ALR-28007 stereo
United States 1981 AAB-11010[1]
Europe 1981 ALF 85624[1]
Japan June 25, 1984 12cmCD 38XA-15
January 23, 1987 32XA-117
March 21, 1992 ALCA-274
June 29, 1994 ALCA-9004
July 23, 1998 ALCA-9199
December 19, 2001 Village Records remastered 12cmCD VRCL-2204 DSD, LP paper jacket
January 17, 2002 VRCL-2224 DSD
May 27, 2009 Sony Music Direct MHCL-20006 DSD, Blu-spec CD, LP paper jacket
February 3, 2016 Music download 1076212086 iTunes Store[2]
4582290413976 mora AAC-LC 320 kbps[3]
A1003862366 Recochoku AAC 128/320 kbps[4]
B01B5AQ8LS Amazon.com[5]
Bv2fe2tatvwv7zxuuiizjum5ixu Google Play Music[6]
July 27, 2016 4582290418704 mora DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[7]
smj4582290418704 e-onkyo DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[8]
11184 HD-music DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[9]
4582290418698 mora FLAC 96.0 kHz/24bit[10]
A1004668191 Recochoku FLAC 96 kHz 24bit[11]
smj4582290418698 e-onkyo FLAC 96 kHz 24bit[12]
11173 HD-music FLAC 96 kHz/24bit[13]
a7bf52beff4402e0f681 AWA 320kbps[14]
November 10, 2016 263Am93kbmxHBsjdAvvUAx Spotify[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Casiopea Make Up City". Discogs. Discogs. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
  2. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Apple Inc. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  3. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". LevelGate Co., Ltd.. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  4. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". RecoChoku Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  5. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Amazon.com, Inc.. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  6. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Google Inc. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  7. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". LabelGate Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  8. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Onkyo & Pioneer Innovations Corporation. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  9. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". JVCKENWOOD Victor Entertainment Corporation. Archived from the original on 2016-08-20. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  10. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". LabelGate Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  11. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". RecoChoku Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  12. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Onkyo & Pioneer Innovations Corporation. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  13. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". JVCKENWOOD Victor Entertainment Corporation. Archived from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  14. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". AWA Co. Ltd. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  15. ^ "MAKE UP CITY CASIOPEA". Spotify AB. Retrieved 2017-02-06.