Description

Essential selection of 60s and 70s minyo 45s, hand picked by DJ duo / researchers Riyo Mountains from Tokyo – responsible for Em Records’ Yumi Kagura and Sakai Ishinage Odori LPs. CDr with 63 minutes of music, on-body artwork, housed in plastic inner sleeve and a handsome slip card cover. Second pressing of limited run from 2015

“Minyo is a work song, tribal shanty or traditional dance music from the Japanese countryside. It was once a universal popular music, widely sung and danced until around the early 1980s. Often played at local festivals, weddings, religious ceremonies or just for the everyday enjoyment of farmers, craftsmen and townsfolk. The lyrics often celebrate the seasons, ancient gods, ancestral spirits, or symbols of animistic religion: local mountains and rivers, the sea, a big catch of fish, rice‐planting, loading a horse, foods, family affairs, and, of course, love.”