The forerunners to the group Shang Shang Typhoon were Koryu and the Himawari Sisters. In 1983, they released a cassette that found its way to a few journalists taking note of a burgeoning world music scene developing in other parts of the world. This charming mix of Japanese festival music, reggae, latin and pop was what these journalists thought of as a Japanese world music. Featuring Koryu on shamisen banjo and later SST singer Satoko, their music is a less sophisticated version of Shang Shang Typhoon. This is that now renowned tape reissued onto CD for the first time, plus live tracks recorded in 1982 and an unreleased tune. Recommended.
