Make Up City


Make Up City is the third studio album by Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea, released on November 21, 1980 by Alfa Records.

Recording

The album was recorded using 3M's newly developed 32-track digital tape recorder, and as such, was billed as Japan's first digitally recorded album. At that time, the latest model of 3M's DMS, which had been used by A&M Records since the late 1970s, was used for recording directly under Alfa Records. It was introduced at Studio Alfa's '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; the Japanese company Denon had developed the world's first practical PCM recording device, the DN-023R, in 1972.

Music

This album marks the first time that all members have contributed songs. Noro had been in charge of most of the compositions for the previous three albums, and had planned to compose most of this album as well. However, Noro was hospitalized in the middle of the songwriting process, leaving the other members with an opportunity to write one song each. Minoru Mukaiya created an instrumental version of "Reflections of You," which was featured on Judy Anton's 1980 album Smile. Drummer Akira Jimbo wrote "Ripple Dance," despite having no prior experience in composing music, by learning how to compose from Noro while he was in the hospital. All songs were performed by Casiopea members only, but Hideki Matsutake fully participated as the synthesizer manipulator.

Album title

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 band's next album Eyes of the Mind, said to him, "I was surprised, you guys, are you going to clean up the town?" The grammar in the title of the song "Eyes of Mind," which was included as the second song on Make Up City, was also pointed out by Mason, who asked, "Wouldn't it be weird if 'the' wasn't included?" 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 and Issei Noro.

Personnel

Band members

Release history