ON THE CITY SHORE

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in 1983, ON THE CITY SHORE is a key early Toshiki Kadomatsu album because it was his first fully self-produced record and the point where his coastal imagery began to fuse with the stronger rhythmic identity that would define his mid-eighties work. “Off Shore,” “Summer Emotions,” “Beach’s Widow,” and “Take Me Far Away” preserve the sunlit, resort-oriented world of his first two albums, but the arrangements are becoming sharper and more disciplined. “Take You to the Sky High” is especially important: its rising groove, brass, rhythm guitar, and bass movement anticipate the harder urban boogie direction that would arrive on AFTER 5 CLASH only a year later. The album’s title is revealing. Kadomatsu is still looking toward the water, but he is no longer leaving the city behind; coastline and metropolitan life are beginning to occupy the same space. That tension gives ON THE CITY SHORE its identity. It is less nocturnal than his later work and less innocent than his earliest summer records, making it the transitional album where his production style starts to sound fully self-directed.