Mule Musiq will launch its new Studio Mule sub-label with a compilation called Midnight In Tokyo Vol. 1. The collection of Japanese disco, boogie and soul was compiled by label boss Toshiya Kawasaki and includes music by Nobuo Yagi, cult City Pop band Piper and Colored Music, to name a few. (The latter group's music was edited and reissued by Chee Shimizu earlier this year.) Mule says Aru Takamura's "Koi Wa Saiko (I'm In Love)," can be thought of as "the Japanese answer to Cheryl Lynn's 'Got To Be Real,'" and that "Live Hard, Live Free," by Eri Ohno, could be compared with Chaka Khan's "I Know You, I Live You." Kuniyuki Takahashi, who released Newwave Project on Mule Musiq earlier this year, mastered the 13-track set, presumably the first in a series. It follows another Japanese archival release from the Mule camp: a reissue of jazz pianist Fumio Itabashi's 1982 album Watarase.
