Emerson Kitamura

Keyboard player/producer Emerson Kitamura has worked with a number of artists and bands in Japan throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He began his solo project in 2014 to further understand and realize his music more clearly and personally, and released the album Ochi Kochi Ni (''In Perspective'') in the same year.

Like his favorite rocksteady keyboard player Jackie Mittoo, Kitamura's organ is simple yet groovy. It is accompanied by cheap drumbox tracks which is a nod to the 1980s new wave rock and “digital” dancehall reggae in the 1990s.

In 2017 he released Countryside is Great EP, a cover of a Thai pop song from the 1970s. The EP also contains a track named Rock Your Baby, featuring mmm (pronounced me-my-mo) on vocals, which has since been included in an UK compilation album Balearic 4 released in August 2018.

• 1 Mado Kara
• 2 Ame No Saka No Ashimoto