KYOKO KOIZUMI (小泉今日子) — Koizumi In The House

Kyoko Koizumi, aka Kyon Kyon or Kyon², was one of the most popular and best selling pop idols through the 80s & 90s and on this album, thanks to the vision of Haruo Chikada as a producer, an unlikely combination of her vocals with the burgeoning sonics of house music takes place to great effect. What must have seemed like a cultural anomaly to contemporary audiences, particularly so early into the canon of house music (this record saw the light of day in 1989), we can now retrospectively recognise that not only does this album succeed as a snapshot of the musical zeitgeist of the time - it also predicted the unification of house & dance music with commercial pop sensibilities that has remained in the culture in the decades since. However, what is happening sonically on this record goes beyond anything disposable or vapid that might come to mind when one thinks of Pop forays into house music - we are served up menacing acid lines, hip-house rhythms and even some digi-dub excursions