AUDIO ACTIVE DEBUT ALBUM

The item at the top is an ad that appeared in Japanese magazine, Bar-F-Out, back in winter 1993.
It's for the debut album by Audio Active - the LP shown in the ad being the available in Japan only version.
The Soundclash DJ's at The Gallery in Leeds, however, managed to get hold of this version of the album in early '94 as it crops up in their playlist which was published in Straight No Chaser magazine in Spring 1994.
Later in 1994 the UK version also came out, and that's the one I got, and so have featured my vinyl copy to accompany the mag items.
It has a different cover and as well as a fuller title - "We Are Audio Active, Tokyo Space Cowboys".
The UK version has almost the same track listing as its Japanese counterpart, with only a couple of changes.
The Japanese release came out on Alfa/On-U Sound, the recording made in both Alfa Studios in Tokyo and On-U Sound in London.
As with all On-U Sound records, it was produced by Adrian Sherwood (apart from track 6) and featured some On-U's guests on backing, such as Bim Sherman, Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald etc, but in the main, Audio Active manage to stamp their own sound.

JAZZ POWERS EP

The ad at the top comes from Japanese magazine, Bar-F-Out, and is dated December 1993.
There is the mention of 2 EP's on it - "Jazz Com Bossa" which I've already featured in an earlier post, and "Jazz Powers" which is the one I'm featuring here.
The EP crops up a little later in Europe, with it making the mail order list of Fat City Records in Manchester, this ad dating from spring 1994 and published in Straight No Chaser magazine.
Also from spring '94 and the same issue of SNC is a playlist for Groove Attack in Germany, with Jazz Powers included in the chart.
The 12 inch copy of the EP is from my shelves at home and is actually a various artists release with 4 different acts on it. They are all Japanese acts and are as follows...
Cycle "Quiet Blue"
Little Big Bee "Sunshine"
Cub "Drive"
Hot Juice "Who Made You Believe So?"
The vinyl was released on the Typhoon label.

GIANT STEP NYC

The Dorado ad at the top comes from an issue of Check Dis magazine dated summer 1992, and one of the records featured on it is a single called "Impressions" by Giant Step NYC.
Underneath the ad is a review of the single that was in the same issue of Check Dis.
Meanwhile, in a summer '92 issue of Straight No Chaser magazine , they also had a review of the single along with a chart compiled by Hamburg's BeatBox crew in Germany, and featured on the playlist is the Giant Step NYC track.
Below those items is another chart, this time from a September 1992 issue of DJ magazine, and on this playlist (which was compiled by Mike Scott in Scotland) not only does it have the Giant Step NYC single but it also has the other track mentioned in the Dorado ad, "Devil Of Cruelty" by Circle In The Round.
Finally, I have accompanied the mag items with my 12 inch copy of the Giant Step NYC single.

BAR-F-OUT MAGAZINE

Bar-F-Out was a music & youth culture magazine from Tokyo that hit the import shelves in the UK in 1992, and although most of the content was printed in Japanese text, there were small bits of it written in English too.
It was a very visual publication, ranging from stylish fashion shots, cool art graphics, to offbeat cartoon doodles. Subjects included books, cafe life, travel, films, hobbies, nightclubbing and so on, with a large chunk of music in the mix. The music it touched on included stuff from the indie, hip hop and pop world, but the genre most associated with the magazine was the acid jazz scene.
The cover image at the top is dated Winter 1993.
Below the front cover is a review of Bar-F-Out that was published in USA magazine, "On The One" in 1994.
Bar-F-Out had help from a few well known names along the way and one such example was the contribution in the middle item above, a piece written by Tadashi Yabe from United Future Organization.
Finally, I have finished the sequence with one of UFO's albums out of my CD collection - the 1994 release "Taboo" - the reason.... it features a track on it called "Bar-F-Out".