Casiopea - MAKE UP CITY (1980)

 Make Up City is the third studio album by Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea, released on November 21, 1980 by Alfa Records.

 

The album was recorded using 3M's newly developed 32-track digital tape recorder, and as such, was billed as Japan's first digitally recorded album. At that time, the latest model of 3M's DMS (Digital Audio Mastering System), which had been used by A&M Records since the late 1970s, was used for recording directly under Alfa Records. It was introduced at Studio Alfa's 'A' studio, but coincidentally this album was the first to be used due to recording schedules. Not only does it create a buzz, but it also contributes to the clarity of the sound. However, in a later magazine interview, leader Issei Noro reflected on the sound of those days and said, "The drawback of digital recording was that the sound was flat, so we decided to solve that problem by adding analog processing."^{[citation needed]}

However, this album itself was not Japan's first digital recording work; the Japanese company Denon had developed the world's first practical PCM recording device, the DN-023R, in 1972. 

 This album marks the first time that all members have contributed songs. Noro had been in charge of most of the compositions for the previous three albums (the only exceptions being Tetsuo Sakurai's "Sailing Alone" and Steve Karmen's "I Love New York", both on Super Flight), and had planned to compose most of this album as well. However, Noro was hospitalized in the middle of the songwriting process, leaving the other members with an opportunity to write one song each. Minoru Mukaiya created an instrumental version of "Reflections of You," which was featured on Judy Anton's 1980 album Smile. Drummer Akira Jimbo wrote "Ripple Dance," despite having no prior experience in composing music, by learning how to compose from Noro while he was in the hospital. All songs were performed by Casiopea members only, but Hideki Matsutake fully participated as the synthesizer manipulator.