In 2004 my dear friend Nicolas Colin had a special birthday present for me. He had told me about this amazing Japanes Funk-Band before, and in June he presented me 4 of their 7“ releases, which along with their albums where only released in Japan. Another dear friend of mine, Keb Darge, was playing a few of theirs already and in 2005 he played me a demo Osaka Monaurail had sent him to London. I loved the new tracks. Fast forward to late 2006:

Our Label Records had two first releases quickly sold out and a thing called Myspace was spreading on the internet. It was my chance to get in contact with Osaka Monaurail, because there was a song on that demo that I just loved and I wanted to make sure it would become the next Our Label 45. And Ryo Nakata, the bandleader, got back to me quite promptly and liked the idea of doing a 7“ release of the new album just released in Japan called „Reality For The People“. He sent me a copy so I could choose. Once I knew which song I wanted, he told me about a little obstacle. Osaka Monaurail (who had been on tour in Europe for the first time in 2005) were looking for a European label to release their latest album outside of Japan. And in order for Our Label Records to get a license for a 45, that label would have to agree to not have that particular song as a single themselves, and also agree to any another label to have ANY of the songs of that album (because usually, if you have a label, why would you do that?). Unfortunately, at that time, Our Label wasn’t ready to handle a full album release, and Ryo also told me about a label that was already interested in the album. I knew I had to be quick, if I wanted my dream 45 to become reality.

So I packed a promo-cd and sent it to Duesseldorf to another dear friend, Henry Storch, to have a listen and called him to tell him about the band, and we were lucky to have our businesspartners and buddies at Unique. They liked the album and we got to release „We Got One (A Show)“ on 7“ Vinyl in 2007, the very same year I organized and realized a concert of this international band for the first time in my then hometown Bremen. The then rather unknown Osaka Monaurail played a sold-out show at the Lagerhaus, Bremen, and I had my second dream come true.

On a sidenote: Back in Bremen a year later they would play the longest show of their band history, with over two hours of funky and soulful music.

Listen and I am sure you’ll agree that this tune HAD to be released on vinyl 45.

You can still get one (or a DJ bundle) of the remaining few copies in Our Vinyl Shop.