Nujabes — Luv(sic) Hexalogy & Full Albums

Jun Seba worked out of Shibuya as Nujabes, running the Guinness Records shop and the Hydeout Productions label. Luv(sic) ran twelve years alongside the albums: Part 1 in 2001 with Shing02, Part 3 landing on Modal Soul in 2005, then a long gap. He died in a car crash on the Shuto Expressway in February 2010, at 36. The instrumentals for Parts 4 and 5 were already done; the Grand Finale turned up on his phone weeks after the accident, and Uyama Hiroto helped finish what was left. Part 6 came out in 2013, and Hydeout collected the whole thing on two discs in December 2015.

The hexalogy plays first here, a little over two hours, since the second disc is instrumentals and remixes by Ta-ku, LASTorder and Jumpster rather than more of the suite. Then Metaphorical Music (2003) and Modal Soul (2005) in full. Worth knowing before you press play: these are records, not instrumental mixes, so Shing02 and the other MCs turn up constantly. I run this when I want the music itself and switch to something wordless when I actually need to read.