album of the month

Masahiro Sugaya: The Long Living Things (Zoo Of The Sea) (1988)

2018/08/03

Masahiro Sugaya has always been an interesting composer. Based in Tokyo, it’s been his music that’s soundtracked dance theater group Pappa TARAHUMARA’s most known works. Masahiro’s music draws from a mix of minimal, ambient, world, and Japanese traditional styles. So, no one album or song can perfectly distill how varied (in mood and sound) each…
Chagrin D’Amour: Chagrin D’Amour (1982)

2018/07/24

Who knows what would have happened in France if New Yorker Valli Timbert hadn’t met filmmaker Philippe Bourgoin, at some Chelsea Hotel, in the late ‘70s? Philippe, not pictured on the cover of Chagrin D’Amour’s self-titled debut, was the French artiste who had fallen in love with rap early on in 1979. Then, via The…
Roberto Musci & Giovanni Venosta: Water Messages On Desert Sand (1987)

2018/07/17

It would be easy to supplant whatever I stated in my post for Nuno Canavarro’s Plux Quba and simply transport it here. If we include Roberto Musci & Giovanni Venosta’s Water Messages On Desert Sand, as another trafficking in that gorgeous unplaceable thing — then we can think of it as another forgotten reimagining of…
China Crisis: Flaunt The Imperfection (1985)

2018/07/13

“If you have taste, your long neck is an asset, your small stature is an asset, that crooked smile is an asset… Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.” – Diana Vreeland (ex-editor of Vogue/Bazaar magazine). It seems highly appropriate, and better stated, to use her words…
Hajime Mizoguchi: Oasis – Behind The Clear Waters (1986)

2018/07/06

Let’s take a step back. Let’s take a breather and rediscover the music of Hajime Mizoguchi. Romantic, sunny, and surprisingly graceful, Halfinch Dessert notched another special rung on Japan’s wonderful New Age music from that era. In 1985, it was that debut, that gave us a taste of the string-laden, pining sound Hajime was inkling…
Hideo Yamaki: Shadow Run (1993)

2018/06/29

And now, joining Genji Sawai in the next round of jazz not jazz, is the immensely talented drummer Hideo Yamaki. In essence, Hideo Yamaki’s Shadow Run, released in 1993, covers similar creative territory. However, the output here remains vastly different, even if some of the same cohorts help Hideo flesh out his own vision. Produced…
I-Level: I-Level (1983)

2018/06/26

Thatcher’s England must have been a messed up time to grow up in, right? At the height of her pull, Essex group, I-Level, released a wonderfully romantic, uptempo electronic-R&B single called “Minefield” near after England’s ridiculous war with Argentina and promptly got banned from the radio. Trying to go for their third, hit single, with…
Everything Play: Lou Lou Mon Amour (ルール・モナムール) (1987)

2018/06/22

For some reason, I’ve been sitting on this album for a long while just waiting for the right season to share it. It’s Everything Play’s Lou Lou Mon Amour (ルール・モナムール) who I owe a huge debt of gratitude to one fellow reader, Wes Almond, who has an equally fascinating Youtube channel who we all should…
Kyoko Furuya: 冷たい水 (1982)

2018/06/15

Here’s another album I’ve been holding off forever, waiting just for the right time of the year to share it. Kyoko Furuya’s 冷たい水 (otherwise known as Cool Water) embodies everything that was intriguing about the influential Japanese label Better Days’ short-lived existence. Kyoko Furuya’s 冷たい水 features a kaleidoscopic vision of what Japanese Pop can be…
Urszula Dudziak: Ulla (1982)

2018/06/12

Someone, somewhere, (maybe a massive Polish Jazz aficionado), is absolutely, positively going to hate me for doing this: but I have to profess/confess my absolute love for Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla. Riding that same copacetic wavelength as Maki Asakawa’s Nothing At All To Lose, Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla transformed someone known as the Yoko Ono, Linda Sharrock,…