album
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I’m afraid people might get the wrong impression when they listen to the opening track from Michiko Akao’s Yokobue. What’s there to say about “般若波羅蜜多 – Prajna Paramita”? Manning the iconic transverse flute of Japan, the yokobue, Michiko creates a dark jazz funk piece that somehow manages to mix a vocoder in, in a way…
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An album that was born to be loved but remains surprisingly unfound, is the worst kind of album to introduce a band through. Belgian band Jo Lemaire + Flouze’s Pigmy World sounds unlike anything else in their discography but remains a stunning example of what happens when you reinvent your sound in a way few…
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Those drums! Slagerij Van Kampen’s A Long Walk On A Short Pier is a must have for those who appreciate purely percussive music. A brilliant mish mash of all sorts of “tribal” music, Slagerij Van Kampen’s A Long Walk On A Short Pier takes you out of their Dutch roots and transports you to the…
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One of my favorite instrumental albums needs a bit of backstory. First of all, Satsuki Shibano’s Rendez-vous is not entirely a work of hers. Be that as it may, it’s entirely her own vision you see rework French neo-impressionist composer Pascal Comelade’s prior oeuvre into something far more intriguing. Joined by Yoshio Ojima, and released…
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Let’s unwind for a moment. When I haven’t been busy occupying my days with writing, my mind and body has literally been going to the beach to unwind. Somehow, I’ve lucked out and am living the coastal lifestyle (without actually living on any sea coast). While I would say it takes a change of mind…
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In a not-so-recent interview with Vice Italy, Lino Capra Vaccina laments that out of his recently reissued work we’re missing most of the picture of what he was trying to do. While Antico Adagio was one of these wonderful totems of Italian minimalism, it wasn’t until a decade, or so, later, in the mega rare…
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Seems like the perfect time to sneak this one through ye olde FOND/SOUND blog. Led by Makoto Matsushita, proud creator of one of City Pop’s timeless gems (First Light), and Chris Mosdell, proud creator of this totally slept on “Japanese” techno-pop gem, comes this decidedly different collaboration called Paradigm Shift. Like its namesake, it actually does…
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The tale of Righeira appears weirder and weirder, the more I dig into it. Something about their self-titled debut is both so absolutely bananas and perfectly so. For the most part, we all know their hits/ear worms: “Vamos A La Playa” and “No Tengo Dinero”, but digging further one can be left more than…
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More Dutch love for these close-to-summer days. The final album by Nasmak, Silhouette, truth be told, was a sell-out. And truth be told, was absolutely their best work. I imagine it was a hard sell to quantify back then, take a spellbinding blend of Japanese-indebted electronic pop, mix in the sinewy, fretless-bass sound of Japan-”the…
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What is it today? Over here, in the U.S. it’s the Friday just before Memorial Day, a long holiday weekend. Yes, it’s that time of the year when our minds turn to summer — and at least my mind — it turns to music that’s even brighter, funkier, perhaps, something more suited for the weather.…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic