album

Gabriela: Altas Planicies (1991)

2018/02/06

Gabriela Marrone’s Altas Planicies is the very quiet work of a true pioneer. Born of rural, Argentinian descent, but cosmopolitan via adolescent growth, Gabriela took what could have been a forgettable life as a diplomat’s daughter and used it as a way to develop personally into the inspirational force she came to be.
Jorge Degas & Marcelo Salazar: Muxima (1987)

2018/01/30

Tread lightly, oh you who hate slap bass. Jorge Degas and Marcelo Salazar’s positively radiant Muxima has only two roles pushing all songs along: drum and percussion. Apropos they would remix Matisse’s “The Dance” into their own Afro-centered interpretative design. Deep, deep, Brazilian jazz funk that frequently oversteps its boundaries to go into the realm of…
Kaoru Todoroki: カルビンおじさんの私生活 (Uncle Calvin’s Private Life) (1985)

2018/01/19

First off, I have to apologize for the lo-fi quality of this recording. Unless your name is Masaki Eguti or you are Kaoru Todoroki, most likely, you’ll never happen upon the original cassette recording of this truly audacious release. The only source for this audio is Kaoru’s (?) own Real Audio files uploaded to a…
Re Niliu: Caravi (1988)

2018/01/16

Tradition is such a double-edge sword. In the hands of the orthodoxy, tradition can be used as a bludgeon, meant to remind you of a lineage, as a means to keep you rooted in the past. In the hands of the inspired, tradition is used as a source to actually build for the future, a…
Martin Kolbe + Ralf Illenberger: Colouring The Leaves (1979)

2018/01/09

The early instrumental work by German guitar duo Martin Kolbe and Ralf Illenberger is quite breathtaking. When one hears of a guitar duo, immediately one assumes the worst: verbose technicality over concise emotion, bluesy runs used as crutches to help them work together, and a general lack of understanding of what a duo is (and…
Vinterhjärta: Vinterhjärta (1987)

2018/01/02

Deeply icy, floating music from Swedish band Vinterhjärta. Playing like a soundtrack to a particularly windswept, frozen tundra Vinterhjärta’s (which translates to winter heart) sole, self-titled affair, binds all sorts of experimental Swedish conceits — space prog, New Age, and ambient jazz— into one work (released on cassette) that looks for no quarter in the…
Toshifumi Hinata: Story (1987)

2017/12/15

I wish I had a great way to describe the beauty of Toshifumi Hinata’s music, more so, the beautiful music you’ll find in Story. I’ll skip over his background, which you can peruse here, in a previous post, so that we can get to the meat of the album. Though not quite as dark/moody as…
Ayizan: Dilijans (1984)

2017/12/12

Mystical, otherworldly, Haitian rara and vodun funk from composer Alix Pascal. Under the group Ayizan, Alix moved away from his earlier beginnings in the mannered, rural musical style from the tropics called compas into something with far longer stretches/reaches: the music of Africa and post-slavery Hispaniola. Ayizan’s work in Dilijans (creole word for diligence) combined heavy Afro-funk…
Takashi Kokubo: Get At The Wave (1987)

2017/12/08

Just reading about Takashi Kokubo makes one feel decidedly less accomplished. Since the early ‘80s, Edokko Takashi has been knee-deep in the environmental music world. Outside of Japan, few would know that he is responsible for perhaps some of the most terrifying sounds you’ll ever want to hear.
G. B. Beckers: Walkman (1982)

2017/12/05

Günther Beckers music has a perfect word for it: Gesamtkunstwerk. Gesamtkunstwerk is an interdisciplinary artistic work combining various disciplines — music, painting, poetry and design. Wagner conjured up this idea when trying to produce a work that could also wrap in artistic ideas derived from theatrical, poetic, and musical influences. Aesthetics would be the English word…