album
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What happens when a Japanese minimalist band gets signed to the American New Age juggernaut that is Windham Hill? Led by Daisuke Hinata, Interior remains an interesting piece of this label’s history. Few examples exist of William Ackerman’s roster ever attempting to tap into the decidedly more electronic, ambient New Age that Japanese labels like Music Interior or…
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There’s something perfect about our imperfect minds. Most of the thoughts we think are the best, most of the time, aren’t the product of an instant occurrence. I’d say the best ideas truly come from a combination of luck/accident plus human intuition. Sometimes we may not know that our answer, or thought, is correct, but we feel it…
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There’s an interesting debate that’s been raging – as much one could rage – in the yoga world. It’s over whether music should be played during yoga classes. Modern, decidedly more western, yogis argue that there is no problem with hearing music while practicing, since the act of hearing music seems to stimulate their muscle intensity. Classically-trained…
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It’s not often you hear someone split the difference between Boz Scaggs, Bryan Ferry, and Nick Cave. It’s not often that you find quite a character like Yokohama-native Akira Terao, and music quite like Atmosphere. Before Mark Hollis discovered Coltrane, before Paul Buchanan decided to soundtrack the sight of Glasgow at 4 a.m., in the year that…
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“Cool, no sweat funk.” – Those exact words are how the leaders of Japanese group EP-4 describe their music. Led by the imitable Kaoru Sato (vocalist) and Banana Kawashima (keyboardist/tape looper), EP-4 in a brief period in the early ’80s existed in its own playing field. Stylistically, and philosophically, more akin to dub-minded bands like The Pop…
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I‘m dipping into that huge well that is Polish Jazz. After listening to “Bialy Garbus” it’s not hard to understand why. Bass-player and hard rock session man extraordinaire, Krzysztof Ścierański takes machines that can bend sonic time and space — the Ibanez HD1000 Delay/Harmonizer and Roland Echo/Chorus— and discovers that there are ways out of Jaco Pastorius-doldrums, into…
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Sometimes it’s wise not to outpace the group. An album, or at least a collection of tracks, I love to recommend (whenever I can) is the debut from Mari Iijima, Mari Iijima’s Rose. There is a problem inherent in this recommendation. The problem lies in me forgetting that what I know, or have access to, isn’t…
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Looking back at recent history, one wonders why certain wounds seem to take so long to heal. We already saw a huge wound open up, yet again, for reasons that defy easy explanation. The rise of neo-fascism and alt-know-nothings has to be a reaction to something. Just this past week another reminder of a seemingly…
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“Rhythmic music for African dance, Dervish rituals, and belly dance. Music for turning on accumulated energy.” — That’s what the liner notes to Anugama & Sebastiano’s Exotic Dance released on German record label Nightingale Records state boldly and clearly. For once, who am I to disagree? I boldly remember when I was a young kid…
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Nothing’s worse than someone recommending a half-great album. I hate doing so, and I’d imagine you’d half-hate downloading an album only to find out that you have to skip half the tracks. Be that as it may, I have to break my own rules, and whole-heartedly recommend this: take some time, download, and listen to Seri…
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