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Maybe those who still vaguely remember England’s proto-Acid Jazz scene can better place Animal Nightlife in an appropriate context, but how in the heck did such a group not become a household name like Culture Club, Soul II Soul, and Spandau Ballet? Unfortunately, now tucked under the “where are they now” section, Animal Nightlife was…
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Editor’s Note: For today’s post we’re joined by Tristan Pollack sharing a wonderful recording (a collaborative work) between Japanese pop star Seri Ishikawa and totemic composer Toru Takemitsu. According to his bio: Tristan is a composer, musician, writer, born in Tokyo and based in New York City. He has scored original music for feature films…
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Once again I feel like I might not do justice to someone of such stature as Matti Caspi. A true giant of Israeli Pop music, it was Matti who spurred so many trends simply by following his muse, wherever it led to. Once there, he’d come back, fusing Israeli music with styles like psychedelia, prog,…
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You know I absolutely love summer. It’s perhaps the time of the year where I share some of my favorite music. It’s also perhaps the period where I get the most enjoyment in doing so. However, with all that’s going on in the world, I’m not immune to how different this summer feels. It’s this…
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How does one get into the surprisingly prolific work of S.E.N.S. made up of the duo of Akihiko Fukaura and Yukari Katsuki? You start at the very beginning. Japanese readers probably don’t need me to rehash all this old history, but seeing as how S.E.N.S. is practically an institution (if not an actual company) in…
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It almost seems criminal to listen to Gaia (An Ecological Meditation) by Belfast’s own David “Hopi” Hopkins through headphones or inside (through speakers). Created, initially, as an exercise to create spontaneous, organically-generated music using as “lo-tech” instruments as possible, morphed into David tapping into more of that primordial power found within ancient tools. Drone tubes,…
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Take a look at the image above. What you see is an image of a creature belonging to the Daphnia genus. Entirely microscopic in size, a plankton that’s aquatic in nature, and unable to move (or to put it precisely: float) without something else propelling it along — much like certain jellyfish — it’s both…
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Hard to find descriptors for the late Pino Mango’s Australia. Belonging to that then rare breed of solo art pop artists like Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, and earlier pioneering ones like Eno (and others of that ilk), the sound of Australia is moody, complex yet accessible, and sometimes an entire world onto itself. Heavily indebted…
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You don’t always know where the muse takes you but sometimes you get some semblance of its thoughts. Looking back at my latest mix for LYL Radio I had felt there were huge tell-tale signs pointing me what I needed to discover. What was the Brazilian-Japanese connection?
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Sometimes there isn’t much left to be said. Case in point: George Ohtsuka’s Maracaibo. A jaw-dropping masterpiece of Japanese jazz funk that could only come through a miraculous meeting of two minds, those of Japan’s Trio Records and Germany’s ECM Records. Released in 1980, Maracaibo, marked genius drummer George Ohtsuka’s final departure from the meditative…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental folk-rock fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic