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Yoshio Suzuki writes in a way that breaks up my style of writing. You see, I have a ritual I go through when I write for FOND/SOUND. Normally, I put on the album I feel inspired to write about and try to write my post in the allotted time that album runs through. I do so,…
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In a way, rebirth is exactly what my third mix is about. Taking cues from various feelings springtime evokes, I wanted to compile a set of songs that moved in concert with the season. By themselves, each song has a faint musical seed that germinates and blooms into a much more pronounced, powerful direction. However, taken as part of a whole, despite…
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Do you know what I love about Mioko Yamaguchi? That no matter what she attempts, she finds a way to actually do it, and do it quite well. That’s why I struggled mightily to chose what is my favorite album of hers to pitch to you, dear reader. Heart of hearts, I’ve made up my mind, and 月姫 Moon-Light…
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As much as one tries to distance themselves from being just another mp3 blog, one has to realize that one is operating in a gray territory. For as much as I’d love everyone to discover rare albums like Flüght’s Flüght, one from a fascinating Mexican band that debuted with a sound that experimented with ambient, progressive electronica, and new age, not…
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Paris in the winter must be a whole lot different than any other time of the year. Yes, the feeling of romance and culture is still there, but the atmosphere to take it all in must impress all sorts of different stimulations. Romance, city and lights, filtered through multiple environmental layers, meet a more distinct cessation…
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A true giant of Polish Pop music comes out of the wilderness to join up with a Polish Jazz giant who purposely went into its wilderness to create a masterpiece of Coltrane-influenced Spiritual Jazz…one influenced by the Coltrane we tend to forget. You see, Samarpan has all the touchstones of one Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane.
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One of my favorite albums from one of my favorite record label series. Largely piano-based, José Luis Macias’s Regreso a Valencia (Returning to Valencia) touched on that personal essence that made other albums like Toshifumi Hinata’s or Ichiko Hashimoto’s so intimate and gorgeous. Combining western-style minimalism with their own more regional, neoclassical styles, all these releases affect austerity at first, but…
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Funk can sometimes come from the unlikeliest of places. Take for example: Hollywood. Hollywood, and America’s West Coast one could argue, has always been a haven for all sorts of groove maestros…but Tallinn, Estonia? Estonia, that’s where the creators of Zuke hail from. From an ex-Soviet country that barely has a record industry one would be hard-pressed to…
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Tokyo, Berlin, London and other points in between, are the locales touched by Meat the Beat an intriguing work from surprisingly prolific (yet largely unknown) Japanese musician Takumi Iwasaki. Eleven songs in total, nine sung in English, two in Germany, with a startling album cover touching on the austere visuals of Berlin-era Bowie, should it be any surprise that what you’ll…
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ere’s another fascinating release from the CODA label. I say fascinating because Frugivores’ New Age Songs vacillates between a thin line of taste. As you listen to the album initially, one doesn’t know whether to truly recommend it as a listen. But as the album continues, one hears certain songs, forcing you to fire up the old WordPress account and…
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