art pop

Virna Lindt: Shiver (1984)

2017/02/13

t’s impossible to know how much to believe of Swedish journalist, model, linguist, literary agent, interpreter, and musician Virna Lindt’s backstory. Before the creation of Shiver, it is said that in 1981, while traveling by train to London she met local record producer/artist Tot Taylor and told him of her plan to record an album that would be…
Melon: Do You Like Japan? (1982)

2017/02/10

assively influenced by American R&B, Do You Like Japan? holds that rare thing for us as listeners: it’s a question posed in the title. Was ex-Plastics frontman Toshio Nakanishi asking us if we liked Japan or was he asking himself that same question? The answer would be hard to tell after you listen to the album. Created after his breakup…
Mario Acquaviva: Mario Acquaviva EP (1983)

2017/02/01

ven in the dead of the winter, this sunlit EP of Italian Pop can break through any forecast. One of my favorite finds of the year was this brief, but spectacular, EP by Bolognese musician Mario Acquaviva. What’s in Mario Acquaviva? Its eighteen masterful minutes of ruminative springtime Mediterranean piano pop mixed with all sorts of found…
Beto Guedes: Amor De Índio (1978)

2017/01/30

here’s always a tinge of nostalgia I feel when I play any album by a Clube Da Esquina alum. Once you hear that Minas Gerais sound, it’s easy to spend all day just going back trying to rediscover or share these forgotten gems of dreamy Pop music. There are simply so many forgotten, inspiring albums out there, from that region, and that…
Naoki Asai: アバ・ハイジ (Aber Heidschi) (1988)

2017/01/23

A perfect album for our alternate reality, filled with alternative facts. In a perfect world there would be lines upon lines of information out there written on Naoki Asai’s アバ・ハイジ (Aber Heidschi). Unfortunately, in our imperfect world all we have is one (!!!) brave blog post even attempting to suss out what in the world Naoki Asai…
Frank Chickens: We Are Frank Chickens (1984)

2017/01/11

How do you describe a band like Frank Chickens? Led by performer/artist/musician/animator/singer/theater producer Kazuko Hohki and her sister-in-arms Kazumi Taguchi, Frank Chickens still remains unlike any band out there. Using Japanese kitsch and asian fetishization as a means to facilitate some truly subversive culture prodding and oddly imaginative musical explorations, Frank Chickens’ debut We Are Frank Chickens shows you a small…
Claire Hamill: Voices (1986)

2016/12/28

There’s a vastly more interesting topic hidden in full view of Claire Hamill’s unique and brilliant 1986 release: Voices. What is Voices? It’s an utterly fascinating bit of art pop, a middle ground of Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush -stylistic music, that combines forgotten English Folk with nomadic, electronic dream pop. Composed entirely free of instruments other than her own…
Akira Terao: Atmosphere (1983)

2016/12/12

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…
Jean-Claude Vannier: Jean-Claude Vannier (1975)

2016/11/07

While I was researching this bit of music, I ran into this interview by Jean-Claude Vannier. In no uncertain terms, Jean-Claude tried to guide the interviewer away from asking questions about what he’s known for. If you’re known for something as iconic as arranging the music for Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson it would be easy…
Milton Nascimento: Clube Da Esquina 2 (1978)

2016/11/02

At least for me, some of the most interesting albums are the ones released by artists long after their much more lauded work. I say this, because these deep cuts usually detail a bit more history and show the weather of age a bit more clearly than earlier works. This is my thinking: what happens…