art rock
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Find your space in the pocket. If ever there was a phrase that I’ve been trying to hammer home lately, on the blog, it’s that. It’s about exploring the work of musicians who moved things around, found ways to pick at frayed threads and bind them together, to build their own work. China’s Säju is…
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You know, there’s something strangely meditative about filling out a Discogs credit list. I find it so, because you feel like you contributed to artists getting their proper accreditation and also you getting a fuller picture of how something got made. So, when I finished populating Maria Kawamura’s 「春の夢」 – サンクタス – (or Spring Dream…
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There’s a reason that art can transcend time, space, and vocabulary. It does so because it can speak to something innate born within us. Perhaps, it’s that ability to empathize, to experience shared emotion through song. It’s what feeds any musician to put their thoughts on instruments and express themselves to others. And, as shown…
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Six years. Has it really been that long? Yes, it has been nearly six years since I first wrote about the late, great Masahide Sakuma. It was back in 2016 when all we’ve ever experienced from Masahide came from a certain light. And now, I feel it’s time to share with you something just as…
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Talk about worlds within worlds. Isn’t that the essence of Keishi Urata’s 世界の果て (Final Frontier)? It’s about combining electronically-imagined sound atmospheres with otherworldly IRL, acoustic instruments. It’s about exploring the edges of jazz, ambient, and traditional music for an imaginary soundtrack to imaginary environs. It’s a work full of mystery from a man whose whole…
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Certain albums are pretty hard to justify, or quantify, the how, when, or why to share. Salon Music’s O Boy isn’t one of them. My only regret is how long it’s taken me to get to writing about it. Far from being “alien” to any of your musical taste — in its proto-shoegaze, proto-noise, dream…
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Surely, he must have known. That’s all I can think about when I listen to Katsuhiko Nakagawa’s memorial album, Again, Me… Released just months after his untimely death, this best-of collection served as a memory of a young artist who seemed just at the cusp of doing one other great step forward. It’s not often…
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Where does one even start with Anthony Wong? Know that what I’m picking from his diverse catalog is just a snapshot (perhaps my favorite of his, 1994’s 明明不是天使 (I’m No Angel)) of what continues to be a fascinating career and life. And for those that know him best (and better), this is just an introduction…
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‘Tokiko Kato’ – now that’s a name. A giant of Japanese folk music, it was Tokiko who in many ways was at the vanguard, transforming Shōwa era traditional ideas into more nebulous regions throughout her musical career. But what do you say when, supposedly, such an artist ages out of innovating? Do you put their…
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Sometimes when I get dug in a corner, it’s pretty hard to get me out of it. In this case, it was me trying to tie a certain sound, a certain atmosphere, inspired by the Glaswegian group: The Blue Nile.
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