Funk
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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…
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How do you classify a six-piece Japanese band like Apsaras? Their debut album Apsaras definitely covers a ton of bases. Let’s count all the genres that they bring into their musical mix: dub, new age, minimalism, vocoder funk, balearic, are a few. Heck, you even hear the glimmers of Afropop and Jazz-Fusion. How many genres have I mentioned so far?…
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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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It seems I’m running out of summer, and in this case Isabelles, but before I do, I have to share one of those perfect albums that just scream: Can you hold on, just for a bit more? Isabelle Antena’s En Cavale released on uber-stylish indie Belgian record label Les Disques Du Crépuscule, and graced by a gorgeous watercolor album cover…
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Isn’t this always the toughest post to create? Normally, for your first post, you try to give a call to action, or provide some kind of direction, to whatever kind of journey/experience you want to take your readers through.
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Terry Callier Now for today’s album of the month…I kid, I kid, well a little bit, there’s something special about Chicago’s own Terry Callier. No other artist quite sounds like him and in all honesty deserves his own time in my spotlight. Since 1964 he has combine soul, jazz, folk, and funk so effortlessly that…
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Jon Lucien Here’s another rare groove. Its the groove of West Indian-born (Virgin Islands) Jon Lucien. He was quite an odd musical bird. His roots were in jazz, but he often trecked in the sounds of Brazil, funk, and his own native tropical folk sound. What he’s known for is his brilliant baritone vocalizations and…
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Tim Maia Released in 1975, “Racional Vol. 1” by Tim Maia is just a banging album. Tim Maia, by then, had always been Brazil’s resident R&B and Funk master…a heady ball of James Brown, Barry White, and Curtis Mayfield. He was known as the most hard headed artist, picking fights with collaborators, or scrapping takes…
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