japan
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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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‘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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“Prince.” Now with that out of the way, can I focus on what I think is one of J-Soul’s least heralded and easily most slept-on albums: Shinji Harada’s Doing Wonders (ドゥーイング・ワンダース)? Before you think that all this blog likes to share is background music for taking a nap or studying, I’d like to let you…
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Be honest. How many of you know someone (or are friends or acquaintances) with a certain somebody that in the way they act, the way they dress or think, seem not of this era? I keep thinking of this thought when I go back to Toshihiro Nakanishi’s music and this selection: You Make Me Blue.…
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Don’t ask me why but it seems that jewelry companies always find a way to leverage their buying power to commission others to create some of the most interesting music-related value propositions. In plain speak: I’m holding an album, 4℃’s Christmas Suite, given as a holiday gift to (what I imagine) were there well-to-do customers,…
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I hate to say this but this review might be one of the lighter ones. Not because of the album itself – the whole package is truly wonderful (a mix of nostalgia, elegance, and a certain uniqueness, tying quasi-ambient, quasi-neoclassical music with gorgeous photography of Hokkaido) – but because of the lack of information about…
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It is my hope that more than a few of you out there can truly appreciate the brilliance of pianist Yuriko Nakamura’s debut: Wind And Reflections. Frankly, I expect that something that sounds this painfully out of time requires one to have a certain palette to understand it but if you have it here’s hoping…
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What exactly is darkness? Is it a sensation, a color, or a feeling? It’s something I kept asking myself for my recent Halloween-inspired mix for LYL Radio. Why do certain tracks or artists fail to miss the mark on what I feel it is?
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When, or if, someone would ask me what kind of album I think perfectly encapsulates the promise of ‘80s music in Japan, I’d say look no further than Macoto Tezka Presents Reiko Okano’s Fancy Dance (ファンシイダンス). As before, I’ll be the first to raise my hand and state: “If you’re looking for someone who is…
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Would you mind if I share something simply for no other reason than: it’s beautiful? From the packaging to the music, I have to say Tomoyuki Hayashi & ForestIII’s The Forest is just plain pretty. If you had your hands on the physical copy, you can lift up the CD cover and feel the same…
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