Diego Olivas
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First off: a huge tip of my hat to fellow F/S blog reader, Victor Hsu Jui-Ting, for cluing me to today’s album a good while ago. If you know me, you know that video games, anime, and manga are some of the artforms I’m the least versed about and a lot of quality anything is…
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No joke, I too sometimes feel puzzled as you might be with what gets shared on this blog. On a regular day, I’d skirt around sharing something like Thomas Diethelm and Santino Famulari’s Diethelm/Famulari. It could be because there’s little to no information about the musicians…a major reason I hold back, often. It could also…
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With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought I’d share an album that’s one of those perfect mood makers. I’ve often said this: “I love love songs.” Most of my most treasured albums, songs, and mixes hover around that whole idea, “What is love?” And in today’s case, in Yoshiro Nakamura’s Literário it’s when does our…
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I have to admit: one of my deep regrets from my recent trip to Japan was missing out on visiting the storefront of today’s guest, Yohei Kunitomo. It was somewhere in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighborhood that I lost track of time and lost my opportunity to visit Pianola Records – to really get a feel of…
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Often, if possible, I make an effort to read original liner notes to any of the albums I share. I do so because, usually, it gives me an idea (or alludes to a certain sentiment) of what the original artist was trying to convey with their work. However, more often than not, other writers (much…
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For any who’ve had first-hand experience with Japan, something that must have struck you as it did me is just how much background music plays a role in “filling a room” so to speak. Whether you’re at your local kombini, shuffling through a train station, or trying to sample a fragrance, some sort of instrumental…
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Few artists have done quite as much to advance the idea of a “nuevo canción” quite like Argentina’s Silvia Iriondo. Yet, perhaps, her most impressive work, 1990’s Silvia Iriondo remains quite a mystery. In it you hear Silvia – with help from Argentina’s experimental fusion and jazz scene – give voice to the little-admired music…
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One thing I love about conducting interviews is that these kinds of conversations always lead to new discoveries. It’s rare that I share a conversation with an artist I haven’t in some shape or form already introduced to you before. However, Makihiko Araki isn’t quite like any artist. As heard of Eiji’s wonderful mix for…
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The more one explores music, the more one discovers how open borders create the most interesting ideas and those living at the borderline have unique perspectives to share. Proof positive: Bebeto Alves’s forward-thinking “milonga” music. It’s his Danço Só – E Fico Assim Mais Oriental Me Invento Toda Manhã, created at the nexus of Argentina,…
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Sometimes, it feels like all it takes is a blink to miss something important. I say this because just weeks ago, on Dec. 30, in between major holidays, news trickled out of the untimely death of a Japanese enka giant. It was Aki Yashiro – that mainstay of all sake-loving drinkers – who succumbed to…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic