england

  • We all make decisions on what we share with others. Sometimes what we hide might run the gamut of what we feel comfortable expressing. However, in the case of virtuoso violinist Ikuko Kawai’s #2, I can’t understand why this album or the particular moment it was created in, appears as a mere footnote (which it…

  • Doesn’t it always seem like fall weather brings along autumnal feelings? Nothing speaks to this preternatural connection to our environment quite like art, and in our case: music. You see, in my latest mix for LYL Radio I was inspired quite directly by the song and words of Ayuo Takahashi’s “Across The Seasons”.

  • Serenity now. Serenity later? Well, not that much later if you’re tuned into the cozy ambiance of little-known New Age musician Chris Stonor aka L’Esprit. Gentle and quietly so unobtrusive, L’Esprit’s sophomore release, Far Journey, somehow gets your attention by doing the little things so right. 

  • Maybe those who still vaguely remember England’s proto-Acid Jazz scene can better place Animal Nightlife in an appropriate context, but how in the heck did such a group not become a household name like Culture Club, Soul II Soul, and Spandau Ballet? Unfortunately, now tucked under the “where are they now” section, Animal Nightlife was…

  • Once again, we’re back in England for another journey. If you can entertain me just one more time, I’ll share with you some of the music I feel brings out the best colors of autumn. On this mix for LYL Radio I wanted to take you to those early Saturday mornings at home in November…

  • Rather than belabor you with nonsense trying to rectify itself as a theme, I’d rather rectify something I didn’t do last year: share my special hour-long Halloween mix for LYL Radio. For those that tuned in, you were treated to one of my deepest loves: British Folk Rock.  Today I’m taking it a bit further.

  • We could only be so lucky to age as well as EG and Alice’s 24 Years Of Hunger has. Now, it seems, I have to be the next one carrying the torch forward to promote this forgotten Pop masterpiece. In 1991, it was an unlikely blip on England’s music radar, appearing in a bright flash,…

  • “If you have taste, your long neck is an asset, your small stature is an asset, that crooked smile is an asset… Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.” – Diana Vreeland (ex-editor of Vogue/Bazaar magazine). It seems highly appropriate, and better stated, to use her words…

  • Thatcher’s England must have been a messed up time to grow up in, right? At the height of her pull, Essex group, I-Level, released a wonderfully romantic, uptempo electronic-R&B single called “Minefield” near after England’s ridiculous war with Argentina and promptly got banned from the radio. Trying to go for their third, hit single, with…

  • I think the right phrase for this one is: “all my Christmases came at once”. Never before had I thought I’d be able to bring up someone from my very, very early blog past, in this latest version of it, in a way that made perfect sense. Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s Up From the…

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