glam

Takumi: Meat the Beat (1983)

2017/03/03

Tokyo, Berlin, London and other points in between, are the locales touched by Meat the Beat an intriguing work from surprisingly prolific (yet largely unknown) Japanese musician Takumi Iwasaki. Eleven songs in total, nine sung in English, two in Germany, with a startling album cover touching on the austere visuals of Berlin-era Bowie, should it be any surprise that what you’ll…
Akira Terao: Atmosphere (1983)

2016/12/12

It’s not often you hear someone split the difference between Boz Scaggs, Bryan Ferry, and Nick Cave. It’s not often that you find quite a character like Yokohama-native Akira Terao, and music quite like Atmosphere. Before Mark Hollis discovered Coltrane, before Paul Buchanan decided to soundtrack the sight of Glasgow at 4 a.m., in the year that…
Sparks: At Home At Work At Play and Equator (1974)

2014/08/08

Sparks (Russel and Ron Mael) circa 1974. This is where I slowly attempt to route the driving playlist somewhere new in my August musical trip. First, though, I have to get through a few checkpoints. All of the previous songs were instantly recognizable as driving songs and serve to warm you up to the path…
Marc Bolan/T-Rex: Jeepster (1971) and Cadillac (1972)

2014/08/05

Marc riding a tiger. As I start touring further down the driving playlist road, I have to encounter, and review some songs based on the Bo Diddley Beat. Something about this beat, as heard here, makes it so it can be molded to make just about any song sound intrinsically propulsive. Without a doubt one…