techno

Ikko (川井郁子): #2 (ニ)

2023/12/15

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…
Säju (サージュ): Säju (サージュ) (1997)

2023/08/22

Find your space in the pocket. If ever there was a phrase that I’ve been trying to hammer home lately, on the blog, it’s that. It’s about exploring the work of musicians who moved things around, found ways to pick at frayed threads and bind them together, to build their own work. China’s Säju is…
Mix: 76. Beautiful Sunday (美しい日曜日)

2023/05/30

How’s everyone doing? If you’re like me, perhaps, things are looking up. When I was going back a week or two thinking about where to take my latest LYL Radio mix, I kept looking at all the music I’ve gravitated towards to lately, and all of it was seemed joyful. So I thought: “there’s something…
Nokko (のっこ): I Will Catch U. (アイ・ウィル・キャッチ・ユー) (1993)

2023/04/14

Much like y’all, I’m apt to “feel the room”. And my friends, it’s awfully nice outside. I’m peering outside: the sun shining, flowers bloomin’ crazy, and life is good. So, I’m scrapping what I originally wanted to write about and feeling something else. I want to hear something upbeat, accessible, and meaningful…I want to share…
Lion Merry (ライオン・メリィ): Don Quixote’s Squire (ドン・キホーテの従者) (1992)

2021/08/13

It’s rare to find someone bridging the gap between Jethro Tull, Marc Bolan’s T-Rex, The Orb, and Toumani Diabate, but it seems this world can support only one Lion Merry. Simply scroll down to the bottom of this post, past the download link, and know that I could have easily gone into multiple rows to…
Lotus (ロータス): Kasumi Experience (1996)

2021/08/06

And now: more of something I wish there was more history to share about — Lotus Kasumi Experience. It’s that kind of a week. Losing and then regaining an old hard drive — thanks, again, everyone! — sometimes yields unexpected surprises. Case in point, the album listed in the headline.
EPO: Fire & Snow (1991)

2020/04/03

Next, in my continuing series of the redemptive power of house music, I take a look at EPO’s Fire & Snow. I’m half-joking, of course. However, EPO’s Fire & Snow is one of those hidden full album burners that sounds like an anomaly in someone’s discography but has that sound made for them. We had…
Ivan Cattaneo: Il Cuore É Nudo… E I Pesci Cantano (1992)

2020/03/31

Some of my favorite albums are those like the one I’ll be sharing today by Bergamo’s own iconic Ivan Cattaneo. Il Cuore É Nudo… E I Pesci Cantano (or The Heart Is Naked… And The Fish Sing) proves again that some of our best work is done when we stop putting in front all sorts…
POiSON GiRL FRiEND: Love Me (1994)

2020/03/06

Truth be told: I really had trouble deciding to share this album with you, fair reader. One of my many goals for this blog is to move away from the well-worn stereotype/trope of the “female musician”. However, staring right in front of me (and you now) is exactly what one associates that being by pigheaded…
Mekong Zoo: Minimal Dance (1995)

2019/02/26

Let’s do things recursively. Mekong Zoo’s Minimal Dance is exactly as its written — dance music with minimal gestures. Minimal Dance is the unlikely collaboration between two quietly pioneering Japanese female musicians and another intriguing one from England. A hybrid mix of world music, jazz, ambient, neoclassical, and burgeoning techno, it’s piece together all these…