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Power can manifest itself in many ways. Power isn’t always in the density of something but in the lightness of it. Kenji Omura’s spirited take on funk, sophisticated pop, and so many other smooth genres comes together into one powerful album: Gaijin Heaven. The late, great Kenji Omura, one time or some time YMO guitarist,…
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Heady, windswept, gauzy saudade that could only come from someone like Sonia Angelica De Carvalho Rosa, are things that don’t quite reveal themselves when you hear Samba Amour. Sonia Rosa had an unlikely musical career. Although she was born in São Paulo, Brazil it wasn’t there where’d she stake her claim to fame. A precocious child, she taught herself Joao Gilberto’s songs when…
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Funk can sometimes come from the unlikeliest of places. Take for example: Hollywood. Hollywood, and America’s West Coast one could argue, has always been a haven for all sorts of groove maestros…but Tallinn, Estonia? Estonia, that’s where the creators of Zuke hail from. From an ex-Soviet country that barely has a record industry one would be hard-pressed to…
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ven in the dead of the winter, this sunlit EP of Italian Pop can break through any forecast. One of my favorite finds of the year was this brief, but spectacular, EP by Bolognese musician Mario Acquaviva. What’s in Mario Acquaviva? Its eighteen masterful minutes of ruminative springtime Mediterranean piano pop mixed with all sorts of found…
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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…
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What’s there to say about an unheralded classic? The origin story is already there for the taking: in 1972, fresh of recording their revolutionary Kazemachi Roman, pioneering Japanese band led by musical visionaries like Haruomi Hosono, Eiichi Ohtaki, and Shigeru Suzuki, travel to Los Angeles in hopes of recording an album more in tune with a huge source…
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There’s smooth jazz, then there’s: Smooth Jazz. Chicago-native, and Art Institute alumnus, John Klemmer, thankfully, belongs to that of the latter kind. In the ’70s, he was primarily known as the go-to sax session man for all sorts of Rock and Pop musicians looking to dip their toes into a jazzy sound. What set John apart from most…
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Dire Straits 1979 Before I attempt to present a quasi-Southern journey through the good ole USA, I’d like to stick just a tiny bit more in England, London specifically. From London, hails one of the greatest purveyors of down home open road rock music, Mr. Mark Knopfler. Seemingly, the mutant musical offspring of JJ Cale,…
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Man, my urge to rock out lately has been close to nil. As much as I love it, a lot of it just seems so out of place to play right now. I’ve been more into laid-back and dance oriented tunes lately. I guess, the best thing to do is roll with this urge and…
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One of my greatest pleasures in life is waking up to a cool, gentle breeze. Today has been glorious so far in that aspect. I know, I’m projecting some stasis by sticking around with breezy songs lately but eh, I’m enjoying this laid back time now and I hope these songs, if for a bit,…
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