art pop

  • 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…

  • With the recent passing of the late, great Jon Hassell, I think it’s important to break down something worthwhile he’d be proud of playing a role in: Francesco Paladino’s Eroi A Rio. Twelve tracks. If to be believed, inspired by a vivid dream Francesco had where he recorded a concert held in 1993 at the…

  • Don’t you just love albums that immediately hook you in? From the get-go 秋月 (Music From Autumn Moon) by Tats Lau Yee-Tat is music with a palpable “it” feeling you can never quite shake. Ostensibly a soundtrack album for Clara Law’s misunderstood film, Qiu Yue, this release functions more than that, perfectly capturing the worldly…

  • Spell-binding. I hate to use that term but what else can you use to describe Nachiko Tateoka’s 1980 debut, 1st – 薬屋の娘 (or The Daughter of a Pharmacist)? An engrossing, hypnotic, melange of vanguard Japanese pop music treating you to ideas gleaned from spiritual jazz, homegrown folk, psychedelia, and next-gen avant prog, seemed the unlikeliest…

  • Nothing lasts forever? If there’s any hope in our current situation, is that all things must end (somehow, some way). Just last year I created a mix touching on music that paid a huge respect to its spiritual leanings. “The Coat Of Many Colors” tried to link our connection with the universal hymn one can…

  • Just more music for “in between seasons”. What else can you say to describe the latter-day work of, sadly, now defunct, Portuguese sophisticated pop group, Ban? As I put on their Mundo de Aventuras it’s not hard to have your mind race back to more naive times when certain love songs spoke to youthful measures…

  • Once again, I’m back to my favorite kind of song: the love song. But not just any kind of love song. For this hour-long mix for LYL Radio I decided to explore songs that zero in on the range that (justifiably) make us the most anxious — it’s those imbued with feelings of lust, seduction,…

  • The more I burrow down rabbit holes, the more I realize music has interesting ways of making (seemingly) strange bedfellows work best together. Case in point: Fania Miñaur’s all too brief career and this album, Deja Hablar Al Tiempo. 

  • I’ve gotta admit. Few albums stump me to describe. Of the few that do, AQ! Ishii’s and Hiroko Taniyama’s 楠劇場 オリジナル・アルバム (Kusunoki Gekijou) must be up there in my personal canon. Much like Mariah’s うたかたの日々/ Utakata No Hibi, Aragon’s self-titled debut, and Godley & Creme’s Consequences, to name a few close brethren, so too does…

  • It goes without saying that this is the silly season for me. While I would like to drop reams upon reams of knowledge on the ins and outs of Ms. Mio Takaki and her New-Tant, unfortunately, I have less time than normal to do so but I’ll do my best. As for those who appreciate…

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