jazz
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Much like many of you, once you’re done catching up with Maya Hayashi’s life, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: glad she made it out the other end. Before her current career as a farmer and television personality, Maya had a quite short but very memorable career as a model turned singer, culminating…
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When I listen to Harumi Kitagawa’s Love & Flowers, I’m instantly transported to what I love about music. It’s its ability to show maturity in a way that is simply mature. Coded in phrasing, couched in a certain sophistication, one can be “adult” without falling for the adult trappings of trying to compete with youth.
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To quote a famous repartee: “Nevertheless, she persisted.” If one could attach a north star to Kay Huang (黃韻玲), it would be that – a persistence that paid off, showing the mettle she’s made of. With fall hovering in the air, and just days past its recent reissue and Kay’s birthday, let’s revisit (or more…
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If you can, allow me one more diversion for the year. In my last post, I finally found words to describe what was my album of the year for 2022. Now I’m cycling back to an album that truly lingered in my headspace just as long this past year, 2023. It’s an album marked by…
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As a writer, I try to remain as objective as possible and not inject too much of myself into what I review. Yet, as we all know, it’s impossible to completely divorce yourself from a reality: music hits differently. How any piece of music affects you has to be informed by the contours that shape…
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With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought I’d share an album that’s one of those perfect mood makers. I’ve often said this: “I love love songs.” Most of my most treasured albums, songs, and mixes hover around that whole idea, “What is love?” And in today’s case, in Yoshiro Nakamura’s Literário it’s when does our…
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Out of all the things I remember about my time in Japan, funny enough, one thing I can’t seem to forget is this: just how “French” so many things are. Walking down the street, shopping around, looking for a bite to eat (or just a place to relax), more often than not, you’re bound to…
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As the year begins to draw to a close, my mind goes back to some of the people we lost this year. I’m thinking of artist’s artists like Alan Rankine, Pharoah Sanders, Tina Turner, and YMO greats (like the sorely missed Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi). In this year full of great loss, at the…
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I don’t know about you but for me certain albums are colored by memory. Whenever I put on Ricardo Fabini’s Cidade De Cristal it brings me back to a certain difficult time I had to go through. On those days where I felt a bit aimless, a bit withdrawn, all over the place – yet…
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I know some have posted this question to me before: “How do you pick what to share on the site?” I wish the answer was easier than: “vibes”. Yet, sometimes it’s not even that. Sometimes, it could be something far more ordinary, and dare I say, less placeable. It could be just one song that,…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist Mix neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic