Recent listens

Roadie Joined: 25 May 2004 Posts: 58

cloudberry sounds like a verry small fart.

ala dingle.

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:20 pm

These two records have been seeing massive playing time with me recently:

The Voyage - Sleep Walker
A Japanese quartet featuring two former members of Mondo Grosso. This is all live instruments though. Two of the tracks feature vocals (the Swedish singer who pnyxtr posted about a page or two ago Yukimi Nagano sings in one, and some lady called Bembe Segue sings in the other), and both are good, but I prefer the instrumentals. Oh yeah, and one track features a sax duet with Pharaoh Sanders. They're a lot smoother than some of the more frenetic jazz acts that are popular over here (Pe'z, Soil & "Pimp" Sessions) but holy fucking hell, I am totally addicted to this shit. Terrific musicianship (though that's to be expected from a top rate jazz band), with driving rhythms and inspired solos. I need to see these guys live.

Stand Up - Blue King Brown
An Australian band. I assume they have a pretty good following in their home country, and they're finally starting to draw some attention here in Japan as well. Funk and reggae seem to be the two main pillars of their music, though they're all over the place really. The singer just oozes charisma and excellent musicianship all around from the rest of the band. They also win extra points from me for having a percussionist in addition to a drummer. Will definitely see them when they come to Tokyo in May.

Amateur Musician Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 197

I've been listening to Feist - The Reminder recently. It's a grower. Some of the tracks sound like covers of Johnny Cash tracks with alternatively haunting blissfull vocals. It's very relaxing, except when it's not.
I don't know if I'll continue to think that it's not as good as her earlier stuff, because each time I hear it it seems to get better.

Fan Boy Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 4 Location: iowa city

Frikki wrote:

Boris & Michio Kurihara - Rainbow
Everything I hoped for and more. Crazy psychedelic guitar provided by Michio Kurihara only adds to the wealth of sound produced by Boris.
Standout track to me is Rafflesia which feels like riding your bike down a rabbithole of guitar from all sides, especially if you happen to be riding a bike downhill and have nice headphones when listening.
The release party is on the 4. of february in shimotizawa, shelter if anyone happens to be in the area and want to go.

great album. every new boris record is such a nice surprise and twist to their previous efforts. i cant wait for the vinyl to drop. how was the release party? i havent seen boris live before, but hopefully ill be able to catch them with sunn o))) in may when i get to japan.

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:24 pm

Boris is fucking great live. I saw them in a pizza parlor with about 40 other people in the middle of nowhere last year and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. The guitarist and bassist don't really do much but the drummer is a total madman, he keeps stepping off the drums to hit this huge gong and demands everyone's hands up in the air throwing the horns before he'll play the next song... It was insanely fun because everyone there was nuts for them, but it wasn't crowded at all. I doubt I'll ever be able to see them under better circumstances, though.

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:44 pm

stephen wrote:

Boris is fucking great live. I saw them in a pizza parlor with about 40 other people in the middle of nowhere last year and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

What? I thought they were huge stars over there. Don't they sell out stadiums?

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:13 pm

There is no stadium in Visalia, CA, the next biggest place is a pizza parlor.

Fan Boy Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 29 Location: transit

i missed the boris release concert due to intense, dire poverty so that sucked

but plan to raise my spirits by seeing 2manydjs play in womb next weekend and possibly doing fun mildly illegal things in disneyland while there.

also, summer, since i'll be in tokyo from wednesday on until monday maybe or so, is there anything worth seeing, doing, whatevering in tokyo that i might be oblivious to?

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:47 pm

65daysofstatic at the Shibuya Club Quattro on Sunday. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about the show until too late, so I'll be seeing another act instead (Yoeko Kurahashi, if you care to know). But damn I wanted to see 65dos. I missed them the last time they were in Japan too.

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:13 pm

pnyxtr wrote:

Ho ho. I (and everyone else here, probably) had completely managed to forget about [Cloudberry Jam]. Might have something to do with the fact that that name sounds completely stupid to us. Though the jam it comes from is tasty, you should try it some time.

Ironically, Hello Saferide is playing here next month as the opening act for Cloudberry Jam. The show's on a weekend so I'd go, except I'm not sure if I want to pay 5,500 yen for a set that will likely be no longer than 30 minutes...

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

This isn't really about anything I've listened to, but I just managed to snag an invite to Oink, and shit I think it's going to get me listening to a lot more music now, as well as possibly buying more CD's (just as how ADC has got me watching more movies than before)

myanimelist profile · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 3:43 pm

Justice - †
Yes, that's the name of the album (and no this isn't christian rock).
NE-wayz; awesome stuff and I'm glad they finally have a full album out after a TON of insane remixes.

Fan Boy Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 29 Location: transit

well, if someone's going to start writing about electro stuff i guess i'll have to follow up

Simian Mobile Disco - attack decay sustain release

pretty much all stuff you'd have heard before if you know them, radioversions of singles but also some awesome new stuff (new to me at least) such as wooden which sounds oldschool like hell and rocks a lot

Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions

Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars, Mark E. Smith is old, Mouse on Mars are pretty avant garde, sounds a lot like that ghostigital thing the icelandic analogue to Mark and the icelandic analogue to mouse on mars did a couple of years back. Need some more time to decide whether I like this or if it's just some weird nostalgia thing.

Bjork - Volta

Awesome

Digitalism - Idealism

Again, like Simian Mobile Disco already heard most of the stuff but the additions make it worth the time spent downloading it, Pogo is an awesome track with a possible macdonalds reference
that is sweet

Blonde Redhead - 23

Not that I know them too well but this album is the best one of theirs I've heard so far, not really stoked about writing about it but that's not because it's not sweet or anything

Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey Ep

Justifies their second album as notafluke completely awesome, occasionally shoegaze-ish blablabla
summer, you should check this out

Stu Phillips - Knight Rider
Sweet

whatever

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 7:49 am

Do you know if Blonde Redhead is supposed to be a DNA reference? I just ask because DNA has a song called Blonde Redhead, I've never heard the band/musician of that name.

I've been listening to a lot of Michael Nyman's albums lately (last six months or so). Soundtracks from some movies plus various independent projects and an opera of the Tempest.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:57 am

Teenage Bad Girl
If there's one thing the French know, it's good electro music. Another great discovery in a genre which pretty much spurred forth from Daft Punk's Robot Rock; and treading in the footsteps of Justice.