May 25, 2006

News | Teen Dance Music now on Emusic |

The classic thrift shop bootleg of way-out Asian a go go is now available for download at Emusic. If you're not hip to this must-have collection, here's a description from my 2004 review:

"The Mao Sound at its grooviest--happenin' beats, craaazy farfisa organ sounds, surf guitar and plenty of Spy and Morricone influences. It's a cultural collision of Latin percussion, 60's pop and occasional Chinese touches and melodies. If Bruce Lee met James Bond for a showdown in the Spaghetti desert, this would be the soundtrack."

May 24, 2006

I'm Not a Gun | We Think as Instruments |City Centre Offices | Japan

buy it
There’s a song on the recent third release by I’m Not a Gun called “A Letter From the Past.” This would have been a good title for the entire album. Presumably in an effort to forestall reviews such as this one, its release information calls the duo “a project for which the worn-out post-Chicago metaphor never worked and will be officially buried by the remaining few, once they’re listened to this album.” Yet while listening to We Think as Instruments (and prior to reading the preceding blurb) I thought endlessly of Chicago post-rock bands. Hell, I even thought of Chicago post-rock bands I’ve been in. It’s not a metaphor, just a spot-on resemblance.

There have been many others who sailed into the mellow triangle between jazz, rock and electronica, where the tastefully modulated drums and sophisticated, enigmatic chord progressions found in John Tejada and Takeshi Nishimoto’s music ripple and swell. Tejada and Nishimoto sail these waters exquisitely. But whether they admit it or not, I’m Not a Gun capably plays within a tradition that’s a decade old at this point—make that almost four decades if we place post-rock within the jazz fusion/prog context in which it probably belongs.

We Think as Instruments will sound sweet in rotation with electronic-based artists like Nightmares on Wax, jazz-based groups such as Tied and Tickled Trio and Chicago post-rockers such as Sea and Cake. It not an mp3 folder I dig into so often any more, but I enjoy it when I do.

To break out of the archives, I'm Not a Gun will have to innovate rather than emulate. Here's hoping their next album is a letter from the future.

May 17, 2006

News | Sublime Frequencies Trailer |

Sublime Frequencies has released a trailer for a forthcoming DVD, PHI TA KHON: GHOSTS OF ISAN, directed by Robert Millis. The video documents a Thai ghost festival SF calls "The Mardi Gras from Hell." Expect a review here when it comes out.

News | Vietnamese Pop circa '66 |

Stuart's got a split 7" from Vietnam available for download at Radiodiffusion this week. Pressed in 1966, this scratchy disc features Duc Minh on one side and Thanh Vu, Hông Phuc & Phuog Bang on the other. These aren't the most memorable tunes in the world, but as Stu points out, you don't get to hear a lot of 60s Vietnamese pop. Cambodia faired much better in that respect.





The mix on the Duc Minh track is really strange--there's a drum that's way louder than anything else on the record. Part of the interest of records like this is imagining the material and social circumstances of their production. A year ago, the excellent recording magazine Tape Op had an article on studio recording in Vietnam today, but that's the only information I've ever seen on the subject.

May 11, 2006

News | J-Pop Will Eat Itself (again) |

The Stylus column J-Pop Will Eat Itself is back, now with a new writer, Teresa Nieman. Last month she kicked things off by writing a short history of Yellow Magic Orchestra and providing a list of her top five YMO songs. It's great to see J-pop back in the esteemed pages of Stylus.

The list should probably come with a warning label that YMO doesn't exactly age like fine wine--or, more pointedly, like Kraftwerk. There was a kitsch element to the Japanese synth legends' act from the get go and time has added another patina of retro kitsch on top of that. I don't say this to detract from the talents of Haroumi Hosono (video, featuring several performance clips) or the genius of Ryuichi Sakamoto (video, many more here). It's simply a fact that many first listen to this foundational-group-in-the-history-of-electronic-music-amen and say, "What the hell?"

Teresa Nieman has also written recently on Shiina Ringo, Koda Kumi and Visual Kei stars Glay.

May 01, 2006

News | 28th Bali Arts Festival June 17 - July 15 |

The island of Bali seems like one big arts festival to begin with--its dance, music, painting and puppetry are enmeshed aspects of the daily life of many Balinese. The addition of an official arts festival on top of all this activity must be something to behold. This year will mark the 28th annual Bali Arts Festival.

The following description is from the official website, which has yet to be updated for this year's festival. I'm not sure what "trances from remote mountain slopes" are, but I'm willing to find out...

The Bali Arts Festival is a full month of daily performances, handicraft exhibitions and other related cultural and commercial activities during which literally the whole of Bali comes to the city to present its offerings of dance, music and beauty. On display are trances from remote mountain slopes, forgotten or recently revived village dances, food and offering contests, classical palace dances, stars of Balinese stage, odd musical performances, "kreasi baru" (new creations) from the dance schools of Denpasar, as well as contemporary choreography and dance companies from other islands and from abroad.