Guernica – ‘新世紀への運河 (Canal To The New Century)’ [1988]

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Very Warm

For the uninitiated, I am very happy to present to you one of the wildest records I’ve ever listened to. It’s Guernica, the industrial revolution concept pop band from 1980s Japan, and their record 新世紀への運河, or Canal To The New Century, recorded in 1988.

Right from the start it hits you with a massive sucker punch – it is here where you will either buy in or sell out. The theatrical nature vocals, the mixture of magnificent, overwhelming orchestral arrangements and the sharp shifts in mood… If you aren’t into it from the get-go, you likely won’t find anything noteworthy here. However, I implore you to stick it out, since it will seriously transport you to a world unlike any other.

Later I plan on looking into this album more since it’s so intriguing, but for now I want you to just listen to it. Tell me what you think. The full album is a little over 30 minutes. Just put it on, don’t think about anything else and just let it take you on its weird, hallucinatory, steam-powered journey.

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El Polen – “A Las Orillas Del Vilcanota” [1973]

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Very Warm

El Polen’s fantastic record Fuera De La Ciudad was one of my first worldly discoveries I made while on the hunt for new music and one of the main sparkplugs that has fueled my desire to continue finding buried gold (well, maybe not so buried anymore, but still relatively obscure) and bring it to the surface for friends and the like to enjoy.

El Polen was a psychedelic rock band from Peru who made the record in question on a pilgrimage-esque trip into the Andes, specifically to Cuzco. There they let their hippie freak flag fly and made a record that they felt connected to the more natural setting they found themselves in and tapped into something really special. It feels loose and free, much like a celebration of life and nature. Not only in the personality of the band bleeding through in every track, but in the way the songs are arranged and performed. It all feels balanced: each performer ebbing and flowing with the other. It this was all just a ploy to appear rootsy and connected, they succeeded.

I say it every time I post something here – but this album is really something special. I first heard it in 2012 and I’ve constantly revisited it. Heck, I even bought a CD remaster for $40 that came with a poster and two extra tracks. This album means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy it.

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Yoshiko Sai – “冬の地下道” (Fuyu no Chikadō) [1975]

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Very Warm

More and more gold always coming in from my music mining expeditions of old Japan. If you’re immersed in new music as much as I am, an appropriate RIYL for this would be Weyes Blood. Very similar timbre to their voices and theatric nature to their instrumental.

If I remember correctly from reading this somewhere, I feel like Yoshiko Sai wasn’t a very popular artist in Japan at the time when she was releasing albums. As in, she made these immaculate folk rock records and no one really paid attention to it. We really live in a miraculous time where a music blog like mine, for instance, can find this stuff and repost it to continue its legacy. It’s a great record and again – you can find it on Youtube, probably.

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Software – Digital-Dance LP [1988]

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Very Warm

Youtube has picked up a reputation of unearthing all of these forgotten gems of weird, synth, jazz and pop music that otherwise would have been lost to time. We can see this with Japanese musicians like Midori Takada or Ryo Fukui, which just pops up in certain recommended videos sidebars thanks to Youtube’s mysterious algorithm.

This is a record that it brought me one day and I thought I’d share it here as well. Software is Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser and the record sounds like new age, synth noodling, beneath the waves, in the clouds, one with the soil, floating in the air earthy delight ambient. It’s really all over the place and super engaging to listen to. I can’t recommend it enough. Next time you find yourself in a Youtube hole, try and find something you’ve never seen before. Chances are it’ll be really damn cool.

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Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Mr No One” [2018]

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Very Warm

Black Moth Super Rainbow has a new record, Panic Blooms, coming out in May 4 via their own label Rad Cult. This will be their first proper LP since 2012’s Cobra Juicy, and follows a few b-sides compilations from both BMSR and solo records from band brain master Tobacco.

I’m really excited for this record – no one makes melty grilled cheese psych pop like these folks do, so anything new from them is greatly appreciated. Pre-order the record HERE.

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Djeli Moussa Diawara – “Haidara” [1983]

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Very Warm

Last year I had the pleasure of promoting a record called Ladilikan, from Malian group Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet. It was an incredible mix of strings and traditional African instruments like balafon and kora. This record put me on a hunt for West African music and has led me to this beauty, Yasimika, by Djeli Moussa Diawara (of Guinea). It’s widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of West African music.

The balafon, guitar and kora playing is fleet of foot, whereas the vocals are wide and take up a lot of space – filling up all the little cracks left in the instrumentation. It’s all very beautiful and smooth, despite so many small parts going on at once.

If you’re looking to get into the vibrant, colorful world of African music, this would be a fantastic place to start.

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Ghazal – “Eternity” [2003]

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Very Warm

Wanted to feature more non-western music this month, so here’s the final piece from The Rain, a euphoric, improvised live album featuring kamancheh (Iranian bowed string instrument) player Kayhan Kalhor, sitar player Shujaat Husain Khan and tabla player Sandeep Das, all masters of their art. This is a truly special collaboration.

I can’t quite remember how this record came into my hands, but I’m thankful for whoever recommended it to me. It’s refreshing to hear musicians with such skill working in tandem with one another, especially when the results are this brilliant. The performers know how to tell a story and weave their narratives in amongst the other voices beautifully. There are some great call and response sections in this track, which is one of the reasons I wanted to focus on this one.

Forget all this chill electronic playlist nonsense: this is the perfect type of music to get lost in. To submit yourself to. To bow out of life for a fleeting moment and enter the world that these skilled storytellers have created, all on the fly.

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Dorothy Ashby – “Django” [1984]

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Very Warm

Diving into some jazz here, we find Dorothy Ashby – a Detroit-born jazz harpist. I came across this album through the YT sidebar (per usual) and really liked what I heard. I’m a massive fan of every indie person’s fav harpist, Joanna Newsom, and am slowly diving into the fantastic works of experimental harpist Mary Lattimore. This seemed like an easy choice to post, since it’s not often you come across jazz tunes through harp. I still have the rest of her discography to go through, but I’m happy I started with this one.

Also that cover – DAMN! It’s great and reminded me of the Midori Takada album.

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SOPHIE – “Faceshopping” [2018]

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Very Warm

After this and “Ponyboy”, this upcoming SOPHIE album is looking better and better. This is truly on some out of bounds business.

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Akiko Yano – “いつか王子様が” / “Someday My Prince Will Come” [1981]

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Very Warm

Earlier this year, I made a 50-song mix of Japanese pop and rock music from the 70s and 80s and sent it to a few friends. The first track that almost all of them brought up first as their overwhelming favorite was this one, “いつか王子様が” / “Someday My Prince Will Come” [google translation] off of Akiko Yano’s 1981 album Tadaima. The only negative reaction I got was from a friend that actually had lived in Japan for a bit and found the chanting vocals in the chorus to be intolerable. He was later shut down by other mutual friends who said the track was actually fire and that he’s mad wrong.

Truth be told, this is one of the tamer songs on the record. It’s rather straightforward and doesn’t have any bonkers synth romps like many of the other tracks do. It doesn’t sacrifice any of this brilliant weirdness for anything, though. It’s just really catchy synth pop that’ll get you singing along with little effort. I can see a lot of inspiration for the work of current artists Kate NV in this track, which I respect her madly for. I highly recommend finding the rest of this album (Tadaima) and experiencing it. I know I say this a lot, but it’s very likely you’ve heard nothing like it.

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