Category Archives: music

Best ♩, ♪, ♫, ♬ of 2018

Apart from a brief but ardent infatuation with Dutch schlager singer André Hazes in April (you don’t want to know 🙂 ), musically the best of 2018 was the discovery of the oeuvre of Hiroshi Yoshimura (1940 – 2003) who worked within Japanese ambient.

I discovered Hiroshi Yoshimura while listening to Birds of Venezuela (1973), an album of bird vocalizations which was re-released this year.

This whole Japanese ambient scene is most weird. There is the super sweet Jamaica ~ Waves And Light And Earth (1993) by Takashi Kokubo, which Discogs classifies as non-music.

In fact, many of these albums seem to have been made as pure background music. Kokubo’s album Get At The Wave (1987) was created for a new line of Sanyo air-conditioners.

Then there is the oddity Watering a Flower (1984) by Haruomi Hosono which was commissioned by Muji as in-store background music. And Hiroshi Yoshimura’s A・I・R (1984) was produced for the makeup and skincare company Shiseido; while his album Surround (1986) was made for playing at the model homes of the Misawa Home corporation.

But the best album is Green (1986) by Hiroshi Yoshimura. Someone remarked that this album is what green sounds like, what plant life sounds like. So soothing, full of natural sounds that have a very relaxing effect.

Enjoy.

RIP Cesare Canevari (1927 – 2012)

Italian director  Cesare Canevari died six years ago but it went unnoticed by me.

I learned of his death yesterday when I landed on Canevari’s Last Orgy of the Third Reich (1977) via Nazi Love Camp 27 (1977). God knows what brought me there.

So this morning I watched Matalo! (1970), the Spaghetti Western directed by Canevari.

It’s a whole lot better than Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot![1] (1967), which I watched this January.

Matalo! sets itself apart by its psychedelic sequences, the silence, the lack of dialogue, the sound effects and the soundtrack by Mario Migliardi.

The full soundtrack is here:

 

RIP Hardy Fox (1945 – 2018)

Hardy Fox was the anonymous primary composer and producer for The Residents.

The Residents are an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works and their composition “Kaw-Liga“.

Kaw-Liga was released in 1986 and is a re-interpretation of the eponymous song by Hank Williams, replacing its original backing music with the bassline of Michael Jackson‘s Billie Jean.

RIP Jerry González (1949 – 2018)

Also dead is Jerry González (1949 – 2018) an American bandleader and trumpeter, known for his work with Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino, a band which only made two albums, both released on disco label Salsoul Records.

I give you “Anabacoa“, a track composed in 1949 but rendered here by Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino in 1975 which was featured on the compilation album Nu Yorica!.

RIP Aretha Franklin (1942 – 2018)

Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter and musician.

Songs such as “Respect“, “Think“, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” and “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” have earned her the label of a feminist singer (if there is such a thing), see black feminismAmerican feminism.

P.S. The ultimate feminist anthem is “Think (About It)” (1972) by Lyn Collins.