Never been a fan of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Have you checked out the careers of its individual members? Takahashi has a ridiculously large discography of music that owes a lot to the style of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Sakamoto has done a lot with the piano since then too. One of my favourite songs of all time was made when these two came together in a remix of Fatalism by Massive Attack. It's not for everyone but see what you think.
i've heard quite a bit of takahashi's solo work but i haven't listened to sakamoto at all yet. this video has made me prioritize listening to him. the massive attack remix is interesting, i'm not a big fan of massive attack proper but i'm appreciating this song just to hear how they interpret massive attack's style.
late to the party but i've been listening non stop to what i call watered down white boy soul-blues. namely Sam Smith and Hozier.
Think it's the weather, but I've had to listen to this song every day this week: (nevermind the embarrassing visuals.) Stevens is pretty well-worn territory, but this song remains incredible. Inauspicious folksy beginning stumbles into a fantastic, undeniable pocket and just builds and builds. Weird stuttered phrasing punctuated by piecemeal exclamations from the backing choir and wordless ecstatic howls from Stevens. Nice contrast between the relatively un-effected, dead-center focus of the lead vox and the wide stereo-panned, reverb-drenched expanse of the backing vox. Put it together with the goofy lyrics and you get a fantastic sense of space, time period and social context. Song makes me want to bop down the street, and I'm not generally given to bopping anywhere, public or private. Fantastic.
Let's see if anyone likes the noise I've been listening to. Wolfgang Voigt has got an upcoming album, so I've been listening to his stuff. I find Rückverzauberung 6.3, for example, really, really moving (as long as you've paused it by 12:05 because the pikey uploader decided to add a video of a bomb detonating). Been listening to Bong-Ra after hearing him remix a song by Eprom. Also Calibre when I've felt like something to relax too. Finally, Jungle's debut album Jungle has made a big splash in the UK. I'm not sure how much exposure it's getting elsewhere, but it's so funky. Definitely an album I could recommend to absolutely anyone. Other highlights on it include Busy Earnin', Julia, and Time.
I mentioned to flaggamuffin yesterday that I've been meaning to post this in the weekly music thread. Right now I can't get enough of Electric Citizen. I saw them open for the Cult (who they handily put to shame) and we were playing the game of what old school bands to you hear in their music. Everything from Deep Purple to Sabbath to Heart. A pretty heavy groove. Also, I was digging all of their album covers at the mercy booth and got to talking with the guy. Turns out that one of my favorite artists that does a lot of band art, Neil Krug did them, which made instant sense once he told me that. I guess he's pretty expensive but he digs them so much he did all their stuff for free.