$60.00
Light In The Attic
Various – Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds Of Japan 1980-1988
$60.00
Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.
Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.
These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.
Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating. - Light In The Attic
Label: Light In The Attic – LITA 183 |
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Compilation |
Country: US |
Released: 22 Jan 2021 |
Genre: Electronic |
Style: Ambient, Minimal, Dark Ambient |
$45.00
Inspired by John Cage, Jon Hassel, Brian Eno, and the emergence of house and techno music, Technodrome is jazz bassist turned electronic experimentalist Motohiko Hamase’s foray into what he calls ambient house or, as he explains, "using the gritty sensation inherent to the core of house music" to create an ambient record "aiming to express inverted images, optical illusions, and the sense of déjà vu that modern people can get in the city".
Technodrome is constructed around innovative minimalism, a robotic funk orchestrated by bass lines and percussions, and monochrome moods. It’s the most intriguing project in Hamase’s discography, a ghostly ride set in 90s urban landscape, where repetition sets the groove and brings things to life, echoing Hamase’s deeper subtext for his compositions: "and attempt to recreate (as metaphor) the time in our mother's womb".
The album was initially released in 1993 by Newsic, the cult label started by Tokyo’s Wacoal Art Center (also known as Spiral), home, notably, of Yoshio Ojima who co-produced the album. It is now reissued in conjunction with Motohiko Hamase’s #Notes of Forestry and Anecdote albums – Bandcamp | WRWTFWW
Label: We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records – WRWTFWW035 |
Series: Esplanade Series – ESPLANADE_04 |
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue |
Country: Switzerland |
Released: 29 May 2020 |
Genre: Electronic, Classical |
Style: Modern Classical, Experimental, Minimal, Ambient |
$45.00
Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru’s fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance…), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early 80s’ Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore sounds in the comfort of their home, free from studio time pressure and major label rules.
Entirely imagined and brought to life by an inspired Yukio Fujimoto, the 6-track opus was conceived with a Korg MS-20, a Korg SQ-10, a Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55, and…a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell! It’s elegantly minimalist, honest and witty, very playful, cleverly pop, and downright fascinating. The a-side captures the fun side of avant-garde electronica, lo-fi wave, proto-glitch, and IDM, a joyful ride beautifully interrupted by the cinematic mood switch of the b-side - a 20 minute ambient piece flirting with sci-fi, melancholy, and hints of metallic darkness. Unclassifiable and marvelous! – Bandcamp
More from the label We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records
Label: We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records – WRWTFWW029 |
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue |
Country: Switzerland |
Released: 08 Mar 2019 |
Genre: Electronic, Rock |
Style: Minimal, Experimental, Ambient, Avantgarde |
$60.00
Bing & Ruth’s music exists in the cracks between. Project leader David Moore has a degree in music and his earlier compositions, found on the 2010 album City Lake, can have the air of the conservatory. So it makes some sense to slot his work in with contemporary classical. But the era of classical music Moore most frequently evokes—the trance-inducing minimalism of the 1960s and ’70s—has at times been filed as new age. And divisions between *that *genre and the more critically acceptable sphere of “ambient,” a word that sometimes describes Bing & Ruth, have always been porous. Beyond these labels, Bing & Ruth is also hard to pin functionally. Moore’s pieces can feel formal, less like “environments” and more like compositions that need to be tracked carefully over their duration to be understood. Though he’s made music for an ensemble that includes woodwinds and strings, Moore also includes processed tapes and production choices that smudge the lines between acoustic and electronic music.
On City Lake and 2014’s Tomorrow Was the Golden Age, Moore’s music evoked the best of what had come before him—Philip Glass’ repetition, the emotional shading of Max Richter, Eluvium’s comfort with rock dynamics—but he’s steadily grown into a sound that feels all his own. No Home of the Mind, his third proper album and first for 4AD, is his most distinctive record yet. His working group is still here, but the arrangements on *No Home *feature Moore’s piano much more prominently, and it’s a more focused record. If City Lake and Tomorrow sometimes found him moving between established styles, demonstrating wide-ranging mastery because he can, the new album stays focused on wringing as much feeling as possible out of narrower terrain. And No Home of the Mind is the earthiest Bing & Ruth record yet. You can smell the sweat that went into it. – Pitchfork
Label: 4AD – 73706-1 |
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album |
Country: US |
Released: 17 Feb 2017 |
Genre: Classical |
Style: Ambient, Minimal, Neo-Classical, New Age |
$48.00
Piergiuseppe Ciranna & Alessandro Pizzin first conceived the "Sound and Image Research" series back in the early '80s, when they were involved in various multimedia projects in art galleries and unique exhibition spaces across Italy. In 1984 Ciranna and Pizzin came across the works of Italian artist Luigi Viola, a painter whose work was already known internationally and who was active in galleries worldwide. When the opportunity arose for the three to come together it quite naturally led to the creation and production of the album Marea/Tide; a record not only inspired by the work of Viola but evolved in symbiosis. It was to be the first and sadly the only volume in Ruins’ “Sound Image Series”.
‘Marea/Tide’ was released in early autumn 1984 and showcased on November 24th of the same year at an exciting one-off event, alongside exhibitions of the works and listening sessions at the well-known Villa Sagredo in Venice. Further showcases were performed at galleries across Italy by the duo alongside Viola’s art. The records, for the large part, being available solely at those events. – Music From Memory
Label: Music From Memory – MFM043 |
Format: Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Reissue |
Vinyl, 7” |
Country: Netherlands |
Released: 14 Oct 2019 |
Genre: Electronic |
Style: Experimental, Minimal |