[Music] Steve Hogarth & Richard Barbieri – Your Beautiful Face

August 31, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Richard Barbieri never disappoints. From his work in Japan to all of the wonderful projects he’s worked on since, he’s shown to be a thoroughly underrated synth player. There’s always hope he’ll reach a bigger audience.

The surprise here, for me, is Steve Hogarth. I’m not a huge fan of Marillion (at least since old singer Fish left the band in the late ’80s), but really, Hogarth’s voice sounds like a perfect compliment to the electronic underpinning Barbieri provides. A lush work.

This one is dedicated to my Mari, who has given me a year of happiness.

[Music] Ryoji Ikeda – Back in Black

August 29, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Experimental musicians are a funny lot. They put out strange, sometimes stiff, clinical sound experiments. And then Ryoji Ikeda decides to have a laugh and make a static and blip cover of AC/DC‘s seminal classic. Genius.

And thanks to the ever darling Christine Tesla Coil who originally posted this.

[Music] Susumu Yokota Has Died

July 17, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Terrible news from The WIRE. Susumu Yokota, ambient DJ and composer extraordinaire, passed away from complications in March of this year, but the family only recently made a public announcement of his passing.

You can read The WIRE obituary here, as well as notes from FACT Magazine, The Leaf Label and Natalie.mu.

To hear some of Susuma’s work, check out Gekkoh below:

[Video] Seiko Oomori – Midnight Seijun Isei Kouyuu

June 16, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Imagine a hyperactive Strawberry Switchblade doing God-knows-what with Alvin & The Chipmunks, but in a positive way. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Seiko Oomori. She will be huge with just a wee push.

[Video] The 8th Likely Faces – 誰１人愛してくれない (No One Loves Me)

June 6, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

There seems to be absolutely no information on this band except for an entry at their label, Branco Records, out of Japan. This was originally a private pressing, and it reminds me of some soft, hazy, prog-psych, with touches of bands like The Flower Travellin’ Band.

[Video] Bi Kyo Ran – Omoi-Ire

May 29, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

If you could harness a King Crimson-esque rhythm section, violent horns and chanting reminiscent of Magma, you would have Japan’s incredible Bi Kyo Ran. Truly, the love child of Crimson, Magma, and maybe Fela Kuti.

[Article] Phantom of the Orchestra

March 7, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

The New Republic’s Christopher Beam writes on the tragic fraud, Mamoru Samuragochi, and the lie he peddled on being a deaf composer, who was, in fact, neither deaf nor much of a composer, since Takashi Niigaki was really the one doing the composing.

[Video] The Durutti Column – Domo Arigato

February 27, 2015 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

The first live album I was ever blown away by.

When I was attending college in my teen years, I had a good friend, Fish, who had impeccable musical taste. He introduced me to the work of The Durutti Column, and if memory serves me right, this was the record which first turned me on to their oeuvre.

Nearly 30 years later, it still sounds magnificent. Hunt down this album, and hope that Factory will reissue this as a Blu-Ray one day.