Tag: china

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 60

My newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio is meant to evoke the mania that I feel every fall, though this year it feels even moreso. I tend not to listen to as much music in the summer, but as soon as the temperature starts to drop music feels much more compelling to me, much more intense and moving and somehow adjacent to my impulse to “burrow.” Lots of things in here that I really love, so I hope you do too–and you can download an mp3 version here. Flyer photo by Georgia Hilmer.

Tracklist:
1. Frank Sinatra – Nature Boy
2. Travesía – En Este Momento
3. Yo La Tengo – You Can Have It All
4. Faye Wong – 天使
5. Barbara Lewis – Hello Stranger
6. Holger Czukay – Persian Love
7. Aretha Franklin – Bridge Over Troubled Water (Long Version)
8. Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Perpetuum Mobile
9. Jane Siberry – The Lobby
10. Beat Happening – Godsend
11. John Prine – Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
12. The Roches – Losing True
13.  Brian Eno & John Cale – Spinning Away

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 55

Here’s my most recent episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. It’s a mix that, to me, feels very adjacent to this particularly weird moment we in the states are going through: euphoric, uncertain, sweet, stumbling. Lots of psychy folky moments with a couple shots of adrenaline and some new age haze for good measure. If you like it, you can download an mp3 version here. Thanks as always for listening.

1. Kristine Sparkle – Gonna Get Along Without You Now
2. 包美聖 – 小茉莉 (Little Jasmine)
3. Daniel Lentz – Slow Motion Mirror
4. The Association – Never My Love
5. Jeannie Piersol – Your Sweet Inner Self
6. Frank Harris & Maria Marquez – Loveroom
7. XTC – Earn Enough For Us
8. Pyewackett – Reynardine
9. Clannad – Ocean of Light
10. The Fleetwoods – Mr. Blue
11. Joan Armatrading – Willow
12. Bluebyrd – In The Morning Light
13. Steve Kindler – Song of the Seabird
14. Collage – Mets Neiude Vahel (Forest In Between The Maidens)
15. Gigi – Guramayle
16. Tina Turner – River Deep Mountain High

[Mix for Blowing Up The Workshop] #73

Honored to contribute a mix to Blowing Up The Workshop, which is a very useful archive of mixtapes including many from my own musical and curatorial heroes. I was thinking about escapism, cinematic déjà vu, anime soundtracks, hyper-optimistic fantasy about the experience of tourism, courtyards, commercials, and ruins as I put this together. If you like it, you can download it here. Thanks for listening!

Tracklist:
1. Jun Miyake – Good Morning Yamanashi
2. Giovanni Venosta – Woman In Late
3. Lena D’Água – Tao
4. Nuno Canavarro – Untitled 8
5. Forrest Fang – The Luminous Crowd
6. Einojuhani Rautavaara – Cantus Arcticus I: Melancholy
7. Kurban – Masto A Iran
8. Maria Marquez & Frank Harris – Canto Del Pilon
9. Iury Lech – Barreras
10. Marcel Pérès & Ensemble Organum – Offertoire “Diffusa Est Gratia In Labiis Tuis” (comp. Machaut)
11. Masami Tsuchiya – Never Mind
12. Pale Cocoon – Sora
13. Connie Francis – Siboney
14. Kenji Kawai – Nightstalker
15. Jansen / Barbieri – Breaking The Silence
16. Hiroko Yakushimaru – Tomeina Churippu

Kenji Kawai – Ghost In The Shell, 1995

A few days ago, poor Steve Aoki revealed his remix of the iconic 攻殻機動隊 (Ghost in the Shell) theme for the forthcoming remake. The remix is the EDM equivalent of trying to embroider lace with a power drill, and incensed anime fans have flooded the comments with rage (as well as with links to the also-iconic theme from the Stand Alone Complex series). Rather than adding further insult to injury, I wanted to share the original soundtrack, as it’s one of the best anime soundtracks (and arguably one of the best soundtracks, period).

To make the aforementioned theme, scoring giant Kenji Kawai combined Bulgarian choral harmonies and traditional Japanese vocal techniques into a wedding song with lyrics in the ancient Japanese language Yamato Kotaba. The theme is repeated in three different variations, all of which should give you goosebumps. The rest of the soundtrack is gorgeous, murky atmospherics: submerged keyboards, sparse taiko, synthetic strings, ominous clanging, a lone (Spanish?) guitar. If you haven’t seen the movie, song titles like “Nightstalker” and “Floating Museum” should be able to paint a sufficient picture. The real curveball is the closer, sometimes listed as a bonus track, which is a bubblegum pop sung in Cantonese. Many reviewers complain about the inclusion of the jarring closer, but I think a slightly psychotic ending makes sense in the context of a movie about fragmented personhood in a cyberpunk dystopia. Bonus round: here’s a very beautiful live performance of the theme.

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 3

Listen to my third episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio below. Zheng, classical guitar, dilruba, harp, violin, piano, tambura, flute, vibraphone, synth, lots of tabla, a bit of drum machine. Mostly instrumental, and hopefully well-suited for background music while working. Made this while it was raining; I think you can hear it. If you like it, you can download an mp3 version here. Enjoy!

Tracklist:
1. Forrest Fang — Meditation
2. Luis Paniagua — Neptuno
3. David Sylvian & Holger Czukay — Flux (A Big, Bright, Colourful World) (Excerpt)
4. Francesco Messina — Fine Novecento
5. Vincenzo Zitello — Nembo Verso Nord
6. Kate Bush — Watching You Without Me
7. Toshifumi Hinata — Sarah’s Crime
8. Satoshi Ashikawa — Still Park Ensemble
9. Yoichiro Yoshikawa — Nube
10. Sth. Notional — Yawn Yawn Yawn

Forrest Fang – The Wolf At The Ruins, 1989

Big, big record. A Chinese-American violinist, Forrest Fang released this and a slew of other records on his own label, Ominous Thud. The Wolf At The Ruins was out of print for twenty years until it was recently remastered by Robert Rich and rereleased on Projekt Records.

I hesitate to call this an ambient record, as it’s dense and busy. Fang calls it a turning point in his sound, through which he began combining sonic palettes and recording methods in novel ways. Between traditional Chinese music, Balinese gamelan, synthetic textures, violin, zheng, yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), bells, Terry Riley-esque tape delay techniques, and polyrhythms, there’s a lot going on here. Cosmic, ambitious, and occasionally gridlike à la Steve Reich, this reaches some incredible highs but arguably does not make for passive listening. Don’t sleep on this one.

The reissue includes two bonus tracks which are very, very good and which I’m not including here in hopes that you’ll buy the album directly from Projekt. Worth it.