Tag: lounge

Guest Mix – Holidays By The Coast by Oscar Huerta Plaza

Guest mix by Oscar Huerta Plaza (Youtube / Radio Aporee), Barcelona

This is a mix of mostly Spanish, Brazilian, and American orchestral pop music, largely from the 60s–cinematic songs that you would want to listen to while driving along a sunny coastline. It also includes some recent field recordings that I did on the Maltese coast, sounds of the mountains in the outskirts of Barcelona, inside the Barcelona subway, the jungles in Puerto Rico, and the mangroves of southern Florida.

Tracklist:
1. Waves in Dwejra Bay at the collapsed Azure Window, Gozo Island, Malta. June sunset 2018

2. Antonio González “El Pescaílla” – Chica de Ipanema
3. Antón García Abril – Sor Citroën
4. Breakwater in l’Escala, Spain. July afternoon 2018
5. Los Stop – El Turista 1.999.999
6. Augusto Algueró – Será El Amor
7. Frogs and a fountain in the Abbey of Montserrat, Spain. July night 2018
8. Henry Mancini – Party Poop
9. Canoeing in the mangroves, outskirts of Hobe Sound, Florida. August evening 2018
10. Papa Topo – Milano
11. Evinha – Estorinha
12. Alfonso Santisteban – Brincadeira
13. Crickets in a night hike by Collserola mountains just before raining, outskirts of Barcelona. July night 2018
14. Elsa Baeza – Dubeque Dublin
15. Antón García Abril – El Turismo Es Un Gran Invento
16. Taking the subway to rehearsal, Barcelona. July evening 2018
17. Alfonso Santisteban – Manías de María
18. Flipper’s Guitar – Coffee-Milk Crazy
19. Wildlife in Toro Negro rainforest, Puerto Rico. August night 2018
20. Me singing a vocal harmony
21. Le Mans – H.E.L.L.O.
22. Cicadas in Devil’s Millhopper, Gainesville, Florida; and weather forecast in Spain. August evening 2018
23. Marcos Valle – Êle E Ela
24. Stereolab – Miss Modular
25. ユキとヒデ (Yuki & Hide) – 白い波 (White Waves)
26. Los Mismos – Puente A Mallorca

Sally Oldfield – Celebration, 1980

Such a cool record. There’s a lot here for Kate Bush fans: expertly written bombastic and theatrical piano-driven pop-rock. A prolific songwriter, pianist, and singer, Oldfield has an excellent sensitivity to groove, which shows up on Celebration as driving four-on-the-floor disco in opener “Mandala,” breezy reggae-lite on “Celebration,” and tropical lounge-jazz on stunner “Blue Water” (it’s previewed below; wait for the break about four minutes in–I promise you’ll be glad you did). Smoldering sunset slow-jams like “Morning of My Life” and closer “Love Is Everywhere” are too gut-wrenching and powerful to read as saccharine piano ballads, even though that’s sort of what they are–she’s just that good. Marked by her signature restless vibrato, Oldfield’s voice is a daredevil, taking acrobatic leaps and jumps effortlessly, but with a distinctive conviction in every choice she makes.

Sally Oldfield is also sister to Mike Oldfield, with whom she made a very renn fayre-core baroque folk record in 1968 overseen by Mick Jagger under the name The Sallyangie, recorded when she was 21 and Mike was just 15. The project was a complete flop, so obviously I completely love it. Since then, her solo catalogue has grown enough that I still haven’t heard quite a bit of it–a few years ago I had a bad time with one of her records and never bothered to venture further into her work after that, but Peter (thanks Peter) recently encouraged me to give her another shot, and I’m so glad he did. Since then I’ve also developed crushes on her swooning Celebration follow-up Playing In The Flame, which will probably show up here eventually, and her late 80s record Femme, which, given its massive stadium pop-rock quality, probably won’t show up here. I’ve also developed a crush on this outfit. I hope there’s something here for you to connect with as well!

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25 Favorite Releases of 2017

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some of my favorite releases of the year. Obviously not exhaustive; just some personal highlights. Quite a few of these are giant major label releases, so I’ll be taking down those download links quickly or leaving them off accordingly. Let me know if links are broken. Happy holidays!

Previously: 2016 | 2015
Alice Coltrane – Divine Songs, 1987
buy comp / download
Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir – Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Vol. 2, 1987
buy / download
Cleaners From Venus – Going To England, 1987
download
David Sylvian – Secrets Of The Beehive, 1987
buy / download
Depeche Mode – Music For The Masses, 1987
buy
dip in the pool & Masahide Sakuma – 黒いドレスの女 OST, 1987
download
Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt & Emmylou Harris – Trio, 1987
buy
Elicoide – Elicoide, 1987
buy / download
Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full, 1987
buy / download
Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle – Baby Wants To Ride/Your Love, 1987
buy
Geoffrey Landers – Many Hands Make Light, 1987
buy
George Michael – Faith, 1987
buy
Haruomi Hosono – The Tale Of Genji, 1987
download
Ichiko Hashimoto – Mood Music, 1987
download
Isabelle Antena – Hoping For Love, 1987
buy / download
Laraaji – Essence/Universe, 1987
buy / download
Masahiro Sugaya – Music From Alejo, 1987
download
Meredith Monk – Do You Be, 1987
buy / download
Michael Jackson – Bad, 1987
buy
Pet Shop Boys – Actually, 1987
buy
Phuture – Acid Tracks, 1987
buy / download
Pizzicato Five – Pizzicatomania, 1987
download
Prince – Sign O’ The Times, 1987
buy
Sinead O’Connor – The Lion And The Cobra, 1987
buy
Yasuaki Shimizu – Music For Commercials, 1987
buy / download

 

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 19

Here’s my most recent episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. It sort of feels like a continuation of last month’s mix–slinky, flirty, loungey, and never picking up too much speed. I recently revisited Dusty Springfield’s version of “Spooky” in headphones, and while I’ve been a longtime fan of hers, I was particularly floored by her vocal quality and intonation, so that was the jumping-off point here. I hope you like it! You can download an mp3 version here.

Tracklist:
1. World Standard – Pasio
2. Frank Harris & Maria Marquez – Campesina
3. Miharu Koshi – Tohboh-Sha
4. Yves Tumor – The Feeling When You Walk Away
5. Dusty Springfield – Spooky
6. Márta Sebestyén & Levente Szörényi – András
7. Karin Krog – Just Holding On
8. Quarteto Em Cy – Caminho De Pedra
9. Lena d’Água – Tão
10. Fred Manda – Cartoon In Kartoum
11. Patrice Rushen – Let Your Heart Be Free
12. Solange (no, not that Solange) – Quero Um Baby Seu
13. Gal Costa – Baby
14. Nora Guthrie – Home Before Dark
15. Hiroyuki Namba – Hiru No Yume

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 18

Here’s my latest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. This one’s a bit loungey-slinky, with some some funk and new wave. If you like it, you can download an mp3 version of it here.

Tracklist:
1. Spectors Three – I Really Do
2. Ichiko Hashimoto – Poinciana
3. Geoffrey Landers – Say You’ll Say So
4. Akofa Akoussah – I Tcho Tchass
5. Imitation – Watashi No Suki Na Kuni
6. Alessi Brothers – Seabird
7. Barbara Marchand – I Whisper Roll Over
8. The Jellies – Jive Baby On A Saturday Night
9. Letta Mbulu – Nomalizo
10. Maria Kozic & The MK Sound – Trust Me
11. David Astri – Safe And Sound
12. Angelo Badalamenti – The Bookhouse Boys
13. Cocteau Twins – Lazy Calm
14. Minako Ito – 一年ののち

Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki & Tatsuro Yamashita – Pacific, 1978

A classic. While Hosono needs no introduction around here, I’m realizing that Tatsuro Yamashita has perhaps not been given enough air time. For the unfamiliar, Yamashita is iconic in his own right, not just because of his classic Japanese Christmas favorite “Christmas Eve” or his enormous output but also because of his signature early-80’s take on a wall-of-sound expansiveness crossed with a deep love for the Beach Boys, relentlessly clever songwriting, and of course, mirror-polished synth programming. Shigeru Suzuki is perhaps best known for his work with Happy End and Tin Pan Alley, and is also a wildly prolific session musician, who’s contributed to over 588 recordings as of 2006.

Which brings us to Pacific, for which each track was composed by one of the above three. It also includes plenty of of contributions from–you guessed it–Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi. Though YMO’s self-titled debut was also released in 1978, from what I understand Pacific came first, and feels very akin to much of the exotica and fusion that Hosono had already been fixated on across several projects. Still, Pacific is clearly the product of a handful of masterminds having fun together: its unabashed tropical nostalgia acts as a jumping off point for flitting between genres (lounge, funk, disco, rhumba, smooth jazz, Latin fusion, synth pop), all delivered in full-color with jaunty, winking songwriting.

Even with vaporwave and its kitsch-scraping genre contemporaries behind us, Pacific holds up as well as ever. It’s only in closer “Cosmic Surfin'” that we get a taste of the more hard-edged, crunchy electro that became YMO’s signature sound, and fittingly, a different version of the song went on to appear on YMO’s debut the same year. I highly recommend listening to this as much as possible before fall rolls around.

buy / download

Il Guardiano del Faro – Domani, 1977

Il Guardiano del Faro (“the lighthouse keeper”), aka Federico Monti Arduini, was a very prolific Italian musician, composer, and producer who was credited as an early adopter of the Moog synthesizer. Despite having had a slew of best-selling songs in Italy, there’s very little information available about him on the internet–I don’t even remember how this wound up in my hands! Really smart orchestral sensibility applied to lush, synthetic space-age smooth jazz fusion. Ideal cheeky retro-futurist bachelor pad soundtrack. Don’t miss the syrupy quavering cover of The Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for You.”

Linda Di Franco – Rise Of The Heart, 1986

Slinky, balearic perfection from Linda Di Franco, who was a DJ in the Turin underground circuit (a scene about which I know absolutely nothing) before releasing Rise Of The Heart, her only full-length. Hard to pick a favorite track, but the unbelievably hard-hitting “TV Scene” has been stuck in my head for years. Her blissed out, bossa-tinged cover of Dusty Springfield’s “The Look of Love” is a peak, as is the tropical jazz anthem “My Boss” (which, oddly, was released in Italy as a 7″ split with Rod Stewart’s “Love Touch”). This isn’t a great quality rip, but it’s the best I could find as the record is way out of print. If anyone has a better copy they’d like to share, let me know! For fans of Antena, Brenda Ray, Sade, and Gina X Performance.