SAM GENDEL / INGA2016 Digest

Release Date:
CD, Digital - 10 Dec 2021
LP - 28 Jan 2022

Ⓟ & © 2021 KITCHEN. LABEL

Meitei’s 2020 album 'Kofū' was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018’s 'Kwaidan' and 2019’s 'Komachi'. 

All three albums were Meitei’s attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being washed away – not least by the unforgiving sands of time – through wistful compositions that stretched across ambient music, hauntology, and musique concrete.

When it came to finalizing 'Kofū', Meitei found he was left with over 60 fully realized tracks, bursting with ideas that fired in divergent, curious directions. Meitei was content with the 13 tracks he had selected. But when it came time to begin his next album, he found that it had been sitting in front of him all along.  He realized his work wasn’t over yet. 

Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of 'Kofū II' – a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony.

'Happyaku-yachō' is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field. “My image of this music is that it expresses the vibrant mood of Edo's merchant culture,” says Meitei, “where old Japanese dwellings were densely packed together in a vast expanse of land.” The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate 'Kaworu', a compositional piece lifted from his 'Komachi' sessions – a final requiem to his late grandmother.

The album is bursting with spectral vignettes of wandering samurais, red lanterns, ninjas, puppet theatres, poets, even a vengeful assassin ('Shura Yukihime', known to Western audiences as ‘Lady Snowblood’). 

'Saryō' is as elegant and refined as you would expect. It induces stillness in its repetition, with each synth note a brushstroke. It was inspired by a Sengoku-era tea house he once visited, designed by national icon Sen no Rikyū. Meitei tied it to the reaction he felt while poring over the ink paintings in his grandmother’s house. “The decayed earthen walls and faded tatami mats gave me an emotional impression,” he says. “And the cosmic flow of time drifting in the small room. I decided to put my impression of this into music.”

In 'Akira Kurosawa', an appropriately thunderous track, Meitei finds deep resonance in his vast filmography, which drew equally from Japan’s rich heritage and troubled circumstances post-WWII. 

'Kofū II' is not a leftovers album, nor is it a straightforward companion piece. In this album, Meitei has his biggest reckoning with the Japanese identity yet. Over the years, he has attempted to peel back what he believes has defined Japan and its people. After seeking answers with three full-length albums, his fourth poses more questions. 

If his first three albums inspired a sense of longing – or, perhaps inevitably, fed an irreparable nostalgia doomed to history – Kofū II compels us to reassess our relationship with the past.  

By constantly looking back, are we ever afforded a clearer present? After capturing the “lost Japanese mood”, where does that leave its country in the modern world? Meitei offers no immediate answers with 'Kofū II'. It forces you to sit with its disparate moods, to meditate amidst the textured fragments. 

'Kofū II' will be released in 180g LP, CD and digital format on December 10, 2021 (LP expected to land January 28, 2022) via KITCHEN. LABEL. Both LP and CD format are presented in a debossed sleeve with obi strip and include a 16-page insert with words in Japanese and English from Meitei, printed on premium paper stock with design by KITCHEN. LABEL founder Ricks Ang, and is mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama in Tokyo, Japan.

Kofū II

Meitei - 忍 / Shinobi (Kofū II, 2021)

Patrick Ellis - Rainbow-Gored  (K-LONE Remix)

Back Home

'Hive / In Blue' will be released from U/M/A/A on 5/27 via iTunes Music Store.
More info: yjymusic.com

In Blue (Berlin Spring Remix by Frank Bretschneider)

【Bandcamp】
unknownme.bandcamp.com/album/subtropics

artist : UNKNOWN ME
title : subtropics

label : NOT NOT FUN
catNo : NNF334
format : Cassette & Digital
file under : Ambient/NewAge/Balearic

A-1.Floating People (San Francisco)
A-2.AWA (Buenos Aires) 
A-3.Virgin Forest (Cape Town) 
A-4.traffic (Taipei)

B-1.xiao xiao (Shanghai) 
B-2.Time Practice (New Delhi)
B-3.AGERTA (Sydney) 
B-4.night of subtropical (Okinawa)

UNKNOWN ME=Y(YAKENOHARA)+P(P-RUFF)+H(H.TAKAHASHI)+O(OSAWA YUDAI)

Written and Recorded：UNKNOWN ME (JULY～SEPTEMBER 2016)
B-2 Additional Sound：NYANTORA
Mastering：YAKENOHARA
Artwork：OSAWA YUDAI (Aroe inc.)

A-01 (H+P)
A-02 (P+H+Y)
A-03 (Y+H)
A-04 (Y+P)

B-01 (Y)
B-02 (H+Y+N+P)
B-03 (Y+P)
B-04 (P+H+Y)

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Tokyo trip-ambient unit UNKNOWN ME make transportive vignettes with minimal means: soft-focus static, translucent loops, muted metronomes, field recordings. Comprised of DJ / producer Yakenohara, radloop label boss P-RUFF, electronic texturalist H. Takahashi (Constellation Tatsu, Where To Now?, birdFriend), and art director Osawa Yudai, the group’s sophomore offering, subtropics, furthers the fantasy Zen garden miniatures of their 2016 debut, sunday void. Whereas that collection themed itself as an innerspace voyage of domestic leisure, their latest journeys outward, 
a lucidly dreamed globe-trot across continents, cities, and coastlines. Dazed tones spiral gracefully against hushed backdrops of floating chimes, distant wildlife, and prismatic vapor. These are less songs than spaces, blissed synthetic bio-domes awaiting habitation. Eight illusions of worlds unrealized, pleasures UNKNOWN.

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東京のトリップ・アンビエント・ユニット「UNKOWN ME」が、"ソフトフォーカスされた静寂性、半透明なループ、ミュートされたメトロノーム、フィールド・レコーディング”といったミニマルな手段で、リスナーを快楽の世界へといざなう。

「UNKNOWN ME」は、DJ・プロデューサーのやけのはら、radloopレーベル主宰P-RUFF、Constellation Tatsu、Where To Now?、birdFriendから電子音楽作品をリリースしているH.TAKAHASHI、アート・ディレクターのOsawa Yudaiによって構成されており、グループとして2本目の贈り物である「subtropics」は、かれらの2016年のデビュー作"sunday void”が持つ、ファンタジーな禅庭園のミニチュア的世界観から更に歩を進めている。

前作が国内でのインナー・スペース・トリップをテーマにしている一方で、最新作では、明晰夢的に大陸・街・海岸線を越えて、世界を旅して回る外側に向けた作品となっている。浮遊するチャイム、遠くで聞こえる野生生物の鳴き声、プリズム色の蒸気といった静寂の背景に対し、螺旋状に連なる優雅で幻惑的な音。宇宙ほど大きくなく、居住待ちの至福な人工ビオドームのような曲達。”UNKNOWNな”快楽、未知の世界へいざなう8つのイリュージョン。

Buy Bandcamp

UNKNOWN ME - subtropics (Snippet of Cassette) / NOT NOT FUN (NNF334)

from the LP Sharing Waves out World Wide June 1st

VINYL WAVES NOW SHIPPING:
www.stonesthrow.com/store/album/coo…e/sharing-waves
RIDE THE MARITIME BANDCAMP:
coolmaritime.bandcamp.com/album/sharing-waves

Sean Hellfritsch returns to Leaving Records with his second outing for the label as Cool Maritime. Sean is an active mixed-media visual artist, and modern modular electronic composer living and working in North East Los Angeles with his wife Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. 

Sharing Waves is all-expansive environments, and fully-realized worlds to explore and get lost in. A persistent sense of adventure and excitement is practically baked into the songs, many of them having been recorded in inspiring and remote outdoor locations using a nomadic studio including a "lunchbox" modular system. The narrative flair of this instrumental music comes naturally to Hellfritsch, who is also an accomplished filmmaker. What you hear is musical ideas captured in moments of awe, happiness and inspiration. Although the sounds are largely electronic, the feeling is organic, with lush arrangements that breathe and breaststroke their way gracefully through the open air. Illustrative song titles like "Forest Bathing" and "Secret Caves" evoke inviting landscapes of reflection and resonance. Pristine and glassy droplets of sound pitter over damp and mossy beds of emotional chords and feelings, as escape turns inwards. 

In an interesting contrast to the nature-heavy motif, a number of the tracks on Sharing Waves were the result of a commission to create pieces for a large outdoor plaza in downtown Los Angeles. This dichotomy of nature versus development makes for an interesting fold in these fully realized compositions. As for the album's title, Hellfritsch, who is an inveterate surfer, explains: "Sometimes surfing can be a competitive environment with crowded breaks and not enough waves to go around. The 'right of way' rule is that the first person to catch the wave closest to where it’s breaking gets it. It’s a known rule and everyone expects you to respect it – but the exception to that rule is that friends love to share waves. It’s a joyful experience to be riding this big undulating ripple of water with a pal alongside you. Such a unique moment of fun and connection and excitement that always sticks with me."

Be it in a beautiful natural environment like those of the albums' creation or shut away indoors, Hellfritsch says he'd love for people to experiment with different ways of listening. "My favorite way to listen is laying on the floor in a dark space with some nice speakers. The tape deck in my 1987 Toyota van while driving very slowly along windy, foggy coastal road would be runner up." This idyllic image of a reliable old ride propelling through an endlessly unfolding seaboard perfectly captures the magic and mystery waiting to be found on Sharing Waves. Hellfritsch says, "the biggest thing i learned on this album was to trust my intuition when making music and not spend too much time second guessing myself. Just go for it and have fun!" Tune in with an open mind, and dare to share a wave.

VINYL

Cool Maritime - Climbing Up

エレクトロニカ/ダブ/ジャズのエッセンスをサウンドに注入したバンド“MAS”のリーダーとして長年活動し、ツジコノリコ, toto(suika), 降神, sgt.,等、数多くの作品に参加する、焚火dubのTyme.による待望のファーストアルバム!!

アーティスト：Tyme. / Tatsuya Yamada（タイム/タツヤヤマダ）
​タイトル：NO ONE LIKE YOU AND ME（ノーワンライクユーアンドミー）
発売日：2019/1/23
価格：2,200円＋税
レーベル/品番：astrollage（ASGE18）
​フォーマット：CD
℗astrollage

Tracklist :​ 

1.No One Like You
2.Flare
3.Flashlight
4.Catch A Fire
5.Don't You Think feat. Maki Mannami
6.Dub Shaking The Walls
7.Too Hot Days
8.Tropical Nights
9.Night Tales
10.Flare (Carrot Green Remix)

https://www.djfunnel.com/tyme

「Tyme. I Tatsuya Yamada / Flare』include album『NO ONE LIKE YOU AND ME』

Side X 

J.A.K.A.M.  
HANAUMUI DUB   04:46

Original Beatz : 
CHURASHIMA NAVIGATOR (DJ Nu-doh & Sinkichi)
Uta&Sanshin : Kanako Horiuchi
MC : Shingo
Dubwise : Harikuyamaku

This picture is a sacred shrine in Henoko Okinawa.
We can't go to there because US army makes a new base in this bay from few years ago.
This music is dedicated to this place.




Mastering : E-Mura
Arranged,Mixed & Produced by J.A.K.A.M.





Design : Attame


2018 CROSSPOINT


http://www.nxs.jp/



All Rights of The Manufacturer And Of The Owner of The Recorded Work
Reserved. Unauthorised Public Performance,Broadcasting,
Copying And Rental of This Record Prohibited. www.nxs.jp

P&C 2018 CROSSPOINT

J.A.K.A.M.  _ Hanaumui Dub

NTsKi + 7FO - D'Ya Hear Me! (excerpt1)

We are proud to announce a new FLAU artist, Patrick Ellis @patrick, an artist from New York who participated in Machinone's Tokyo Remixes. The first of his releases is a best hit collection from his several mixtapes. It's a collection of glowing, shivering fragments sampled from a variety of records and put together with an outstanding pop sensibility. A dreamy sampling collage that swallows and sublimates various elements of disco, folk, ambient, electro and hip-hop. 
The Selected Works 2010-2015 will be out on digital tomorrow via Bandcamp, soon on all digital platforms.
His first album 'Deserter' is due to be released later this year.

Selected Works 2010-2015

Patrick Ellis - You'll See Things

http://yjymusic.com/
say hello 
yuki@yjymusic.com

In Blue (Berlin Spring Remix by Frank Bretschneider)

Young Juvenile Youth

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