Asakawa Maki - Askawa Maki II (浅川マキ - 浅川マキ II)

Haven't posted any old stuff in quite a while and I heard this playing in a bar recently which reminded me of how much I love this album. Asakawa Maki started off her musical career singing blues and jazz covers at the U.S. army bases situated on Japan's most southern island of Okinawa. She produced a number of excellent albums in the late 60's and early 70's which earned her a fair amount of mainstream success before she vanished back into relative obscurity of Japan's 70's underground avant garde scene. Asakawa's music fuses laid back blues and jazz with elements of Japanese folk music and acid folk to create hauntingly beautiful, dark smokey ballads. Asakawa continued to perform regularly untill her death early last year. Asakawa Maki II released in 1971 is in my opinion her best work and without doubt a standout even in Japan's most golden era of music. Since her death there have been a number of compilations released of previously unreleased material and live recordings which are also worth investigating.

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Baiyon - PixelJunk Eden (Original Soundtrack)

Baiyon is Kyoto DJ and graphic designer Kuramitsu Tomohisa. Back in 2008 he collaborated with local Kyoto game developer Q-games to create a game that used Baiyon's stripped down minimal, electro house music (Think of a more chilled out Plastikman) and his distinctive and stylish graphic design as its source of inspiration. The result was the rather unique and addictive PixelJunk Eden. But while Baiyon has been around for quite some time contributing music, sound design and art to various projects and exhibitions over the years his musical output has been fairly limited. Thankfully Q-games were savy enough to actually release the games soundtrack on CD. The game did alot to raise Baiyon's international profile so hopefully you'll be seeing more from him in the future.

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Tayutau - Ichinichi No Naka O, Hanauta Dekimeru (たゆたう - いちにちのながさを、はなうたできめる)

Spring is finally here in Japan and we're right on the midst of cherry blossom season which made me dig out this album again. Tayutau make what is probably best described as weirdo or bizarro folk music. Hiroko Nishimoto (Guitar vocals) and Akiko Igaki (Violin, toys, object) make up this charming Kyoto pair. The duo combine the use of toys, objects and field recordings with their breezy, playful folk music to wonderful effect. Perfect for spring drives through the countryside and relaxing in the park.

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