Hamah Moh - Ghost Slider

Hamah Moh is a Kyoto based singer/songwriter who writes some impressively dank and dingy ballads using his disctinctively raspy resonator guitar and slide setup. Backed by harmonium and the occasional bit of didgeridoo and percussion Hamah's lengthy. sparse, bluesy dirges have an almost Eastern flavour to them managing to fuse blue grass, folk and eastern influences with elements of traditional Japanese folk music. To be honest I find his vocals to be a little grating after a while (He has a slight "tang" in his voice that sounds a little forced, but perhaps it's not so noticeble if you don't know Japanese.) but he does a great job of creating music that manages to be dark but also surprisingly uplifting and upbeat. Hamah even manages a worthy cover of Japan's multi-talented comedian turned actor turned songwriter turned painter turned author turned movie director turned university professor Kitano Takeshi's "Asakusa Kid".

Dim the lights and break out the cigars and whisky for maximised listening pleasure.

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DJ Memento - Badassfunk Gets Nice and Mad

Recently I've been trying to crack my way into the local underground hip-hop and DJ scene as it's sadly been an area of neglect for me thus far. I've only just scratched the surface but have already made some great discoveries. DJ Memento is a local mix DJ and collage artist who plays sets every Friday night at Panorama in Osaka. "Badassfunk Gets Nice and Mad" is the 2nd mix CD-R from Memento and contains one non-stop 60 minute mix of the finest funk, jazz, psychedelic rock and retro TV samples. Memento likes to keep it old-school using only analogue techniques in his mixes/collages lifting all his music and samples from vinyl and videotapes.

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LIVE LOG: Degurutieni

A few weeks ago I went to the launch party for the release of the theater group Kodomo Kyojin's (子供鉅人) latest DVD. The group hired out a large warehouse and ran various performances, activities and bands throughout the evening. The highlight of which for me was Degurutieni. Never heard of him before I was very impressed. Something about that Tom Waits inspired down-tempo, jazzy groove really really clicks with me. I promptly bought his album but unfortunatley through itunes so as soon as I can figure a way of converting the files so they'll work for other people I'll be sure to upload it. For now this will have to do.

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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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NISEUO cosmic-chang mothership progress - NISEUO cosmic-chang mothership progress

Niseuo are as mystical and strange as their name implies. I don't know a whole lot about the band besides the fact that they were conceived somewhere around 2002 from the darkest bowels of Kansai's underground. Their music is difficult to classify but is very reminscent of the junk town blues and sleazy off-kilter jazz of Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. Or "Science-Fiction space opera" as the band like to describe their own music. The vocalist channels the spirit of Tom Waits/Beefheart by snearing jibberish in a rough, gruff gutterel grunt that wouldn't sound out of place as the voice track for some ugly alien race in a Star Wars movie. It's a wild and sometimes uncomfortable ride but one I'm sure you won't regret taking. So hop onboard the mothership Niseuo and take a journey into the dark, twisted recesses of someones freak show mind.

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