January 2011
6 posts
1 tag
Like Father, Like Daughter
Just spent some time listening to the self-titled debut album of Mai (麻衣), which was released sometime last month. A wholly unremarkable name at first glance until you consider her surname Fujisawa (藤澤), put two-and-two together and realise that her father is one Hisaishi Joe, real name Fujisawa Mamoru.
Is it any surprise then, that Mai’s own writing style closely resembles that of her...
1 tag
Peppermint on the Radio
It’s taken almost half a year for me to get hold of Kate Walsh’s latest album Peppermint Radio. No, not the girl from Grey’s Anatomy, but the Essex folk singer who I like everyone else, discovered when her Tim’s House album became a minor hit on iTunes in 2007. She remains the only unsigned artist to achieve a #1 album there.
Peppermint Radio is a covers album of songs and...
1 tag
Fresh Sounds #2: Surprises & Disappointments
Tail-end of December/start of January is traditionally a dead zone as far as notable new releases are concerned, which is fine by me as I get a little more time to go through my ever-growing backlog.
What’s been good: Kokoro no Uta. CureaL - The Hokkaido duo’s brand of folk/country-inflected pop gets straight to my heart, sounding like FREENOTE doesn’t hurt their standing (in...
1 tag
Tsubakiya Shijuusou split
Official site announcement, though it was already whispered around after their countdown live at Zepp Sendai.
Well, I did not see that one coming - not at this time anyway. If at any point I thought they might call it quits, it was when they released their two best-of CDs in 2008.
It is quite strange in some ways since the trio were at their creative peak and commercially successful too, with...
2 tags
Doin' a bit of doujin music digging
Opportunity costs. When you’ve got as many hobbies as I’ve got, there’s gotta be a trade-off made somewhere. Over the past 4-5 years when I spent most of my spare time chasing seiyuu and playing the blogging game, the ‘something(s)’ that gave were manga and doujin music. There wasn’t any particular reason to it at the time, but I’m sure it did have...
1 tag
Speeding through the 61st NHK Kohaku
Watched bits of the show on TV the other night whilst eating dinner and playing a couple of rounds of gin rummy. With the Jpop scene as boring as it is right now, I didn’t find too many of the songs or performances memorable. Enka is as always, not my cup of tea. Personal highlights:
・Angela Aki’s 輝く人 - The song is pants but Angela’s performance was as always, tops. At least she...