SOUNDTRACK: KAWABATA MAKOTO [河端一]-Astro Love & Infinite Kisses (2017).
Kawabata Makoto [河端一] is the guitarist and mastermind behind Acid Mothers Temple. The band is hugely prolific. But he still had time to record solo albums. Often times without any guitar.
This was a Kawabata solo LP, now available on bandcamp.
Astro Love is the first widely available solo release in several years from Kawabata, emerging from a period of relative quiet with this blockbuster Krautrock-flavored epic. On the whole, this a lovely and impressionistic record, the other side of Makoto’s outrageous works with Acid Mothers’ Temple. Taking cues from classics of the genre like Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra and Steve Hillage’s Rainbow Dome Music. Cover by Japanese youth art sensation Okumura Mondo!
“Dos Nurages” (40:30) is the centerpiece of the record, a 41 minute hypnotic epic, with echoplex’d guitar anchoring a stream of expertly done glissando. It is a fast, pulsing Krautrock experience with a swirling drone and fast repeated notes on the echoing guitar. The waves of sound fade in and out leaving just the echoing guitar and then replacing it with more of the same.
“Astro Love & Infinite Kisses” (17:41) is a darker drone, in the traditions of Kawabata’s INUI series of releases for VHF. Scraping sounds and pizzicato string melodies converge over the drone. This melody runs throughout the song as the backing drones grow bigger and louder. These drone progressions add a lot of tension.
“Woman From Dream Island” (18:22) finishes the record with a thick buzz of tamboura overlaid with trippy backwards guitar, before giving way to a gentle finger-picked acoustic coda. The drone sounds like a sitar or a hurdy gurdy. There also seems to be a kind of strummed sitar over the top. At 13 minutes a lovely pizzicato melody is added on top.
This is certainly one of the less harsh solo creations that Kawabata has unveiled.
[READ: September 10, 2019] “The Story of Dice”
I haven’t read a lot by Ricky Jay. I had heard of him just before he died and I’d like to see more of what he has done. Especially if they are as interesting as this.
Jay has a book out called Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck. It has pictures by Rosamund Purcell. The book is 64 pages. I have to wonder, since the book is full of lavish photos, if this essay is the entirety of the book.
This essays is divided into parts, with each small section focusing on a different aspect of the history of dice–which is more interesting than you might expect.
In “Dice in a Bottle” he talks about a pair of dice found in the Thames. They were in a waterproof cage dating from the 15th century. They had been drilled and weighted with quicksilver to the throwers advantage. There were also “high men” dice that only had a 4, 5 and 6 and “low men” that only had a 1, 2 and 3. They were clearly tossed into the river by a hustler trying to avoid detection. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: WNYC SOUNDCHECK GIG ALERTS (2009-).
I Just Read About That... 