Nihon shōjo (1976), Iroha ni konpeitou (1977), Tokimeki (1978), Gohan ga dekitayo (1980), Tadaiima (1981), Ai ga nakucha ne. (1982), OSOS (1984), Akiko Yano
Akiko Yano’s music has always been about its fusion, about her embracing collaborators and sounds and intricately, seamlessly blending them into her own artistic definition. It’s that quality that has truly run through her music over the years, from the careful and intricate blends of lightly jazzy, richly electronic, sometime-new-age-y, often-funky and always-traditional-Japanese-inflected works Nihon shōjo [Japanese Girl], Iroha ni konpeitou [Yellowtail Amberjack] and Tokimeki [Excitement] through to her pacey synthpop bleepers Gohan ga dekitayo [Dinner’s Ready]and Tadaima [I’m Home] and more elegant synthetic pop on Ai ga nakucha ne [There’s got to be love?] and OSOS. So much has passed through the Yano machine, but so much of it has been transformed totally afresh by her rampant eccentricity, thereby making all else feel safe, unambitious, boring.
Pick(s): ‘Kikyū ni notte’, ‘Iroha ni konpeitou’, ‘Yameru wake nya ikanai wa’, ‘Pon pon pon’, ‘Ramen tabetai’
Eternal Beta Tester - This morning I navel gaze about Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, and why I've continued to call Gamepad.club on the Fediverse my home.
Yesterday Threads came out which is the Meta/Facebook/Instagram equivalent to Twitter. I tried it so you don’t have to… but let’s be honest I also sort of sign up for every social network that comes out. Someone might view this as me being fickle or indecisive, but it is just in my personal mindset to want to get in and poke around with a lot of different things. While I was a WoW Tourist for…