This Week On My MOG

From my MOG:

This week's Yoko Kanno Day tracks:

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Also, check out my post "Did Kanye West Pick The Wrong First Single?".

And Now, Some Yoko Kanno

I've been posting Yoko Kanno tracks every Tuesday and Thursday on my MOG. If you don't keep up with that site, here are some of the tracks I've posted this month, which is dedicated to Cowboy Bebop:

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Sterfish Shares: Long Time No See Edition

It's been almost two months since I did one of these posts so I guess there's no better time than the present. This time around, I'm sharing a variety of tracks.

With my review of J. Dilla's album Donuts finally finished (after I spent weeks thinking about it), I'm going to share one of the album's best tracks. “Lightworks” is a wonderful song with a very cool sound. The percussion gets me every time.

J. Dilla - “Lightworks” from Donuts

The next entry in my Yoko Kanno Reviews series will be a review of the GITS: SAC Solid State Society soundtrack. My favorite song on the soundtrack is the superb song commonly referred to as “Sniper.” Ilaria Graziano provides vocals here and she sounds great. The song on the soundtrack features a short jazzy interlude before going into the song proper. Here is a version of the song that cuts off the interlude entirely.

Yoko Kanno feat. Ilaria Graziano - “Somewhere In The Silence (Sniper's Theme)” from Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society OST

Finally, since I plan to review Mouse On Mars' album Varcharz eventually (at least four other reviews are ahead of it in the “need to review queue”), here's a good track from this unusual album:

Mouse On Mars - “I Go Ego Why Go We Go” from Varcharz

That's it for this edition of Sterfish Shares. Look for more music reviews in the coming days and hopefully some other stuff as well.

Sterfish Shares: Christmas

This edition of Sterfish Shares is all about Christmas music. I love the holiday season and I love Christmas music. Here are a few Christmas songs, some classic and some contemporary, that I really enjoy:

First up, is the Christmas remix that caught my ear, Beef Wellington's remix of “Happy Holidays” by Bing Crosby from the first Christmas Remixed album. It's a really fun but respectful remix of this song that lasts just long enough.

Bing Crosby - “Happy Holidays (Beef Wellington Remix)” from Christmas Remixed

Next is a song from my favorite Christmas album ever, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I could've picked multiple songs but I settled on “Christmas Is Coming.” It's upbeat but still smooth and jazzy.

Vince Guaraldi Trio - “Christmas Is Coming” from A Charlie Brown Christmas

This year, I finally discovered the joy that is Phil Spector's famous A Christmas Gift For You. It's a wonderful album filled with versions of Christmas songs that I realized I had heard many times in movies and commercials over the years. Here's one of my favorite tracks from this album by The Ronettes.

The Ronettes - “Frosty The Snowman” from A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

One of my favorite “traditional” Christmas songs is “Sleigh Ride.” I love hearing it played by a good symphonic band or orchestra. It doesn't really get much better than the Boston Pops Orchestra, does it? Here's one of their versions of this classic.

Boston Pops Orchestra - “Sleigh Ride” from Holiday Pops

The last track I bring to you is The Temptations' version of “Silent Night.” My sister first introduced me to this version and I must say that I like it too. The Temptations sort of do to “Silent Night” what Marvin Gaye did to “The Star Spangled Banner”...they made it unmistakably their own.

The Temptations - “Silent Night”

Hope you all enjoy this Christmas music and enjoy the holiday season!

...

Oh, here's one more track I couldn't keep to myself:

The Nat King Cole Trio - “All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) (MJ Cole Remix)” from Merry Mixmas: Christmas Classics Remixed

Sterfish Shares: Luke Vibert

Before too long passed, I had to post a real Sterfish Shares post. This time, I'm bringing you three songs I like by electronic artist Luke Vibert.

First up, is a very cool song from an album Vibert did with slide guitarist B.J. Cole. It's called "Fly Hawaii" and if you like this song, I encourage you to buy the album Stop The Panic as I did. It's unique, fun to listen to, and very good.

Luke Vibert and B.J. Cole - "Fly Hawaii" from Stop The Panic

Next up, is a song from Vibert's Wagon Christ persona. It's an enjoyable little song from the album Musipal. Check it out.

Wagon Christ - "Receiver" from Musipal

Finally, here is my favorite Luke Vibert song ever. I don't know why, but something about it always draws me in.

Luke Vibert - "I Hear The Drummer"

For the next Sterfish Shares, I'll share some songs I used on my Mixmania mixes. So, e-mail me if you have a particular song from my Mixmania mixes you'd like to see here.

A Little Share

Sorry to those who were looking forward to this week's Sterfish Shares post on either Sunday or Monday. I won't be able to do a proper one until either very late tonight or tomorrow. That post will feature some songs by Luke Vibert. In the meantime, here's an extra song from The Other Side Of Midnight (which was featured in the previous Sterfish Shares post). I was asked to upload it, so here is "Fado" (or, really, "Fate") from that Yoko Kanno/Maaya Sakamoto album:

Yoko Kanno feat. Maaya Sakamoto - "Fado" from The Other Side Of Midnight

Sterfish Shares: Rare Yoko Kanno

If you look at how many posts have the Yoko Kanno label, you will see that I'm somewhat of a big fan of this Japanese composer. So, for the second installment of the new Sterfish Shares posts, I figured I'd share some harder-to-find Yoko Kanno tracks.

First up, are a couple of tracks from the album 23 Ji no Ongaku (Music For The 23rd Hour), a soundtrack to a live action drama series (see my review). The album is pretty much a collaboration with singer/actress Maaya Sakamoto and it's gradually become one of my favorite Yoko Kanno albums. I used two tracks from this album on the last mix I made and they are two of the three tracks I will be sharing from this album.

“Pepper Stretch” is an unusually catchy little song. It has a nice, light jazz feel to it and features vocal parts that are likely by Gabriela Robin, the singer who is rumored to be Yoko Kanno's alter ego.

Yoko Kanno - “Pepper Stretch” from 23 Ji no Ongaku (Music For The 23rd Hour)

“Trust Me” is a smooth, moody, smoky song with a nice sound to it. The lyrics are sparse but Maaya Sakamoto sounds very good here.

Yoko Kanno feat. Maaya Sakamoto - “Trust Me” from 23 Ji no Ongaku

The final song I'm sharing from this album is “Danielle,” a midtempo pop song. Kanno does these types of songs very well and this song, while a little more straighforward and conventional than her best pop stuff, is very good nonetheless. Maaya Sakamoto also delivers some good vocals here as well.

Yoko Kanno feat. Maaya Sakamoto - “Danielle” from 23 Ji no Ongaku

Next up, here is a track from Kanno's only non-soundtrack solo album, Song To Fly (see my review). “The Man In The Desert,” which features the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra And Chorus, is one of my favorite songs on this excellent album. It has a great classical sound and I love the way the chorus and orchestra sound so good together.

Yoko Kanno feat. The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra And Chorus - “The Man In The Desert” from Song To Fly

Finally, here is a track from a really rare album. The album is the NHK Special Chuugoku~12 Oku-jin no Kaikaku Kaihou OST (NHK Special China~1200 Million People's Liberation and Reform OST). This is a soundtrack to a TV special about China that aired on Japanese television (see my review). This album is out of print in Japan, so you can't get this as an import even if you wanted to.

The track I'm sharing is called “Mugen” (Dreams) and features vocals by Wuyontana. It's a nice fusion of traditional Asian sounds and more modern ones.

Yoko Kanno feat. Wuyontana - “Mugen” from NHK China Special OST

A few of Yoko Kanno's soundtracks are available domestically if you are interested in hearing more. They include soundtracks to Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Arjuna, Macross Plus, and Wolf's Rain. These soundtracks are damn near impossible to find in an actual store. Your best bet is either Amazon or The Right Stuf. If you want to get actual copies of her CDs not yet released in America, try CD Japan. You can find just about every major album of hers online through various means as well.

That's it for this edition of Sterfish Shares. I don't know what I'll put up next time. You'll just have to wait and see.

Sterfish Shares: [eM]: "Day At The Academy"

For all the pretty well-known music I listen to, there is a bunch of stuff that I just randomly find and enjoy. With that, I am introducing Sterfish Shares, a (hopefully) weekly post where I share some of the more obscure songs that caught my ear.

The first song I am sharing is one that I found on a site I frequent called Be Your True Mind. It was playing on the web radio available there and I really liked it. The song is from the soundtrack to the Xbox 360 RPG Enchanted Arms (aka eNCHANT arM). I love the way it combines peaceful-sounding elements with a good beat. Thanks to Kei, the person behind BYTM, for exposing me to this cool song. Check it out:

[eM]: "Day At The Academy" from the eNCHANT arM Original Soundtrack

The site I mentioned above also has the soundtrack available for download (at least for now). It has a ton of great images from anime and video games that you can request as well as some very cool video and audio downloads. Go visit Kei's site when you have the chance.

Next time, I'll share some rare Yoko Kanno tracks from albums never released in America.