What Am I Listening To? - The Nimbly Edition

[Nimbly9]

Since we're all making something of a fresh start, thought I'd go ahead and set up a fun journal to share stuff I'm listening to, take your suggestions for reviews and make observations in general.  Cheers. 

[Nimbly9]

Sophie and Peter Johnston - self titled (1988)

Synth pop magic with a touch of New Wave and a host of other influences from the end of the decade.  These siblings are quite inventive, covering a wide variety of territory but never finding the audience they should have had.  This album remains a curio but is being heralded as something of a lost classic these days due to its almost vaporwavesque production on a few cuts plus Sophie's great voice.  Sparkly, extremely well written stuff that should give some of you A-ha and Pet Shop Boys fans quite a rush.

[Nimbly9]

Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice - To Live & Die In Space & Time (2022)

An ambient jazz album for the ages, courtesy of that uber talented sax player from Bon Iver and Lynn Avery from Iceblink. Inspired by the greats of the past but with a more expansive, contemporary palate, this should appeal equally to fans of Alice Coltrane or perhaps Pharaoh Sanders's more meditative works whilst also being a lot of for those of you who miss those classic ECM records.  It also has a touch of the stranger side of Japan's early 80's electronic music scene.  Overall, quite a treat when you are in the right mood.

[Nimbly9]

Moonrise - Stopover-Life (2013)

You might enjoy this one Trollheart. Evocative, AOR flavored neo-progressive rock from Poland with a hefty dose of melancholy, tasteful synths, some excellent instrumental interplay and even the occasional sax solo. Vocals are pretty nice too, all in English. Moonrise is the brainchild of guitar wunderkind Kamil Konieczniak and he definitely knows his way around a good song.  Fans of Pendragon or the lighter side of bands like Threshold will really dig this I think.

[Guybrush]

To Live & Die In Space & Time (2022) sounds nice and interesting. I'll give that a more thorough listen

I'll also check out Sophie and Peter Johnston. Unfortunately, the youtube link you provided seem to be dead on my end.

[Nimbly9]

Fixed that embed. 

[Nimbly9]

Bob Drake - What Day Is It? (1994)

The mindblowing debut album from Thinking Plague bassist / vocalist Bob Drake.  This album is Fragile-era Yes channeled through the unsettling atmosphere that Comus so expertly crafted on First Utterance. Couple those two sets of influences with a bit of West Coast rock and a pinch of Henry Cow's Rock-In-Opposition quirkiness...well, that's a recipe for indomitable brilliance.  The album as a whole is a lot of strange fun, and the above song will give you an idea of what to expect.

[Trollheart]

Hey! Thought we'd lost you, man! Good to see you're still around. 

[Nimbly9]

^ I'm definitely still around brotha.  Let me know if you end up taking a shine to these albums I'm highlighting.

[Nimbly9]

Toshifumi Hinata - Sarah's Crime (1985)

Toshifumi Hinata lived much of his collegiate years as a traveler and observer, weaving a nomadic existence through America's urban sprawl and the older, more decadent fistulas of Europe's past before returning to Japan in the early 80's. These experiences fueled his creative sense in an era when Japan's global power was beginning to peak. When you couple that creative impulse with Japan's growing musical fascination (trend-wise) during the decade with neo-classical, ambient, prog-rock and what we becoming known as City Pop...you have a perfect storm of influences that gave rise to Sarah's Crime, one of the best debut albums ever made.

To say that this album has a real mood to it just doesn't do it justice. Neoclassical ambient with jazzy almost-Third Stream sounding flourishes is not an easy style to pull off, but you can hear traces of this album in much of what would get made in Japan after the mid-80's, especially Joe Hisaishi's work with Studio Ghibli and Koji Kondo's work with Nintendo. Every fantasy JRPG soundtrack and classical crossover artist in the country owes something to Toshifumi's gorgeous productions during this decade. Nostalgic but somehow ahead of the times, this music is a treat to the ears.

[Nimbly9]

Scarypoolparty - The Act Of Forgiveness (2021)

Alejandro Aranda is that famous multi-instrumentalist & singer prodigy from the 17th season of American Idol who ended up as the runner up.  He also happens to be the best thing that ever happened to that normally turgid show - he showcased an almost alien level of musical talent on multiple songs, most of which he wrote.  This album, about a year and a half ago under his Scarypoolparty moniker, is a 20+ song tour-de-force that covers everything from post-punk to 80's inspired pop to slowcore to proggy baroque jazz rock (see embedded song above) and a whole plethora of other styles. A very slept on album from someone I can rightly call a genius.

[Nimbly9]

Paradigm Shift - The Rain Child And The River King (1986)

Founded by singer / multi-instrumentalist Makoto Matsushita,  Paradigm Shift is an English-sung and very fun art rock project from the mid 80's that captures the stranger side of that decade and rolls with it like no tomorrow. It is a curious collection, playing around with production ideas and different moods / textures. 

Sonically it comes across as a souped up crossbreed of Discipline-era King Crimson, Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel, with an extra sheen of cool not too dissimilar from the city pop soundscaping of Toshiki Kadomatsu.  It shouldn't work, yet the music actually weaves these very distinct threads together in unexpected ways.

If you like your New Romantic pop with a pensive strangeness or offbeat (yet catchy) music from the 1980's in general, this will be right up your alley. 

[Nimbly9]

Revis - Places For Breathing (2003)

For me, this one-hit wonder of an album is the best of the post-grunge boom of the early 00's. It checks a lot of the boxes - meaty production from the guy who gave us Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, Don Gilmore, for example, but there's more to the story.

Revis didn't do quite well enough in the major label big leagues to become some kind of household name (opening cut Caught In The Rain got into the FIFA games soundtracks and a few movies), but songs like Your Wall, Spin, and the haunting Living Rooms showcase intriguing qualities I would describe as esoteric. There's a certain ethereality, a mood if you will.  Lyrically, the album feels like a discourse on isolation and the liminality of our surroundings, themes I have a better understanding of as I've gotten older.

Vocalist Justin Holman is the special sauce here - he's got a bit of the yarl thing going on occasionally, but a richer tone and palette that brings out the potential in these tunes. I've always liked how the guitar work and drumming are fairly varied.  No two songs here step on eachother's toes.

My favorite jam on the thing is probably the apocalyptic ballad Seven, a minor radio hit that weaves in and out of its End Times imagery like nobody's business. Good stuff and worth the price of admission.

Is this the kind of album that will change your life forever? Probably not, but it is a bright spot for me in the post-grunge landscape, has some great songs, and I have a lot of fond memories of it from my high school years. Enjoy.

[Dr_Rez]

Good stuff m8 keep it coming.

[Janszoon]

Good stuff m8 keep it coming.

Hey Rez, nice to see you around!