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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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PLOP 008CD
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Fuqugi is a solo project by Daiki Sakae, who lives in the wilderness far in the south of Japan, Kagoshima. This is his first official album, though Gransofa and Nightingale were previously self-released in very limited editions. Now, there are some additional new tracks and everything has been newly remastered. Nature and the surrounding environment significantly influenced the artist on these 15 imaginative tracks -- mostly all of them recorded by only using his favorite Gibson electric guitar, drawing dim lines and plucked patterns over and over again, like watercolor paintings which develop into tear-jerking melodies. The tender guitar tones have rich and warm textures that touch you slowly, from the feet to the top of the head, until you are intoxicated, or smoothed into some sort of transcendental, permanently restful state. The concept of the album is, according to the artist, "prayer music," and he assigns some key words to this album; gratitude, mystic, white, nature, light, dark, serene, simple, stoic and isolation. This music invokes a larger calm and strength during sacred moments, like standing in front of a Mark Rothko painting or an ancient monolith, or under a sky full of stars.
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PLOP 007CD
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This is the debut full-length release by The Performers: Dave Gahisho (sounds, voice, palm trees) and James "Hawaii" Fantome (visions, bass, fireworks) from Marseille. Originally formed in the early 2000s to compose soundtracks and write screenplays, after an imaginary travel between Maui and Brooklyn, they started to record songs for a new project entitled A Homemade Stereo Recording. The album was produced between 2003 and 2007 with the concept of a "slow-motion journey around the world" using an old 4-track tape recorder and few instruments (broken analog keyboards, guitars and Theremin). With a little help from a computer and friends, all the sound material was gradually put together to complete this beautiful and strange soundtrack. The 10 tracks on this album use diverse elements such as rock, country, ethnic music, lounge, electronica, and so on, but these elements flow smoothly into one another, arousing beautiful landscapes, as if watching a perfect film. The album can be seen as the soundtrack to a movie that has yet to be written. The artwork was designed by the artists themselves, visually capturing the main sounds used on this album -- palm trees and fireworks.
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PLOP 006CD
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Old Splendifolia is an adventurous folk project by two talented German artists, Frank Schultge (F.S. Blumm), in charge of sound production, and Jana Plewa (The Kat Cosm) on vocals. Together, they produce heavenly, pleasant folk music, as natural and pure as they can get. All of the sounds including acoustic guitars, cello, bass-clarinet, French horn, drums and vocals are laid out very thoughtfully, showing how minimal production can enhance the quality of the songwriting. "Old Splendifolia" also refers to the first plant on earth, which releases special sounds and thoughts that these two artists have transcribed through their music. A finicky job indeed. The two artists both had a vision of Old Splendifolia, at first swaying softly, then more boldly to the sounds of its old-growth site. Jana Plewa finally hummed and sang out loud. Blumm's sounds and tones all immediately blended together, becoming inseparable, and Plewa gave shape to words that have an almost identical phonetic contour as the sketched sound-patterns. These tales tell of the adventures and observations during the search for the primeval Chief Leaf. Jana Plewa's vocals recall the home-grown scratchiness of Joanna Newsom, and, matched with random effects, plinked stringed instruments, and humming toy organs, evoke the child-like simplicity of Cocorosie, but with more structure and more tangible, sunshiney appeal.
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PLOP 005CD
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Parade is the debut full-length release by Miko, a new female artist hailing from Yokohama, outside Tokyo. The album was created like a watercolor painting, layering pale yet colorful inks delicately on rough sketches using instruments from her daily life, such as electric and acoustic guitars, piano, synthesizers and samplers. In addition, this crafty multi-instrumentalist did all the vocals and mixing herself. Parade is full of diverse moments, but terms such as dreamy, catchy, sad and comfortable most simply describe her sounds. Humming, pure vocals bring you an indefinable sadness, melancholic and floating tracks are inspired by My Bloody Valentine, guitars weep like lo-fi bands and the overwhelmingly beautiful melodies take you to the deep horizon. She entitled her record Parade from her will to make an album that sounds like "there's a fun parade going on over there." Parade is a sensitive and gentle imaginary soundscape.
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PLOP 004CD
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This is the debut solo full-length release by Tokyo-based Takahiro Kido, recording engineer and lead member and composer of the post-rock group, Anoice. The album title Fleursy Music is a coined word meant to mean "flower-ish music" (made up of the French word "fleurs" which means "flower" plus music) which best expresses these cinematic soundscapes and warm analog sounds. He creates music by merging electronics with many types of acoustic instruments such as piano, organ, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, sax, clarinet, flute, guitar, glockenspiel, accordion, melodion, drums and percussion. These instruments are remarkably well textured and were recorded in unique environments such as in tunnels, mountains, abandoned hotel lobby and concert halls, capturing the natural reverberations of the atmosphere. And after recording, he processed and carefully layered these sounds in his computer to obtain the perfect combination. The 10 tracks here were selected among over 150 compositions assembled over a period of two years.
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PLOP 002CD
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The World On Higher Downs is a four-piece group whose key members consist of Nathaniel Ritter, Troy Schafer, Eric Bray and Vincent Wachowiak, who all reside in different parts of Wisconsin. What started out as a loose idea based upon multiple collaborations, eventually blossomed into what is now known as Land Patterns, their debut CD on Tokyo-based label Plop. The World On Higher Downs was birthed out of Troy Schafer and Nathaniel Ritter's bedroom recording sessions that began in late spring of 2005, which mostly consisted of keyboards, heavily effected electric guitar, and violin. After a few months of steady writing and recording, Vince Wachowiak was brought in to help add a few parts to the beginning sketches. Soon after, Eric Bray was sent the base tracks to which he added electronics and fleshed out the tracks with his production abilities (showcased in his other recording projects Arctic Hospital, Agend, and Talve). Eric sent back his developments and more instrumentation was added, including xylophone, vibraphone, horns, and orchestral drums. The songs were sent back in the mail to Eric, where he mixed down the tracks and gave them a cohesive sound. Clichés in record-making were avoided, such as playing acoustic guitar over a sampled electronic drum beat -- instead, the group made their sounds more smooth, more layered, staying away from digital cut-ups and trickery. Influences by shoegaze acts such as Slowdive, or other groups like Labradford are noticeable in the tracks, although their fresh songs make it hard to distinguish whether it's rock or dance music that gives the album originality and the comfort of analog warmth and digital coolness at the same time. Land Patterns sits somewhere between the murky depths of seasonal depression, cabin fever, and the blooming first days of spring. It has an intellectual quality to it, but maintains a child-like innocence. Taking ideals from both darker and lighter sides of music, this is an album that fits somewhere in between; encapsulating the greater aspects of both sides into one singular vision.
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PLOP 001CD
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Water-Wasser is the sixth full-length release from Christian Przygodda (aka Hausmeister), his newest album in three years The music of Water-Wasser is influenced by European classic, electronic music, folk and progressive rock, just as much as jazz, using various raw acoustic instruments, all played by Przygodda himself. The basic idea of composition is similar to classic symphonics, with the return of themes and their variations -- but Hausmeister evokes those themes with diverse sound-sources. The whole album is drawn from the creative melting-pot of musical possibilities. As with the element water, the transcendent is the constant. Hausmeister is interested in various possibilities and ways to enter different floors of this musical building, enjoying all the different angles and sights. This strongly refers to the works of the French comic artist Moebius (The Hermetic Garage) or of writer Lars Gustaffson (The Third Rochade of Bernhard Foy). The album cover painting is also by Christian which shows an additional aspect of his interdisciplinary approach within the album. Water-Wasser contains very pleasant and composed music which will be appealing to a wide audience. For fans of rock, electronic music, jazz, classical music, and more.
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PLIP 3004CD
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"Features 14 exclusive tracks over 70 minutes of various sound patterns imaging the color 'blue'. The participants includes Rip-off artist (Vertical Form, Mille Plateaux..), Dorine_muraille (Fat Cat), Fonica (Plop/Tomlab), Neina (Mille Plateuax), Waki (Traum), Geoff White (Force Inc.), Tim Hecker (Mille Plateaux), Mondii (Hefty records) etc. This album was meant to introduce the 'microscopic' sound movement that came around simultaneously from around the world by the advanced software technologies."
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