Peter Margasak, Reader music critic, is obsessed with . . .
Huong Thanh, L’Arbre aux Rêves (Buda) Huong Thanh gained international attention through a series of cross-genre collaborations with jazz guitarist Nguyên Lê, setting traditional melodies of her Vietnamese homeland to slick, thoroughly modern arrangements. In the last few years, however, the Paris-based singer has shifted her attention to more traditional sounds, never more effectively than she does on L’Arbre aux Rêves.
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Trypes, Music for Neighbors (Acute) I first discovered the Feelies back in 1983 or so, and I got wind of the Trypes soon after. Over the course of the band’s brief history, the Trypes included all five members of the post-Good Earth Feelies lineup. I spent many years searching for their lone EP to no avail, but this essential reissue, appended by a comp track and six previously unissued songs (and another seven that can be downloaded), triples what was first offered. The music shares similar post-Velvet Underground characteristics with the Feelies, but delivers them with a moodier, more hypnotic energy.
He asks . . .
Jeff Parker, jazz guitarist and a member of Tortoise, what he’s obsessed with. His answers are . . .
Aki Tsuyuko, Ongakushitsu (Child Disk) I first discovered Aki Tsuyuko when she and Nobukazu Takemura toured together as the opening act for Tortoise on much of the Standards tour. The album’s qualities are basically what it’s all about for me these days (at least pertaining to what I’ve been striving for in my music making): strikingly minimal, completely original, and blindingly beautiful. I’ve happened upon Ongakushitsu at a few critical junctures over the years, and it always helps to me to find my track.
Cermakk (Cherries Records) Something that would be totally peripheral to my musical life if I didn’t know/respect the people involved. I’m more into the extra-extravagant disco sound right now, but Meaty’s alter ego is bringin’ the boogie funk for the kids who weren’t around to hear it when it was fresh. Plus it’s been a window to good fun like Doug Shorts’s “Changes.”
