Album of the Week Club (UNDER CONSTRUCTION / WILD WEST)

[muttonhead]

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

if you wanna rejoin the club, you can just ask.

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

@NARINGENIN post album fagot

 

[NARINGENIN]

Namaume - Namaume Journey
​

Two Japanese girls, Naomi Nakahara playing the Uilleann pipes and Chiaki Umeda playing the harp, play a combination of Irish folk songs, original songs, and their own version of a Japanese folk song, and take you on a journey... for fresh plums...

DOWNLOAD​

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

you guys are really trying to torture magic hour with the lack of guitars and singing huh
i was supposed to be the one-off weird one :/

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

before going in, i was thinking pretty strongly "this is gonna be boring as fuck," then those pipes hit and i was like
then my foot started to tap and before i knew it i was doin a lil' jig

Spoiler

the softness of the harp pairs very naturally with the slightly shrill timbre of the uilleann pipes. surprisingly not repetitive at all! there are sort of 2 main modes for the piper: virtuosic melodies and slower soundscaping with drones. there was a good balance of both. i would probably like the album more if they decided to digitally layer different drones atop one another and create something heavier and more intense, or if they'd have used different microphone setups and recording environments to zoom in or out, but it's not that kind of album. there were many sections wherein the harpist took center stage, which made the album feel much more three-dimensional than it would've if the harpist was playing accompaniment the entire time. the opener to the album's closer and the latter part of Puck's Wedding were some of the finest moments on the album, and the delicate back-and-forth of "7 Minutes!" was executed perfectly.

the ending of ほいっすりーる* is the melody to the traditional japanese folk song "sakura sakura" -- you may recognize this, you may not. an unexpected transition from western to eastern, very aurally exciting and what makes these "Thing, Japan" albums worthwhile! aside from the fact that they're just really good at this

*nvm see addendum in next post :/

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

addendum: i was listening to it on youtube -->

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUkiCvluHjE

...on an upload that doesn't list out the tracks properly, so i didn't know you could just see from the tracklist that they cover sakura sakura and it's listed as a separate track from what i thought based on this upload where the following track is merged into it on the seekbar. :/

so basically i thought i was utilizing my special weeaboo knowledge but it's just plastered in ur face for everyone to see.
that actually made the album more enjoyable because it was more surprising.

 

[NARINGENIN]

The rest of you noggers better start writing reviews... or else

 

[cheesygloypist69]

can i join plzzzzzzz

 

[SowiesoGroyp]

can i join plzzzzzzz

added
your first listening obligation is next round's album ($lave')