KOKI NAKANO — MUE

⌾ LISTEN TO MUE BY KOKI NAKANO ⌾

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Taking its name from the French for metamorphosis or moulting, 'Mue' by Paris-based, Fukuoka-born pianist and composer Koki Nakano feels transformational. Compared to 'Port de Bras', the previous single released for his upcoming album Oceanic Feeling, 'Mue' is much more intimate, less expansive. Nakano's piano playing is light but intense, spelling out a heavy, fluttering ostinato — like a dramatic version of the daytime riding theme from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The track canters along until its final third, when a skirl of electronics needles in from the side, flailing fiercely atop the piano as if the air itself had been set alight. The composer certainly has a knack for combining his classical background with experimental elements to create chimeric sounds like this one, an effortless overlay of synthetic on organic.

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• 🔔 'Mue' is taken from Oceanic Feeling, out 13th May via No Format! You can pre-order it on Koki Nakano's Bandcamp.
• 🔔 There's also a video for 'Mue'. Filmed at the Paris Hôtel de Ville, it features the combined expertise of choreographers, Nicolas Huchard, Nick Coutsier, and Christian Yav.

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☟ Koki Nakano Internet Presence ☟
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ÜUCE — GURU-GURU’S WINDMILL WALTZ

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Capturing the melancholic mood in which Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes are mired (particularly recalling Gnossienne No. 1), American musicmaker ÜUCE has reworked the Song of Storms — aka the Windmill Hut theme — from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (and Majora’s Mask).

ÜUCE expands on the original, accenting it with shivering sweeps of the keyboard, adding clinking percussion, straining strings and a foundation of mythic drone. The original is synonymous with Guru-Guru, a character from both games, whose sudden angry face must be etched in the minds of all who saw it; accordingly, the fragile atmosphere of ‘Guru-Guru’s Windmill Waltz’ pries open the polygons and takes a look inside the fraught mind of this unhinged character.

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• 🔔 Listen to more ÜUCE on SoundCloud.

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☟ Üuce Internet Presence ☟
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EDYTH — AGAIN

⌾ LISTEN TO EDYTH, AGAIN ⌾

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'Again' by producer Edyth begins with resonating drone and distressed aging analogue textures, gleaming with poignancy like a key item suspended, spinning, glowing above an altar at the end of an ancient colonnade (Triforce, anyone? Or maybe when the key drops down with that glimmering sound when you defeat Bowser in Super Mario 64.)

Anyway. This is scene-setting ambience, and it grows more mechanical in its whirring heart, gradually moving into curling waves of static that envelop the atmosphere with intensity; the perception of a physical object, or a feeling, warping in memories over time.

The track effuses vaporwave, not only in its curdled sonic aesthetics, but also in how a pitch-shifted vocal rhythmically trundles into earshot, whispering sharply. Trap-flavoured sub-bass hops from note to note, somersaulting octaves in simple dance-mat steps, the constant tick of a hi-hat like the chain of a drawbridge raising — the portal to another realm.

Elevating vaporwave past its usual tropes and combining it with other contemporary musical traditions, Edyth creates a simple but blissful marriage of background aesthetics — and all the soundtracking potential they bring with them — and the close-at-hand vitality of a beat that roots 'Again' more readily in a real world setting.

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• 🔔 'Again' by Edyth is actually taken from an album called Sadie Pop, which was released via netlabel Kalibrplus. You can choose the preferred way you stream or purchase the album by clicking on this link.
• 🔔 Speaking about Sadie Pop, Edyth says that it's "meant to be a small but different type of beast from what I usually do," going on to call it "a refining of my production pallette and a gift to those that have enjoyed what I do as a beatmaker" and "a display of my love for the types of music I've loved listening to this past decade: wave, vaportrap, sad boy, cloud, witch house, dub, bass and phonk."

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☟ Edyth Internet Presence ☟
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💿 LINDSAY LOWEND — LL 2020 - VOLUME 1

⌾ LISTEN TO LINDSAY LOWEND, LL 2020 - VOLUME 1 EP ⌾

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Back in 2013, Lindsay Lowend released an incredible collection of music: the Wind Fish EP. It popped with energy, combining hyperactive dopamine-firing electronics and footwork-flavoured beats with videogame music for an unforgettable sound. With the added bonus of being, in title at least, inspired by a unique Zelda title (Game Boy bop Link's Awakening, of course), Lindsay Lowend set a bar of quality for early '10s internet music.

And then he was gone — sort of. Lindsay Lowend maintained an output of a few sporadic tracks from then on, and even an album under his actual name, Antonio Mendez — 2018's Highland Drive.

Meanwhile, the Wind Fish EP, and its creator, drifted into legend.

- But now like Link himself in a legend retold, Lowend has risen and released LL 2020 - Volume 1 into the world: a 3-track EP that enlists the help of fellow VGM-leaning musicmaker Maxo.

Beginning with a dose of chiptune, 'NBA LIVE 99' shares the funk-meets-jazz club vibe of its namesake's soundtrack (check out the NBA Live 99 menu music, for starters) but keeps it strictly 16-bit. The bass fuzz and staccato beat, stuttering melodies and glittery top notes carve a territory somewhere between Streets of Rage and an off-duty Sonic the Hedghog, moving into a second half beset with hefty chords and fluid neon melody. It's a party.

In 'should my pet be eating that' (lol), the sound morphs into something more contemporary, plasma chords clacking with wonky sheen — similar to the spacey vibe of the 'Wi-Fi Menu' theme in Mario Kart Wii and the stark, soft-and-sharp intro to Dizzee Rascal's 'Sittin' Here'. It presses on, driven by a robust D&B-flavoured beat (a passage of skiffling breakbeat dropped in for good measure), the warm melodica-esque chords and a woozy virtuosic melody painting a the by-the-sea vibe.

'Permabanned' (again: lol) finishes things up beautifully. Like admiring a sunset with new pals on Animal Crossing, this is Lowend's effervescent collab with Maxo, streaks of melody like sun sparkling on water playing over a chord progression that K.K. Slider would be proud of: lounge-y, emotive and dipping into pools of chill, snippets of real-life birdsong peal between the instrumental (it's not his first foray into foley, going by this Breath of the Wild redub) — a trickle of reality from your window. An echo, maybe, of Wind Fish title track with its crashing waves and beeping seagulls.

The first multi-track release from Lindsay Lowend in years may be short, but it hits the spot: pure chiptune, VGM-style atmospheres, variegated beats, a lush environment. And if you're left wanting more, that's ok: LL 2020 - Volume 1 is just the beginning.

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• 🔔 You can listen to and purchase ($1, or more if you're feeling generous) Lindsay Lowend's LL 2020 - Volume 1 over on his Bandcamp.

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☟ Lindsay Lowend Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 QUARTETTO MINIMO — ATLANTICO

⌾ LISTEN TO QUARTETTO MINIMO, ATLANTICO⌾ RPG meets jazz in 'Atlantico', a sandswept soundscape from Madrid-founded, Paris-based band Quartetto Minimo. With a guitar melody – composed one summer in southern France – that summons a kind of intrepid videogame castle exploration and sparkling harp that harks back to faraway dark-wood-panelled rooms fable baroque (let's talk E.M.M.A's 'Mindmaze') a time and place, nowhere concrete, gets a bold, impressionistic illustration.

"It's funny that you said it sounds like baroque," guitar player Nicolas Arzimanoglou Mas tells us over email, "because for the past 2 years the bass player and I have actually been playing baroque music, with different instruments and bands of course."

Combine it with organic rough textured bass that feels noir and fantasy, and drums that give it pace and intrigue, and there is excitement, the urgency of jazz merging this into the battle music, penultimate level themes; in terms of real videogame comparisons, it sounds much like the 'Gerudo Valley' theme from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The medieval-summoning chamber aesthetics with kinetic energy of improvisation and quick tempo gives it that VGM dynamism. A new jazz release that crosses boundaries and conjures a world away from the traditional; it's chamber jazz.

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• 🔔 This track is taken from the album of the same name, Atlantico by Quartetto Minimo. Feel free to stream and/or download it on Bandcamp.

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☟ Quartetto Minimo Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 LEON LOUDER — INKJETS

⌾ LISTEN TO LEON LOUDER, INKJETS ⌾

The interior AI spirit of a vast nowhere machine ascending into the vaulted sky, an imperfect aurora twisting and writhing, flashing and fitting with error messages as circuitboards frazzle and crack back on the ground, 'Inkjets' is a masterpiece of malfunctions created by Canadian producer leon louder.

With modulated synth chords rising up and the gentle pulse of soft synth pingpong boops this dimension of glitch and detached sombre sadness spreads out like a blood stain, sounding very like the soundtrack Twilight Realm from Zelda: Twilight Princess in the process. Muffled crashes and electrical crackling, the far off explosions of processes and the evaporation of data: it is the death of a computer.

Despite the metallic tinkering and clicking, as if this machine is attempting to fix itself, the garbled synth doesn't form words; there's no reassurance. Instead the vox is virtuoso in rivers of hummingbird babbling. At 1:40 there's what sounds like the genuine voice of this digital organism itself, a plaintive imploring purr, before finally the chords thin out into nothingness.

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• 🔔 The fittingly glitch laden video for leon louder's 'Inkjets' was created by artist Chris Dorland ("who makes paintings with malfunctioning printers," explained Leon).

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☟ leon louder Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 LINDSAY LOWEND — GT40 (MAXO BOOTLEG)

Wow. Jumping off the back of the moving vehicle that is his October-released Skyriser EP, Maxo flies through the air somersaulting as he does and forward rolls landing very safely, spots something glinting in the sky and sprints to catch it as it falls – ping! It glows as it's caught, this object. Oh it's a USB! Maxo turns gold all over and spins off into the clouds. Centuries later he returns with it shining ever brighter: a bootleg remix of the classic 'GT40', opening track on Lindsay Lowend's pretty legendary Wind Fish EP, an ancient tome in the realm of internet music.

Though it runs along the same lines as the original, Maxo's version has of course had some magic infused; it's 20 seconds shorter and 500 times as fast. The breakcore values now imbued in this track give it a constant gleaming uzi-fire of hi-hats, the original lounge chords now rapid-fire and jolting, smeared like paint, rewound, scuttled and rebuilt; an intense keepsake of glitch. The bridge in the middle, usually a moody tract of VGM-juke, now has its sample mysteriously slowed-down as the beat continues its neon gallop to the finish. And Maxo on the back of a smaller flying whale uses the USB and opens a portal to the next area.

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• 🔔 Maxo's amazing track arrived at that tricky time of year to be noticed for anything other than a Christmas song: Christmas. So it may have been slept on by many. Including us. But don't worry because, well, just don't–it's bad for your health.

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☟ Maxo Internet Presence ☟
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☟ Antonio Mendez (fka Lindsay Lowend) Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ vimeo ⚘ bandcamp

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🌏 VISITS — MATSUSHIMA

It was January and the Japanese town of Shichigahma was barren, the rice fields turned to a thick mud and the roads steely and slippery with ice. Overnight, as we peered out from the warmth of our floral futon bed, the sky has turned into a whirling white blizzard.

We had followed Basho’s path to the north of Japan and found ourselves in a snow covered paradise. The next morning, in layers of thermals, gloves, and hats, we set off to seek out the famous islands of Matsushima. Passing the next door neighbour as we left we called "good morning." He was busy clearing his driveway of snow and told us to be careful; the houses in the town are built on high concrete structures with slopes down to the road which work as a defence against tsunamis. The slopes were slippery and wet with snow and ice. The neighbour asked us where we were going. "Walking." we replied.

We walked along the empty road, passing some builders who looked at us in blank disbelief and stuttered a shocked hello as we said hello to them. We hiked up to the local Shinto shrine, Tamonzan, with views that overlooked the sea. The view from Tamonzan shrine is the Grand View, number four of the four panoramic views of Matsushima. The famous islands are one of Japan’s top three scenic spots.

From where we stood the islands scattered below spread out beneath us, the pines that grew from them stretched and bent into horizon, etched on the landscape like a Hokusai piece. We sat in the cold on a bench and took in the seascape. The beauty of the famous coastline revealed itself as we watched industrial boats tick on their way to different islands on different bussiness. This is Japan, a view that could not be replicated anywhere in the world, every detail so Japanese in its origin. Even down to the threat of Tsunami, everything of this place is stitched with the centuries of people who have come here to view these islands and who have sighed at the beauty of the pines. Basho, the famous Japanese haiku poet said everything that needs to be said in his travel journal, Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Matsushima ah!
A-ah, Matsushima, ah!
Matsushima, ah!

The following day we caught the train from Shichgahama, ten minutes away, to Matsushima itself to seek out some more of those famous views and explore some of the islands on foot. At the station we left the small crowd of domestic tourists and followed three girls over the road to a stairway carved into some rock.

The steps we coated in ice and the girls we had followed were slipping and sliding their way up them. We followed them in the same manner, unaware of where we were going or where the stone staircase would lead us.

The stairs led to are red wooden bridge which connected to one of the island. The delicate beauty of the perfect islands and their beaches covered in snow was almost unbelievable. Like a scene from a Japanese postcard of times long before. We ran around the small paths made by footsteps epochs before ours, exploring the island with excitement.

It turns out that The Legend of Zelda is actual real life. Well, that’s the funny thing about being in Japan: after playing Japanese games for so many years, everything in the games starts to makes sense and come to life. The paths and the forests, the small statues and the secret holes. It was like entering into an actual Zelda game.

This particular island had home to many different hermits over the years, each now represented by small statues. We clamber through the holes and caves that the hermits had inhabited. We hid and laughed at how we even found ourselves here on snowy islands in a world of such delicate details - we were from grey old England, this isn't where we were meant to be. We stood and listened to the steady drip of the snow melting from the thatched roof of the Shinto shrine and falling to the smell of the carpet of wet pine needles. This was paradise, not the desert-islands-tropical-sunshine paradise but a paradise so perfect and ancient it felt like being back in the past before everything that exists now.

We moved onward, this time further up the shoreline to Fukuura Islands, a more famous and therefore much more touristy island. To get onto Fukuurajima (福浦島) we had to pay a small amount to cross the long red bridge connecting it to the mainland. There were tourists milling around from other towns that had braved the cold to see the famous view of Matsushima. Once across the bridge we took the long path around the coast, weaving past a cafe where we bought a little daruma doll with a fortune rolled up inside of it and looped around up wooded paths to a view across the sea of some of the 260 islands of Matsushima.

We sat on a bench and, in a very British way, ate the sandwiches we had made for ourselves in the morning. Basho was with us as we sat and looked at the pines in the breeze. We read sections on Narrow Road to the Deep North and looked out at the different hunks of rocks glowing white in the dazzling January sun, the land rising and curving out of the blue like it always had done, like it was when Basho had sat here on his journey and questioned how something so beautiful could exist.

Basho’s land is still here. The perfect scattering of pine-clad islands, the textured blue seas, the sandy beaches, the waving pines and the winding paths are still here. Tourists are here too, but not lots of them and, if you come in the cold of the snow, you can find yourself a spot to be alone. Sit and look across the famous vista of the pine islands, they have survived storms and tsunamis, look across the bay and see Japan as it was centuries ago, see the islands as they were and go on your own discovery of the deep untrod road to the north of Japan.

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REBECCA ALICE SAUNDERS
@yesnotravel

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🌏 VISITS TOKYO — ON THE TRAIL OF MIKAO USUI'S GRAVE

A day or two into our big Japan trip we received a message. A relative who is trained in Reiki healing had heard of our travels and wanted to see if we could do something for her. The message read a little like this:

"Are you in Japan now? I wonder if you can find the founder of Reiki's grave before you leave Tokyo, he is buried somewhere but I do not know where. If you find it will you pay respects for me?"

The message came to us like the ghost that suddenly follows you around in Zelda: Link's Awakening, and only disappears once you find the old house by the sea and then take it back to its grave (spoiler—sorry).

We had a couple of free days left in the city and decided that finding the grave might be an intriguing adventure. The hunt was on. But this was not our pilgrimage and we really had not much more than an vague idea of what Reiki stood for. More interested in exploring parts of the city that we may've otherwise missed, we set off one cold January morning in search of the final resting place of Miako Usui.

We found warmth in a the lung-drenching smoke filled section of the Excelsior Caffe in Sasakua station. The fist place to look was inevitably the internet. A lady had been to the grave and in true brilliant internet fashion had created a step by step map to the grave. Nothing is a hidden secret anymore.

A few metro rides to Shin-Koenji station to where the map led us. We came out of the station and the harshness of the bitterwinter hit our lungs and hurt. This was a local area with bike stands and poodle parlours patterned along small classically Asian lanes. Nothing was unusual or notable about this district and we wondered fleetingly what we were doing here; Tokyo is full of wonders and here we were, iPad in freezing hand trying to find notable points at which to turn left or right.

We had to walk along the wall of the graveyard for a long time and then we turned right and a gate appeared. We'd found a graveyard – this we thought was the accomplishment – this was meant to be the place where Mikao Usui was laid to rest. Clanking old watering cans and wooden buckets were neatly piled in sheds. Big sticks with Japanese wording painted diligently along them in memory of a lost one and graves attended to with the uppermost care.

The rows of dark grey stone felt tall and foreboding. A foreign graveyard, line upon line of graves and no clue which direction to take. The sun was sinking into the horizon and it was getting colder, our breath billowed out alive among the company of the dead as we slowly stepped along the small stone pathways, inspecting graves and trying to identify details. Was it this one? This stone looks the right shape. This one has the right characters but not quite.

Then we found it. The jagged shape of the memorial stone stood out and the bold character made sense. This was where Mikao Usui was buried and that message all the way from Somerset had lead us to here. A man came by as we stood. He bowed to the grave, lit an incense stick and took a moment for himself. We busied ourselves in looking at other graves, not wanting to disturb him. He left and went on with his commute home, this act seemed so normal to him that it must be part of his daily ritual. We wondered how many people visit this quiet spot in a big city to pay their respects. Buried at our feet was a man who stated a global spiritual practice and had effected many people's lives. His influence was outliving him, in death he continues to reach out with his teachings.

We decided we should find out what the memorial stone was telling us. The large kanji at the top of the memorial reads,

"Memorial of Usui Sensei's virtue."

"He never showed off and always had a smile on his face; he was also very courageous in the face of adversity. He was, at the same time, a very cautious person. His talents were many." You can read the whole translation here.

We left Mikao Usui's resting place and went back along the path we came. Returning to Sasazuka on the metro, back to the city buzz of the city as night fell but we did not leave all of Usui-san there. He came with us in his teachings. Like a key to the next part of the game, an entrance to the dungeon that would lead us to level up.

That night we sat down and wrote a message back to our Aunt:

'I found Mikao Usui's resting place and memorial in a beautiful graveyard and stood for a while and thought about his teachings.
Don't anger
Don't worry
Be thankful
Work hard
Be kind
Thank you for leading me there.

REBECCA ALICE SAUNDERS
@yesnotravel

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⟡ All photographs © 2016, yes/no. Please credit if used ⟡

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