Review: The Jon Hassell retrospective series from Ndeya Records continues with 'The Living City', which captures the late composer at his creative peak, performing live at the renowned Winter Garden concert hall in New York in the 1980s. Forming something of an escape from his jazz-influenced ambient works, this performance instead shows off Hassell's interest in the popularity of sampling hip-hop at the time. With influences from Public Enemy to Teo Macero, this is a whirlwind of sampled noise and snippets, which all continually loop and circle back on each other in a mood of mild yet evocative madness.
Review: The film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, a worldwide sensation upon its release in 1983, showcased Sakamoto's emerging talent as a composer - alongside his acting role - and the soundtrack became instantly popular, establishing Sakamoto as a global music icon. These solo piano versions of it were recorded at Onkyo Haus in Tokyo and initially released as part of the Japanese cassette book project Avec Piano, and now, not before town, are finally getting their first full international release.
Review: The work of legendary drummer turned library musician Klaus Weiss continues to be reissued. For this series, Dynamite Cuts are looking back on a mid-1970s series of EPs released by Weiss originally for the famous library Sound Music. Carrying a minimal production that still has appeal for the modern listener (don't Dynamite know it), the four tracks here are curt, squelchy and beat-centric, with highlights including the clavichord-wacky 'Frogs', the sonically obese 'Productive Facilities', and the space-age drum freakout 'Coordinates Meeting'.
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