DJ Kawasaki - BEAUTIFUL

[JSngry]

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=fz8...p%3Bincl_cs%3D1

Quoth The Stards:

One of the most soulful sets we've heard in years from the Japanese scene -- a well-named beautiful little record from DJ Kawasaki, filled with great guest work from a host of overseas talents! The style here is deeply soulful club at its best -- of the sort that was coming out strongly from Japan at the end of the 90s, but which hasn't sounded this great in many many years. Kawaski keeps things simple and straightforward here -- often using jazzier instrumentation amidst the warm basslines and keyboards that propel the tunes -- and the rhythms themselves are much more in a back to basics mode than some of the more complicated, more skittish beats that have been hitting these shores of late. But possibly best of all are the singers on the record -- a well-rounded batch of vocalists who further the soulful agenda of the set, including Angela Johnson, Terrance Downs, Lady Alma, Ernesto, Rasiyah, and Karin. Titles include "Blazin", "Like Thunder", "The Love Of Music", "Beautiful", "Save Your Love", "Promises", "Shooting Star", and "I'm So On Your Mind".

I say:

Yeah, whatever! The songcraft is Sugar Pop Superbity at it's absolute finest, the grooves are real, as simple or as deep as you want/need them to be, the production is impeccable beyond compare, rewarding mindless and anally analytical listening alike, and the end result is Sheer Pop Perfection. Best of all, it's already two years old, so it's stood the test of time!

And I add:

Best of all, I dug this one so much that I went ahead and bought DJK's latest release, and guess what? It's good, but in no ways pop-magical like this one is. Which means that unless the guy catches lightening in a bottle again, this is the only one of his records you're really ever gonna want/need to have. What with J-prices and all, this is truly good news!

In short, if you've ever had one (or fifty bajillion) of those Pop Moments where you know that the music is so damn lightweight, yet it's so damn good any way, maybe because it is so damn lightweight, so lightweight that it picks you up and carries you off into a temporarily eternal world where everything and everybody is floating on a blissful cloud of joyous popgroove and all you got to do to keep it alive is to just let go for a little while and fly right along with it, even though you know it's ultimately not gonna do anything more - not one damn thing more - than what it's doing right now, right now it's the best damn thing you could ask for just because it is so damn good, if you've ever had one (or fifty bajillion) of those Pop Moments, then hey -

This is an album full of 'em.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Edited April 14, 2008 by Man with the Golden Arm

[JSngry]

Well, that's nice, and she shore is purty and all , and she even sings on his 2nd album (the one that's not as good as the one that she's on the cover of, well, actually, one of the ones that she's on the cover of, because she's on the cover of his remix album too), and there's a link to the video for that song in the sexy video thread (and it really is a sexy video, very coy) but really, I am making this recommendation for the music alone. It is Popalicious in a young-ish but non-kiddie type way, and boy howdy, does it satisfy!!!

Edited April 14, 2008 by JSngry