{"id":5090,"date":"2015-12-31T14:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2015\/12\/31\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon\/"},"modified":"2015-12-31T14:00:03","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T14:00:03","slug":"songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs We Love: Tokyo Black Star, &#039;Mitokomon&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a class=\"colorbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\">Piotr Orlov<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/24\/tokyo-black-star-d6ea25aa73e665bc21887f4fd5689bc4c0908717-s1100-c15.jpeg\" title=\"Tokyo Black Star.\" alt=\"Tokyo Black Star.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\">Mitokomon<\/a><\/h3>\n<div>\n<div><strong><\/strong> <strong>8:32<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\"><span>Playlist<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\"><span>Embed<\/span><\/a>\n<div><label>Embed<\/label> <button>Close embed overlay<\/button> <strong><code><strong>&lt;<\/b>iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/460948435\/460948805\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\"&gt;<\/strong><\/code><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\">Purchase<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Tokyo Black Star. <strong>Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/24\/tokyo-black-star_edo-express-ep_sq-51a466e1247285d33721dd0063c62dd6ef2e4ebb-s800-c15.jpg\" title=\"Edo Express EP (World Famous)\" alt=\"Edo Express EP (World Famous)\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though he possesses an unquestioned pedigree in straight-ahead house and techno circles, Alex Prat (a.k.a. Alex From Tokyo, co-founder of <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/tokyoblackstar\" target=\"_blank\">Tokyo Black Star<\/a>) is a musical nomad who looks to reveal his wandering spirit at every turn. That&#8217;s the vibe at the heart of &#8220;Mitokomon,&#8221; the globally curious opening track from the <em>Edo Express<\/em> EP, the group&#8217;s first new release in years. Prat recorded it with his Tokyo Black Star partner, engineer Isao Kumano, and modular-synthesizer operator Kenichi Takagi; together, they explore the sounds and rhythms of far-off lands at a studio in the heart of Japan&#8217;s capital.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mitokomon&#8221; centers on the analog synth and rudimentary drum-machine textures of 1970s West African musicians (and budding technologists) such as <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Bebey\" target=\"_blank\">Francis Bebey<\/a> and <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/225717023\/william-onyeabor\" target=\"_blank\">William Onyeabor<\/a>, whose recently rescued sounds once pointed to the future and now paint a nostalgic, acoustically warm picture of globalization. Amid the twin layers of polyrhythmic percussion, as well as keyboards and a guitar that root the track in a quasi-reggae skank, lies an elongated, repeating synthesizer line of ambient panoramic beauty. Transpose that line to outlier orchestral timbres, then play it behind 70mm scenes of a rider in the desert, and you could mistake this music for a classic Ennio Morricone &#8220;Spaghetti Western&#8221; score (another era&#8217;s global-culture mashup). When all the melodic elements finally drop off, what&#8217;s left sounds uncannily like the skeletal beat to Strafe&#8217;s 1984 electro classic &#8220;<a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YWUpgzRK1vc\" target=\"_blank\">Set It Off<\/a>,&#8221; at which point Prat&#8217;s original pedigree comes into focus once again.<\/p>\n<p><em>Edo Express<\/em> EP is out now on World Famous.<\/p>\n<p><em>This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service &#8211; if this is your content and you&#8217;re reading it on someone else&#8217;s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\" class=\"colorbox\" title=\"Songs We Love: Tokyo Black Star, &#039;Mitokomon&#039;\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/24\/tokyo-black-star-d6ea25aa73e665bc21887f4fd5689bc4c0908717-s1100-c15.jpeg\" title=\"Tokyo Black Star.\" alt=\"Tokyo Black Star.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\">Mitokomon<\/a><\/h3>\n<div>\n<div><strong><\/strong> <strong>8:32<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\"><span>Playlist<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\"><span>Embed<\/span><\/a>\n<div><label>Embed<\/label> <button>Close embed overlay<\/button> <strong><code><strong>&lt;<\/b>iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/460948435\/460948805\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\"&gt;<\/strong><\/code><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/31\/460948435\/songs-we-love-tokyo-black-star-mitokomon?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world#\">Purchase<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Tokyo Black Star. <strong>Courtesy of the artist<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/24\/tokyo-black-star_edo-express-ep_sq-51a466e1247285d33721dd0063c62dd6ef2e4ebb-s800-c15.jpg\" title=\"Edo Express EP (World Famous)\" alt=\"Edo Express EP (World Famous)\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though he possesses an unquestioned pedigree in straight-ahead house and techno circles, Alex Prat (a.k.a. Alex From Tokyo, co-founder of <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/tokyoblackstar\" target=\"_blank\">Tokyo Black Star<\/a>) is a musical nomad who looks to reveal his wandering spirit at every turn. That&#8217;s the vibe at the heart of &#8220;Mitokomon,&#8221; the globally curious opening track from the <em>Edo Express<\/em> EP, the group&#8217;s first new release in years. Prat recorded it with his Tokyo Black Star partner, engineer Isao Kumano, and modular-synthesizer operator Kenichi Takagi; together, they explore the sounds and rhythms of far-off lands at a studio in the heart of Japan&#8217;s capital.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mitokomon&#8221; centers on the analog synth and rudimentary drum-machine textures of 1970s West African musicians (and budding technologists) such as <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Bebey\" target=\"_blank\">Francis Bebey<\/a> and <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/225717023\/william-onyeabor\" target=\"_blank\">William Onyeabor<\/a>, whose recently rescued sounds once pointed to the future and now paint a nostalgic, acoustically warm picture of globalization. Amid the twin layers of polyrhythmic percussion, as well as keyboards and a guitar that root the track in a quasi-reggae skank, lies an elongated, repeating synthesizer line of ambient panoramic beauty. Transpose that line to outlier orchestral timbres, then play it behind 70mm scenes of a rider in the desert, and you could mistake this music for a classic Ennio Morricone &#8220;Spaghetti Western&#8221; score (another era&#8217;s global-culture mashup). When all the melodic elements finally drop off, what&#8217;s left sounds uncannily like the skeletal beat to Strafe&#8217;s 1984 electro classic &#8220;<a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YWUpgzRK1vc\" target=\"_blank\">Set It Off<\/a>,&#8221; at which point Prat&#8217;s original pedigree comes into focus once again.<\/p>\n<p><em>Edo Express<\/em> EP is out now on World Famous.<\/p>\n<p><em>This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service &#8211; if this is your content and you&#8217;re reading it on someone else&#8217;s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}