What a coincidence. It was just yesterday that we posted about the KALAYCILAR samples featured on the latest episode of Inu-mimi Radio, and right on cue, the limited CD we mentoned a few weeks back arrived on our doorstep. After all the waiting (hopefully it will hit iTunes any day now), we have finally prepared our thoughts regarding this short-but-sweet album.
Performed and arranged by Keita Egusa and produced by wappa over at Dog Ear Records himself, there’s just under fifteen minutes of music to enjoy. Yeah, not a lot, but enjoy it you shall! It seems as though wappa is excited about it as it’s one of his first producer credits.
Hit the jump to find out why you should hunt down this rare disc from Dog Ear Records.
While all the music here is solo piano, the sound is quite large, most likely thanks to recording, mixing, and mastering engineer Takehiko Kamada. The opening track, “KALAYCILAR” is a bassy and energetic traditional piece from Turkey that sounds like it could be a battle theme from one of your favorite RPGs. It bounces all over the place almost unpredictably, and I can’t figure out the time siganture, making me wonder what the sheet music looks like.
Another traditional composition follows, this time from Morocco, titled “Aisha.” It has a mean bassline that gives the piece a groovin’ edge. The descending melody lines are constantly moving and give the impression that something terrible is about to happen. I really am loving the bass on this!
The final track is “Simoon,” which may sound familiar to some as it’s an arrangement of a Yellow Magic Orchestra piece composed by Haruomi Hosono. The arrangement sports an upbeat honky-tonk feel with staccato chords on every quarter note and a cheerful melody weaving throughout. Sounds like a song fit for a pub!
Well, that’s it. Short but sweet. I’d highly recommend trying to get your hands on one of these discs, as there are only 500 in existence. Again, DER recently put them up for sale on their website, so hopefully you have a friend in Japan who can pick one up for you for 1,000 yen. If you can’t manage to score a copy, at least you can enjoy the music via the pending iTunes release.
Do you have a favorite release from Dog Ear Records? Are you more interested in hunting this one down in a physical format, or do you want to avoid the hassle and check it out on iTunes?
Tags: Dog Ear Records, iTunes, KALAYCILAR, Keita Egusa, Piano, Reviews, wappa
