World's End Girlfriend - Farewell Kingdom

this is one of those albums that makes you sit up and take notice, it's truly fantastic stuff. unfortunately it's very difficult to get hold of (japan only release i think) though a few copies did manage to get over to the UK. it's got everything from classical guitar, violin and piano etc to glitched up noise and fast paced beats, usually all in the space of just one track. the tracks tend to start of with minimal sounds, progressing through electronic bits and bobs and classical instruments to work up to a cresendo of beats and noise and then fall back to ambient sounds. it's a beautiful album that has spread widely on p2p programmes just through recommendations and word of mouth, i've yet to meet someone who hasn't instantly liked this album, a real winner.

What a find this was! Picked it up after being recommended it by a member of Mono (Japanese post rock outfit) and it's quite something. There's a lot of instrumentation here, from violins to live bass and guitars, etc. As tracks progress they often become increasingly glitched-up and distorted, before ending in a cacophony of M83-style noise. The production is very crisp which makes it sound a little cheesy on occasion, but in general this record is way ahead of its time. It's a shame that his stuff is so hard to get hold of because I'd love to see what he's doing these days.