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While Steve Davis may be scouring the second hand market, filling his collection with top dollar psyche obscurities, it's fair to say that Moonboots and Boardman have the rare Balearic market covered.
From the sunkissed tones of North African thumb piano to the camp sleaze of European disco, Aficionado have everything in your wantlist and more, those mythical records you need but have yet to imagine.
One such artefact is a collection of future primitive symphonies from the unheralded Len Leise, a visionary composer of organic soundscapes who lives hidden in the same dreamworld as his music. Rumours are rife as to where Aficionado found this cassette of rainforest swelter, some say Moon found it buried in a vault in the red sand of the outback, while others suggest Jason discovered the tape propping open a door in a backstreet off La Rambla.
Either way, we're spared the exhaustive search thanks to this gorgeous 12" vinyl pressing.
The five tracks drift out the speakers like the perfumed smoke of ceremonial incense, filling the senses with the sound and feeling of a distant land, field recordings from another time and place.
In its original form, 'Asmat Images' pairs tribal rhythms and rich organic textures, balancing earthy tones with the gentle melody of rainfall on cracked soil, while the ambient mix echoes the tranquility of a Jan Hammer soundtrack thanks to widescreen guitar licks.
'Another Place' offers a change of pace as the rattle and thump of a lost NY house classic blur into the gentle lilt of a tropical ceremony while exotic keys flourish from the humidity of new age pads.
The sweet fragrance of cherry blossom runs through the eastern tones of 'Ryoshi's Garden' as Leise invites us to drink rice wine with a drunken master.
We say goodbye with the gorgeous melancholy of 'Spirit of Ssanyu', a heartbreaking blend of atmospheric guitar, the Fairlight harmonies of the Art Of Noise and celestial vocals.
Expressionistic, colourful and deeply transportive, Leise delivers a Balearic masterpiece on Manchester's essential label.
Officially Aficionado. |
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