More from the Liquidator Dossier

Hello again all. Though the things I love will become self-evident soon enough, I felt like some more background was in order before I move on to the business of narcissistically chronicling my life. So I ransacked my Friendster profile to cull some of my favorite things (filed under Hobbies + Interests): Brazilian/Latin music, jazz-dance, deep house, Afro-Cuban, drum and bass, vocals, Japanese/British film, 40s-60s Hollywood film, jazz-minded graphic design, Technicolor/Eastmancolor, saké, Straight No Chaser, Wallpaper, world domination by aesthetic means, and, first and foremost, Latin boys and South Asian-via-British boys. Yes, as anyone who talks to me at any length knows (and though I always skirted it on the Liquidator site because I wanted it to be more about the music and culture), I am a big old fag (who loves porn). Though this is linked up to the Liq site, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to maintain a blog without having fag porn involved. That said, I do hope to keep my acid jazz/nu jazz/Brazilian and Latin beat-loving friends stopping in often as well. Half the reason I'm starting this blog is because, while I've certainly found some great blogs in the last few weeks of digging, I didn't find any with my beathead mindset. And if I happen to find a Latin or South Asian husband who digs my brand of music in the process, that'll be all the better (hint hint).

I am also Ed-in-Chief of a fag magazine that I'm trying to inject some more culture into, so occasionally I may quote/hijack myself, like right now, as I mused this week about the mighty Jazztronik, who is truly the god of my universe. So...

KYOTO SAO PAOLO
To some of us, Japanese electronic producer Jazztronik (a.k.a. Ryota Nozaki) is the god of all things sonic in this world, period. Plaintive piano elegies, strident leagues-deep downtempo, transcendent string-drenched disco house, volcanically combustible Afro-Latin/Brazilian dancefloor killers – Nozaki-san can do it all, and that’s why we fancy him the most radiant composer/arranger/producer since Burt Bacharach. Having started in Yellow Productions’ Bossa Tres Jazz family, Ryota has gone on to outdo himself at every turn, inspiring a truly disbelieving no-he-didn’t by topping the splendor of 2004’s Nana-Iro with last year’s miraculous Cannibal Rock (featuring Flora Purim and Rob Galliano), and chasing it with the brand new En:Code (with guest turns by Valerie Etienne – and Brasileiro deity Marcos Valle). His remixes (for Mondo Grosso (the sublime Tania Maria-aided "Samba do Gato"), Monday Michiru ("Talk"), Negrocan ("Mare Baixa")…) are every bit as essential.

I'll post a full review of En:Code soon, but since (I'll say it again), my sonic world does revolve around Nozaki, I thought I'd tag this on. And I'm including the Nana-Iro cover simply because it's FUCKING BEAUTIFUL... xo, B.