Rare Mint Nectar

I've been getting new sonic loveliness in droves over the past few weeks, the most absolutely SUBLIME of which is Especial's new Inspiration Exclusives set. I will keep saying that Ryota Nozaki is the god of the world, because he is. That said, the beautiful Okino brothers (I am madly in love with both Shuya and Yoshihiro, and have been for years) have a miraculous touch when it comes to producing seminal, virtually flawlessly lustrous comps, with Crossbreed 1 + 2, For KJM, and now this, ranking alongside Mo' Wax's Jazz Hip Jap and the first Bossa Trés Jazz and More Bossa sets as, not only the best Japanese electronic comps of all-time, but the best electronic comps, period.
This bit of sun-kissed magnificence starts with the inimitable Miss Bembe Segue narrating a brief sonic interlude over warm keys, and it's instant ascend into orbit from that moment on. DJ Spinna drops some beautiful female-vocal driven heavy broken beat soul, and the man like Fukutomi does the same, with more of a syncopated house touch. Domu gives Simon Grey's lovely-as-male-soul-vocals-get "Galactica Suite" a locomotive treatment worthy of Afronaught's "Transcend Me" and Nozaki's seminal remix of Mondo Grosso + Tania Maria's "Samba do Gato." As for Ryota-san's contribution here, he offers the beat-skipping, Ashley Slater-aided "Summer On My Mind," and though it's not the most beautiful thing he's ever done, it's still shatteringly brilliant. Best on the whole set though may be DJ Mitsu the Beats' MIRACULOUS collaboration with gorgeous Ivanna Santilli, "Living Love Song." What makes this rather straight nu soul/r + b over a ribcage-shattering beat song so trascendent is rather ineffable, I'll say you just have to hear it (if you absolutely need a reference point, think Dred Scott's remixes for Monday Michiru back in the day, times 1000 per the sonic beauty quotient).
Also in the last few rounds of releases was the new Incognito remix comp, Feed Your Soul. Incog's record for the last few releases has been that the original albums are a tad bland, with one or two cuts standing out as lovely on each, then the remix albums come and tend to be blindingly radiant. (The Love x Love remix collection also stands as one of the loveliest panoramas of the Technicolor Japanese scene.) This time, though it's for now a Japan-only release, the remixes originate elsewhere on the map, and as a result, it has moments of beauty but doesn't devastate throughout. Still, its best is sure to be one of the dancefloor killers of the year – Yam Who's F*CKING RESPLENDENT fast-clip-house rethink of the Carleen Anderson-aided "Show Me Love," the original of which registered as another faux-bossa not as good as "Principles of Love." Now, it's a whole other beast, careening along at "Evil Vibrations" tempo with Carleen's vocals magnified to the point where she HAS NOT sounded more sublime since the Young Disciples days.
Other releases new to come in include the Nostalgia 77 Octet live disc (beautiful cover by Nothing to See Here, and the N77 live set moves along at a strident breaks tempo that has less of a jazz-dance flavour than you might expect, but retains plenty of lustrous charm, and the 18-minute bonus "Hope Suite" is pure Archie Shepp-circa-Attica Blues righteous soul majesty), the new Rosalia de Souza (way too trad bossa, but I am PRAYING for a remix collection since Garota Diferente is for me possibly the best Brazilian electronic collection... ever.), the Dom Servini-selected Nascene Beginner's Guide to Afro-Lounge (mostly quality, and better than the rest in the series), Akiko's much-heralded and Sunaga T-produced Mood Indigo (yes, I know I'm late on this; I'll just say that her take on "Little B's Poem" is exquisite, but I can't ever think of anything but the pristine Doug + Jean version, and I'm more taken with the Monday-circa-Moods-esque "I Love You"), and the 3-CD Funk Como Le Gusta collection.
The upshot of all this loveliness is that I've finished a new disc (sonically at least, still no cover yet) going by the moniker Rare Mint Nectar. Here's the track list:

Disc 1:
Timi Yuro, It'll Never Be Over for Me
Saint Etienne, Sun in My Morning
Nina + Chris, Agua
Jazztronik + Marcos Valle, Rio, Sol e Mar
Cecilia Stalin, Bogaloo Boy
Incognito + Carleen Anderson, Show Me Love (Yam Who? Version)
Cosmic Village, TBD (Restless Soul Mix)
DJ Mitsu the Beats + Ivana Santilli, Living Love Song
Akiko, I Love You
4Hero, Les Fleur
Oliver Nelson, Stolen Moments (Telefon Tel Aviv Version)
The Mothers + Zero 7, You
Panorama, Bikini
Lou Rawls, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (awayTeam Mix)
Walter Jackson, It's an Uphill Climb to the Bottom

Disc 2:
Mable John, Able Mable
Alice Russell, All Over Now
Mo' Horizons, Foto Viva
Offworld + Marcos Valle, Black Magic Power Ride
Jazztronik + Rob Galliano, City of the Rivers (Riding the B Train)
Simon Grey, The Galactica Suite (Domu Mix)
Isabelle Antena, Easy Does It (La Malice Mix)
Louie Vega + Blaze, Love is on the Way
Funk Como Le Gusta, Latina
Soil + Pimp Sessions, Waltz for Goddess
The Nostalgia 77 Octet, The Hope Suite (Parts 1, 2 + 3)
Hector Rivera, Ya Se Formo

Cover soon come... xo, B.