Dinner Music 117: The weekly lineup
city pop, left-field 90s acid jazz, Moroccan folk-funk
This week we’re listening to city pop, left-field 90s acid jazz, Moroccan folk-funk and groovy delights. Overall, it’s a synth-heavy week (my favorite kind of week). We’re headed to the thick of winter here and I want anything warm, including sound. Not necessarily golden sunshine (though there is some of that), more of an analog kind of fuzz or grain.
We begin with my wink to David Lynch, who used the track Something Wicked This Way Comes from Barry Adamson’s Oedipus Schmoedipus in Lost Highways scene. Is it one of the freakiest movie scenes I’ve ever seen? Yes, maybe. But it rocks. And so does Adamson’s album with its seedy jazz, lounge and pop elements strung over nineties electronic touches. We move into Mami Ayukawa’s city pop album from the late eighties. Sunshine vocals, round and groovy bass lines, funk-laden guitar, disco nods. Small moments of computerized orchestration mixed into the studio gloss of the rest of the sounds that give the album a hint of grunge. If you like Sunshower by Taeko Onuki (from Dinner Music 100), you’ll like this. Next, we have grooves smooth as a well mixed martini. Rene & Angela’s Street Called Desire is like a bridge between disco and nineties R&B, keenly danceable and easy listening. Like Ayukawa, we get heavy, boogie-led bass lines, but the vocals here carry city grit from two funk and soul heavy-hitters. At the end, the two did not get along and evidently finished album separately, communicating only through lawyers. Great music doesn’t come easy. After hearing only one song off Golden Hands, I instantly bought the record (there’s still a few left). Released only on cassette in 1978, this album is psychedelic folk-rock magic. If you love rock and roll, the dirty and psychic kind, that Almost Famous-kind of feeling, don’t miss this one. We end with Real Sugar by Boy Deco, an album steeped in California sunshine.
Enjoy.
Or listen on Apple Music.
Paid subscribers have access to the full Dinner Music archive (via Spotify and Apple Music), an after hours playlist, a “New York Grooves” playlist and more — hundreds of hours of groove, soul, jazz, folk, samba, hi-life, disco, electro, post-punk, funk and more, lovingly selected.
Monday
Oedipus Schmoedipus - Barry Adamson (1996)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
新視界 (trans: New Angle) - Mami Ayukawa (1987)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
Wednesday
Street Called Desire - Rene & Angela (1985)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Golden Hands - Golden Hands (1978)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Real Sugar - Boy Deco (2024)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with
Crisped cauliflower “steaks” and orzo salad. Intrigued by how much this looks like a fried chicken salad.
‘Beach Goth’ dark rosé. As an goth-adjacent person who likes dark rosé, this appeals to me. Want a rosé for winter time? Look no further.
How to support LA restaurants. “But rebuilding after a major natural disaster like this is a marathon and not a sprint, and if we want to rebuild these communities, we need to ensure that there are restaurants, and bakeries, and coffee shops standing as well.”
A very good mix from Sofie K on NTS. Deep selection. I tried to buy a few of these for my set last weekend and they are not easy to find (digitally, at least). As annoying as that was for me, it is the mark of someone who is a very good digger and, alas, this is a very very groovy mix that I’ve had on a lot over the weekend.
This recent essay from Zadie Smith. “At least red-pilling contributes to the vote count. The dark comedy of it all is that large sections of the left only really successfully applied Gleichschaltung to themselves.”
Very good David Lynch moments:
David Lynch speaking in a recent documentary on The Beatles:
Thank you, thank you.
If you’re looking for ways to help out folks in LA, this a great place to start.
I’m glad I discovered this Ayukawa album. Sunshower is one of my favorites so this is great!