It’s raining but Ega Hiroshi and I are heading this afternoon to hear a lecture and performance by Phil Niblock. He has come to Tokyo to do some shows and talk. I only know of his long long long held tones, which are synchronous with other NY minimalists circa late 50′s to mid 90′s – Tony Conrad or the stuff that the Dream Syndicate produced with Velvet Underground leftovers like John Cale. Listening to many new albums lately I ran into one by Arthur Russell which reminded me a lot of Mr. Niblock, it’s called ‘Tower of meaning’ and sounds like almost an hour of slow melodic honking. Turns out Phil produced some of Arthur’s work, that was a real surprise. Over this side of the world you kind of forget how close all these guys must have been, gay-experimentatal-disco-producer is only a step away from bearded-minimalist-composer. Other great new listens from the past two weeks include: Greatest hits of Europe’s Sentimental Minimal-Synth Scene, Occult Folk from U.K. and Italo-disco covers of the Blade Runner Soundtrack.