Nobukazu Takemura's best album is "Child and Magic."
Best integration of his poly-stylism within his larger melodic,
faux-naif thing. Lots and lots of strong tracks.
Funfair would be my second choice.
Otherwise....his albums tend to have a few good or even great things
amidst exhausting mediocrity, which was my problem with Scope and
even more so with Hoshi No Koe.
There's a certain thing he gets into a lot on the somewhat dashed-off
Miyake albums, where he uses samples of conventional instruments to
make minimal, classical-ish (or, at least, "composed") music. at a
certain point the pieces sound like midi demos of pieces that should
have just been played by real instruments for more nuance. Or
something; frustratingly close to being very good.
But, again, somehow his minimal quasi-chamber pieces on "Child and
Magic" just sound wonderful. Ah, those lyrical horn melodies...and
that beautiful, shimmering, almost "Pet Sounds"-like track that
closes the album....mm...
k
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