Rylie Blogs Rarely ／ blog.ryliejamesthomas.net

I am really happy with this.

I’ve been listening to a lot of 80’s J-Pop. And, apart from enjoying it a lot, find myself often frustrated that the introductions—a standard ingredient in the formula—are often the best parts of the songs, and also often quite different to the rest of the melody.

I made a half-serious resolution to make an album of only J-Pop intros, thinking I might make one or two. I was really pleased to find a lot more in the results. It’s gotten me excited about the idea of making things designed to not hold a person’s attention. A stimulating place where attention drifts in and out, and gives a person a place to think and daydream. I find myself alternately keenly focused on every element of the short looped clips and having productive thinking time. I guess these clips are all of moments in songs that are particularly transitory, and dare I say the overused term: liminal. It’s pretty easy to join the dots between this album and other works of mine.

I also left a comment on the album’s Bandcamp page calling these ‘serving suggestions’. They loop perfectly, so you can listen to any one as long as you wish. I could probably listen to Dancing Hero (modern version) all day, maybe all day every day.

As an interesting piece of trivia: this release is exactly seven years after my last album (which has been tidied up a bit and it also on Bandcamp).