Nobukazu Takemura

I have long held the belief that electronic artists should be touring assembly rooms in grade schools rather than bars and clubs. Adults with their brains soaked in artificial joy would never be able to enjoy these sounds half as much as a child with an alert, active and imaginative mind can. Takemura would be a good artist to start with, due to the strong children's story motif that runs through his album with such tracks as "One Day," "White Sheep and Small Light," "A Theme For Little Animals" and "In The Room-Roof-Wood." There are also wonderful IDM tracks like "Anemometer" and "Sign" one might use to illustrate the more upbeat parts of a story. For the more climatic parts, there are the more wonky, Farmers Manual-esque tracks like "Honey Comb" and "Trampoline." Takemura might want to take future albums in a new direction by actually having a narrator read to these tracks, or the listener could simply read stories to kids while soundtracked by this CD. Did I mention that Hoshi NoKoe has gorgeous hand drawn liner art by Reiko Inoue that's worthy of a child's story in itself?