Tracks Of Do Or Die

Lately, when my boss is out of the office and we're able to sneak a CD or two into the player that isn't Barry Manilow or or some variation of a Twilight movie soundtrack, Arturo and I will toss in Ki-Oku , the 1996 collaboration by Japanese turntablist DJ Krush and jazz trumpeter Toshinori Konda and we guarantee a sell out. At first we had only one in stock, and we were playing it because Arturo was thinking about buying it himself, and four people came into the store immediately and asked what it was and wanted to take it off our hands. I special ordered two of them this week, and sold them both within the same hour. Almost simultaneously, because while one guy was being taken over to the DJ Krush section to buy one unopened copy, a woman was over at the CD player inspecting the CD case, actually disappointed that it wasn't a new Chris Botti CD.

There seems to be an older generation getting into ambient these days -- perhaps being exposed to watered-down world music from the Putayamo label while sipping lattes in Starbucks. But all of this just goes to show that sometimes we can sell an album if we get the right feel for our crowd, that doesn't have to be Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, because those overexposed artists are already spending millions selling themselves. And it's not even that Ki-Oku is all that spectacular an album, either. It's a little too smooth-jazzy for my tastes, especially considering Kondo is known for working with the likes of John Zorn. Not bad I guess, but nothing I'd rush out and get myself personally.

But the thing is, we can sell this kind of thing, and if management could realize this they might just take a risk every once in awhile. If we could be trusted out of sight. Or out of listening range, more like.

When it comes to ambient music, meanwhile, sometimes I prefer the grandfather of it all, French Dadaist Erik Satie.