Highly recommended.

7FO: pronounced “nano f o” in English, “nana” being seven. Ryu no Nukegara: “dragon’s husk”. These are the only difficulties you’ll encounter here. This is warm, friendly, very relaxed music, very “understandable” and yet intriguing, sure to appeal to fans of electronic ambient, dub and chill-out music, as well as artists like Haruomi Hosono, Captain Ganja, La Monte Young, Equiknoxx and Tapes.

The Osaka-based 7FO combines groovily sparse electronic percussion with similarly sparse dub-feel synth bass, as well as pentatonic synth and steel pan melodies, the latter with an intriguing Okinawa/Sunda/Malay feel. Sparkling dub-influenced processing and thoughtful mixing gives us a music which is trans-oceanic, warm, and enveloping. Following releases on RVNG, Bokeh Versions and Metron, Ryu no Nukegara is available on digital, CD and 12” LP, featuring a suite of four tracks and the 20-minute title track, whose titular dragon is Asian: a potent symbol of water, strength and good luck.