RFI: Cafe Apres-Midi compilations

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Is anyone familiar with this series? After picking up Cafe Apres-Midi: Nacre on a whim recently, I've been bitten, hard. It (and all the other color-named Cafe Apres-Midi releases) is a compilation of loungey Brazilian jazz, sixties songwritery/folk stuff, and, for some reason, China Crisis. Some digging around on allmusic, etc. has turned up only the bare essentials: they're all compiled by one Toru Hashimoto, come out on a variety of Japanese labels, and all have a ridiculously wide scope as Hashimoto seems to have no trouble getting the rights to some amazingly obscure stuff. There are about twenty named after colors (and, I think, flowers; my French is terrible), single-artist comps for the likes of Dusty Springfield and Roy Ayers, and label comps covering jazz labels I know nothing about along with Cherry Red and two (!) separate Disques du Crepuscule comps. There is even, God help me, a compilation of Disney cover versions.

So: what's good? What's bad? Which of the color-themed releases should I look out for next, and which label compilations?

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 7 May 2006 03:38 (nineteen years ago)

i have a few of these but i haven't really listened much -- a lot of the stuff is a little more loungey/lifestyle-ish than i've felt like getting lately.

― raw like sufjan (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 7 May 2006 03:48 (nineteen years ago)

They're really great! I think I heard about them from Elvis Telecom. I'm ashamed to admit that the samba and bossa nova stuff, as great as it is, sounds all the same to me after a while, but I love the "background pop" ones. Lost classics are good, but cloying Jap-French Cibo Matto sounding stuff sucks. And you have to watch out or your head will implode from absorbing all the smugness.

You're right about it being hard to find information on them.

S:
Azur
Rose
Crepuscule 1&2
Blossom Dearie (!)
Cherry Red
Lilas
Palme
Fume
Midi El (but look out there's a Momus song on it haha)

D:
Saravah
Midi Roux
Compost (WTF)

I really don't trust my taste on the strictly Brazilian ones, so I'm not going to try to pass judgement on them.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:08 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to hear the Dusty Springfield and Roy Ayers ones!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:09 (nineteen years ago)

I frankly just love the idea of "light pop" compilations named after fancy colors.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:14 (nineteen years ago)

If I ever become a music taste-maker par excellence I want to have a whole series of comps named after groovy philosophers or fruit.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

Café Daddino: Guava

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

TS: Searle vs Minsky

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:20 (nineteen years ago)

Oh this TOTALLY has to happen.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone heard the "Afternoon Tea Music" comp series? I like them better than the 3 or 4 Cafe Apres that I've heard, more inclusive and the selections are just better for the most part. As far as "Cafe"s I've heard, I liked Midi Pastille the best.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Sunday, 7 May 2006 05:31 (nineteen years ago)

It's the greatest compilation series ever. I think I have nearly every one of the colors, plus a couple of the label ones. Toru also did a compilation called "Free Soul" in the 90s, with each series being titled "Dream," "Earth," "Wind," etc. It's basically the same thing as CAP but focused on obscure soul and disco with a light/breezy touch. I have two books Toru did (because I'm such a nut,) Suburbia Suite and Future Antiques - which have pictures of a lot of the obscure albums he picks from. Unfortunately the written text is in Japanese. There's also an official website (www.apres-midi.biz) and he has a blog, but again it's Japanese. In my delusional moments I've considered going to Japan just to seek Toru out, or paying someone to translate some of the website stuff.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 7 May 2006 05:37 (nineteen years ago)

xpost - Afternoon tea comps are good too

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 7 May 2006 05:38 (nineteen years ago)

the roy ayers one is OK, not incredible. i grabbed the "black jazz records" comp that cafe apres midi did, as well as the "free soul: black jazz" disc, too.

i dunno, the comps ARE really good but at the end of the day you've got to ask yourself if it's worth paying $30-40 for single-disc japanese comps ... it's more of a covet object than anything else.

― Captain TeenTalk (vahid), Sunday, 7 May 2006 07:35 (nineteen years ago)

like, for the money i spent on four black jazz records comps (three japanese toru-related discs and the soul jazz records one) i could have bought half the catalog.

similarly for the price of a "cafe apres midi" disc or whatever you could buy a carol kaye disc, an astrud gilberto disc, and three more things (too tired to think of examples) and not end up looking like a sad obsessive at the end of the day.

anyway this is getting into a whole other issue i guess that ILXs jazz / soul / dance heads should all powwow down for ... "compilation culture: c/d, t/s etc"

― Captain TeenTalk (vahid), Sunday, 7 May 2006 07:38 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone heard the "Afternoon Tea Music" comp series? I like them better than the 3 or 4 Cafe Apres that I've heard, more inclusive and the selections are just better for the most part.

Oh man. Damn your eyes for suggesting those! From the looks of it, they're right up my alley, even more than the Cafe Apres-Midi tracklistings I've found. *sigh* Hello, weekend overtime...

it's more of a covet object than anything else.

I am ashamed to admit that what got me to check out Nacre was seeing most of the series lined up in a pretty little row. It's hypnotic, I tell you. Also recognized the series name from the AMG review of Pete Fowler's (excellent) Monsterism comp.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:22 (nineteen years ago)

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