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July 18, 2008
SOWL exhibition
It's summer and time flies! So much to write, so little time...
Last Sunday we headed to The Ghetto, Tokyo's ultimate skater's paradise in Shin-Ōkubo, to check out the first of their new flea market series. Some Ghetto regulars were selling stuff outside while eating Garigari-kun ice cream. There will be another one on July 27.
We then checked out the exhibition going on at Hyaku Gallery on the 2nd floor, it was shared by two writers I wasn't familiar with, SOWL and SEVEN. I especially enjoyed SOWL's works, some of which are featured below. It's going on until July 21.
Back downstairs, we noticed that the hall and restaurant space had been revamped, and also there was a great new QP-decorated wall!
After a little shopping in Shinjuku, we headed down to Shibuya via Fukutoshin line.
I was quite hungry so we went to Kua'Aina for some great sandwiches and fries. Then we headed to Canadian yoga wear chain Lululemon nearby, it's the last in Tokyo and will be closing its doors at the end of the month. It's the time to catch a last deal, I was lucky to find some nice yoga pants (my first!) at 50% off!
Then there was a bit more shopping around Shibuya, notably I went to get the "Second Royal TV vol.01 July 2008" DVD at Après-midi Selecao. That DVD was a lot of fun, very nicely edited for its cheap price. It comes with a bonus mix CD by Halfby making it even more worth it! Check the trailer on YouTube, and then get it at Jet Set while you can.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on July 18, 2008 at 00:36 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
July 11, 2008
columbia*readymade's jazz-rock reviewed #4, 5
Here I continue my reviews of columbia*readymade's jazz-rock re-issues. Will I make it to the end? :)
Sawada Shungo / Muraoka Takeru All Stars "Hit & Hit In Bossanova" (1968)
沢田駿吾・村岡健オールスターズ 「ヒット・アンド・ヒット・イン・ボサノバ」
The all-star band features Sawada Shungo (guitar), Okamura Ken (tenor sax), Tokuyama Yō (piano), Suzuki Hiroshi (trombone), Ikeda Yoshio (bass), Nishikawa Takaaki (drums), and Maeda Norio (vibraphone, see album "This Is Jazz-Rock").
The sax and vibraphone did it for me. I found the whole to be a little bit slow, although there are great upbeat tracks too. Some vibraphone bits strongly reminded my young ears of Tokyo's Coolest Combo. Too bad though that I didn't know (at this time) more of the Japanese hit songs that are being covered. I especially liked The Tigers' "C, C, C", a song that I already knew. I did find this album a bit more "normal" than the others of the series so far, which all had some strong personality. Very nice listen nevertheless.
Track list: The Legend Of Emerald / Angel Love / hoshi o minaide / Summer Grass / omoide no yubiwa / yume de iikara / koi no tokimeki / C, C, C / Flower Necklace / kanashikutte tarikirenai / ai no sono / hana no Madonna
Miho Keitarō & His Group "Sound Poesy 'Sachio'" (1969)
三俣敬太郎と彼のグループ 「サウンドポエジー・サチオ」
The only one of this series that's already been re-issued on CD before (in 2003 at a higher price, and probably not in a deluxe mini LP sleeve like this one). A very interesting album, featuring soft rock and bossa nova covers plus a few originals by jazz pianist Miho Keitarō and "his group" (no details whatsoever about the other musicians).
I was attracted to this one as soon as I saw the series' jacket line-up, and if you'd hope for a racing theme you won't be disappointed. The A side is instrumental and very conceptual, with racing sounds and announcements in Japanese over and between the songs! Side B has no racing sounds and several of the songs have female vocals (from scat to English and Portuguese vocals). The song "Remember Of Paris" has an overlaid dialog. The whole holds together very well. Excellent album!
Reading the short liner notes written by Miho made this album even more interesting. It tells about "Sachio", a racer and music lover who came to see his band play in Roppongi and made the comment "the sound is hard!", making Miho rethink his directions. The album is a collection of songs Sachio likes, but "if he would hear it, he'd probably say 'it sucks.'" A comment that made me grin.
At that point I still didn't know who's that "Sachio" so I did a bit of research. Turns out that the Paris-born racer and fashion model, Fujisawa Sachio, died in a test run accident in early 1969 at the age of 25, so this album (released later the same year) is clearly an homage. Kamayatsu Hiroshi was also friends with Sachio and dedicated a song to him, "So Long Sachio" which can be heard on "kissa Rock at Hibiya Yaon Readymade hen" (Readymade International RMCA-1007 
). We also learn that the people who talk about their Paris memories are Sachio and Miho themselves, a very rare recorded dialogue.
Track list: Start Your Engine / Never My Love / Listen People / Time After Time / Slip Stream / Race Is Over / One Note Samba / Meditation / Remember Of Paris / Mas Que Nada / Goin Out Of My Head / I Wanna Be Around
That's all for now. Only two this time. 4 to go! Next up should be Sandra Alexandra "Sandra & Her 12 Samurai" which looks very interesting! Konishi-san said in a recent interview at HMV that it's one of his best finds in the series.
Find all details on the 9 columbia*readymade jazz-rock re-issues, out April 16, 2008.
Previous reviews: columbia*readymade's jazz-rock reviewed #1, 2, 3
Posted on July 11, 2008 at 00:26 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (2)
July 5, 2008
De De Mouse release party: report
Yesterday evening I went to De De Mouse's release party at Shibuya Womb. In fact I went there almost not knowing De De Mouse at all, but I wanted to see everything else: YMCK, Buffalo Daughter, Halfby and Handsomeboy Technique! That's quite a mixed line-up, and being that the event was organized by MySpace, I wondered if the event planning is done by the same people who do... well, the rest. :) Still they're all artists I love so it sounded like a great event to me.
After losing my way a little bit in some suspicious streets of Shibuya, I arrived at Womb a little bit after start time and missed maybe 5 minutes of YMCK (MySpace). They were then saying that the show started with a special collaboration with De De Mouse, I'd have loved to hear that. But anyway the rest of YMCK's show was awesome! It has been a long time since I had seen them (last time was over 2 years ago and that was just a mini-live at Tower Records!), and their show's level had went way up! (1UP?) They played mostly songs from their latest album "Family Genesis", but they also did a medley of songs from their 2 first albums.
There were live(?) solos and some game playing, disclosing how a song's bass line was "inspired" from a Famicom shooting game. The best part was when they revealed 6 Famicom Robots and had them dance in sync! That was just amazing! For just the ending of another song, they also had some big Famicon-color teddy bear-like mascot come on stage. I have to admit that I didn't quite get that one. :)
After a short DJ set by Handsomeboy Technique, Buffalo Daughter (MySpace) came on stage and despite some technical problems they performed a great set! They played (I think) "Rhythm & Bassment", "Psychic A-Go-Go" and ended with a long "303" jam. Ohno Yumiko's great MiniMoog playing reminded me (once again) how we need more occasions to see some live Moog! Sugar and Mooog were just great too, oh and their drummer too!
Unfortunately they had to waste a good 5 minutes of the show doing sound check to try to get an on-stage monitor to work, because Yumiko couldn't hear a thing. Womb's sound staff didn't seem too good. Later I really wanted to get something from Buffalo Daughter but their merch table was unattended both times I checked...
After that was Halfby's DJ set, which was quite good! De De Mouse was setting up the stage and came to say hi and told everyone to keep enjoying Halfby a little longer. The sound guy had lowered the music's volume so he could speak, but then he forgot to put it back up, for a while the volume remained so that people could just talk normally over Halfby's set..! Quite a fun set anyway!
Last up was of course De De Mouse (MySpace). He was accompanied by pianist Hazama Miho, drummer Jimanica and Tokyo-based Australian VJ Diagram (aka Shannon Winnell). I was really unfamiliar with De De Mouse's music, except for a cover of "Country Road" that appears on the great compilation "kirakira Ghibli", but a few people had recommended him to me, even just the day before. I thought it was good, though perhaps not quite my style. What I found strange is that he has a very wacky personality, often shouting with a high-pitched voice, but his music seems just too pretty to fit with his character. This is just my personal impression of course. :) The songs were quite good, though sometimes a bit repetitive, mostly instrumental but sometimes with lyrics in an unknown language. I thought it was quite enjoyable especially for summertime. The VJ works were also great, with different material for each song.
Unfortunately the sound was very loud and towards the end my ears were getting tired, and I left a little bit before the end. Well it's a huge club's sound-system after all, probably much more powerful than the average live house.
All in all I had quite a good time.
Oh, and there was a brave foreigner who was filming some video of YMCK's robots and Buffalo Daughter. I really hope they'll be posted on YouTube! :)
YMCK can be caught again live on August 27 and 28 at Shibuya Seco Lounge, sharing the stage with Kaji Hideki, Watanababy, Sexy-Synthesizer and Hally (VORC).
Posted on July 5, 2008 at 00:30 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (2)
June 30, 2008
Kawashima Circulation Bus Line live report
On Saturday night we went to Enban to see Kawashima Circulation Bus Line, the new unit of Hosaka Akane with DJ Peaky.
First of all I enjoyed a performance by Enban's Taguchi Fumihito. He used a special set of 7" record with some polygon-shaped mirror box on top, each mirror reflects a horse and cowboy printed on the picture disk, each of them in a different position. When spinning this makes the mirror box look like a merry-go-round! Additionally he used a stroboscope on the toy to make the animation effect look better, and he filmed the result with a camera, processed the output and projected it on the wall! That's not all, he also played music from the 7" and also another colorful 12" picture disk, both had circus-like music, and put all sorts of effects on it. Quite strange but very beautiful result!
The 7"+merry-go-round kit had a Japanese song on it, so it must have been retailed in Japan some long time ago. Awesome!
Next up was KCBL. Akane and DJ Peaky removed their shoes and sat on their little carpets just like if they were home. All the sound came from 3 Casio VL-TONE's (one of them looked like some sort of variation), which 2 microphones amplified in a stereo setup. The keyboards were often used to play different beats at different tempos, while the two played melodies on top of that, much of which was improvised. While this would usually be a perfect recipe for cacophony, it was somehow quite soothing and almost succeeded at putting us to sleep. :)
They said that this time the concept was just to bring a jam session like they'd do at home. I'm looking forward to what they will do next.
Below is a short video (although it's mono and lacks the stereo effect). Beware, it's not a reference for those who have yet to discover Hosaka Akane's great music (album "Niko Niko Denki Muzic" on sale now!).
Last up was Aze, who we had seen before at loop-line a year ago (at another event where Akane performed). This time their set was quite different though. They projected a DVD showing scenes made with shadows involving animal characters, and while the film played they added music on top with their guitars, clarinet, piano, recorders, and a variety of toys. That was very nice!
Bonus: some cat watching we enjoyed on the same day, from our porch and also in Asagaya. It seems to be the season when young kittens are born, as there are a lot around everywhere!
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 00:26 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (2)
June 25, 2008
Norton Fighter
Today I was waiting for a friend in front of Alta in Shinjuku, and I couldn't help but notice this gigantic ranger-style hero standing outside of the Kabukichō exit..!
This is Norton Fighter, advertising Norton's security software. They're really giving this promotion all what they've got! Then again, this doesn't look so out of place in Japan, right? :)
I'm quite happy with this picture, with the yellow, pink and blue tones, and also it looks quite odd that nobody on there seems to be noticing or caring about the huge mascot.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 23:59 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
June 21, 2008
Candle Night
Tonight (June 21) was Candle Night, an effort suggesting to turn off the lights and use candles instead for two hours from 20:00, to save electricity. I had heard of this at a few places, one of these being our local community yoga class where we've been a few times. Lately the class is held in a Japanese room with tatami and shōji (the sliding door-like "curtains"), which feels very nice for yoga.
The class today was held from 19:00 to 20:30, and while the lights are usually dim, from 20:00 the teacher lit up the candles brought by students instead.
Well it was only a 30 minute contribution, but still. :) For those in the western world, it might still be time to participate.
Posted on June 21, 2008 at 23:13 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
Continue reading in the June 2008 Archives.
Next entry: "arcorhyme afternoon live at Grand Cru (vol.4): report" (June 15, 2008 at 19:32)
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