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May 13, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #19 (May 5 to 11)

I skipped a week, that's because I was traveling to Paris for a trip during Golden Week! I'll probably post some more details, though meanwhile some photos are already up at Flickr (still some more to go though).

New music: - MoliquL is a new electro unit formed of Takashi Tsugumi (PINE*am) and Avery Brooks, based in Brooklyn. Their 1st EP "Forest" is out now on Flawless World, and I love it! It's available for download worldwide on iTunes. Can't wait for more!
- Towa Tei "MACH2012" is an album that's half new songs and half remixes. Watch video for "Wordy" feat. Bakubaku Dokin below.

Music release news: Ishikawa Shūnosuke (sax player in Nakatsuka Takeshi's live band)

Playlist: "France Rouge" (a mix CD of early 80's rare French tracks), "Tigersushi More G.D.M. X", capsule, EeL, ...

Towa Tei "Wordy" feat. Bakubaku Dokin

MoliquL sampler clip

April 28, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #17 (April 21 to 27)

Food: - Lunch set at Kichimu in Kichijoji. The place is owned by clammbon's Harada Ikuko and her sister. Sunday Bake Shop was also holding a temporary stall there and we enjoyed some Eton Mess and Banoffi Pie.

- Met Thai friend Oak and we went to have some great soba at Kawakamian in Minami-Aoyama!

Stuff: - While eating desserts someone dropped by to recommend a "fève" exhibition at a nearby shop. I had heard of the event a while ago but had forgotten about it. We went and I found this unexpected synthesizer fève! There were a lot of other cute ones and also accessories made using fèves.
(Fèves (meaning "beans") are made to be used in "galette des rois", a pie eaten on Epiphany Eve. The person who finds the fève is the king of the day.)
- New shoes: Mario Bros. One Star Converse! Japan-exclusive.

Music release news: Towa Tei, Meg, 80kidz, "Girly Graffiti" (French-pop and Beatles cover compilations)

Playlist: Justice, Denki Groove, Vanilla Beans, Pizzicato Five, Perfume, ...

April 21, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #16 (April 14 to 20)

Food: Cute lamb cookies and more from Sunday Bake Shop!

Music event: - Went to UFO Club (Higashi-Koenji) for the first time..! I should have been a long time ago. A friend's band called Saitō Neon Sign was playing in a GS-themed event titled "Young Beat vol.3" which was a lot of fun! 3-piece girls band The Lingeries was great, reminding me of Shonen Knife but doing 60's covers. Another band called DECO D'ECO featured singer Miel-chan, who you might get to meet at Tokyo Sky Tree where she's going to work. Good CKB-style sound!

Saito Neon Sign, The Lingeries, DECO D'ECO. More photos at Flickr.

New music: - I've been enjoying Denki Groove's new single "Shameful"! The video can be seen below. There's talk of a new album for this year and I'm really looking forward to that!
- mishmash* is the new unit of long-time Cornelius programmer Mishima Toyoaki. The first song "Roll of Love" (Japanese version is "koi no tamashii") is cute and fun! It's even hitting the top of charts at Amazon Japan MP3. Check out the video below. I'll be looking out for more from them.
- Otherwise I've been quite excited about this live clip (below) of Tokyo Killer, the instrumental surf band of Kinoco Hotel's guitarist Keme, playing "Misirlou" (Pulp Fiction).

Gig report: Last week's "Tokyo eleport 006" event (The Aprils, Candles, Cutie Pai, ExceNtRip)

Music news: Charity comp. "Vanilla", Tokyo Killer, "The Girl from Ipanema" (electronica comp.), mishmash* Julie Watai, Denki Groove single, ...

Playlist: Sunahara Yoshinori, Sawagi, Denki Groove, Towa Tei, Misswonda, capsule, Kinoco Hotel, Fantastic Plastic Machine, EeL, ...

mishmash* Julie Watai "koi no tamashii"

Denki Groove "Shameful"

Tokyo Killer "Misirlou"

April 14, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #15 (April 7 to 13)

Outing: Little trip to Mashiko in Tochigi prefecture. Some good bread, looking around galleries for local ceramic works, and had some good soba! We also bought an "agneau pascal", a lamb-shaped bread eaten on Easter in Alsace (France). Really anything can be found in Japan!

New music: Vanilla Beans' new single "Choco Mint Flavor Time"! I love the title song of course, but also the B-sides were very good surprises. "hitotsu no uta" has a cool new wave synth phrase in the intro and used through the song, it's also a nice positive song about the feeling of many people enjoying the same song at the same place and time. The other B-side, "1969nen no Drag Race", is a cover of Ohtaki Eiichi (album "Each Time" (1984)). This cover works really well, and there's something about cute girls making car sounds! Would love to hear it live, hopefully at their one-man show on June 17.

Music events: - On Tuesday was Vanilla Beans' release event at Tower Records Shibuya. They played a generous set of 8 songs, and I got to shake hands! :)
Set list: Afternoon-a-Go-Go / Nicola / Choco Mint Flavor Time / toki no kakera / Question / Yes No / Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji / hitotsu no uta
- And on Thursday was Candles' event "Tokyo eleport 006", also featuring The Aprils, Cutie Pai and ExceNtRip. Report coming hopefully soon, meanwhile my photos are up on Flickr!

Playlist: Aside having Vanilla Beans' new single on repeat, I listened to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Dorian, The Aprils, Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, Frenesi, Aira Mitsuki, Nakatsuka Takeshi, Kinbara Chieko

Music release news: Ram Rider and Recoride

Tech: I've been having fun making a script that takes a photo for input, and outputs kanji depending on the calculated pixel brightness. It's kind of like ASCII art except that you can't say it's ASCII because it contains multibyte characters, so I call it JIS art (referring to the Japanese character set). See the example below.

JIS art sample and original photo

April 8, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #14 (March 31 to April 6)

Food: Couscous lunch at Tamtam in Nishi-Ogikubo, and Moroccan sweets.

New music: - New single from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu! "Candy Candy" really has a catchy chorus. The B-side is also fun. As usual the limited edition photo book is quite nicely done! A first album was announced too so I'm looking forward to that!

Music release news: - Vanilla Beans new single "Choco Mint Flavor Time" coming this week! Can't wait! :)

Playlist: Necozawa Emi & Sphinx, Towa Tei, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (new single too!), Twinklestars, Merpeoples, DadaD, "Crue-L Café", Sunahara Yoshinori, ...

Tech: - I had a bit too much fun with an idea for April Fool. I made a page which when shared on Facebook or Mixi it appears as a news ("Japan has delayed April Fool to April 2"), but when clicked the page just says "April Fool's!". I used Open Graph Protocol meta tags for the fake news, and made it in 3 languages: English, French and Japanese. Unfortunately it didn't have any viral effect, though I did get a few likes and laughs which were enough to make me happy. :)
- The April Fool's joke that surprised me the most was Google Analytics where was quietly introduced a feature that played your stats on piano or sitar!
- The funniest was of course The Aprils', who this year took on Kyary Pamyu Pamyu!

This week's video: capsule "Feelin' Alright"

April 1, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #13 (March 24 to 30)

Exhibition: On Saturday last week I went to see Konishi-san's exhibition he's doing with photographer Kawakami Naomi and designer Madachi Yoshihiro. It's a peaceful reflection on life after the earthquake. Konishi-san wrote the text printed on the photos. His Pizzicato One album is also played as BGM. The exhibition is on until April 6.

Food: - Party at Sunday Bake Shop for the last day of its friendly cashier. Again lots of fun and good food! :)
- Some great curry at Tapir, Okubo.
- Eating a Tic Tac mint made me remember the taste of marshmallows in Pac-Man cereals!?

New music: - The latest compilation from Crue-L Records, "Crue-L Café"! I've never been disappointed by a Crue-L comp. A very good listen! I got it at Jet Set where it comes with a bonus mix CD by Takimi Kenji.
- Dorian's remix on "Big Collabo EP" is totally addictive! I listened to it a countless number of times!
- My Australian friend Peter V. put up some tracks of a new wave band he was part of in the 80's. Really good stuff! Also this video is awesome!

Playlist: Also Modern Choki Chokies, Aira Mitsuki and Sunaga t Experience, ...

Music release news: "Happy Holidays! ~80's Pops Covers~", Nakamura Kazuyoshi remix album, 2NE1 (with FPM track), "JPJZ Beautiful" jazz compilation.
- Also, the new Lupin the 3rd series (starting April 4 at night on Nippon TV/日テレ) has music by Kikuchi Naruyoshi! Watch the trailer below.

Lupin the 3rd new TV series trailer

March 25, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #12 (March 17 to 23)

Food: Tuesday was a national holiday, and we went to have a picnic with Sunday Bake Shop and friends! We were lucky to have very good spring weather! Some 20 people turned up and there was so much good food! :)

New music:
- I bought Portable Rock's new album "Lost & Found" at Maki's show. This contains 10 live tracks, and 2 new songs that have lyrics written by Konishi-san. I had the chance to be in the audience of the 2006 show at Shinjuku Loft, of which 4 songs are included here. It's a pleasure to hear this again!
- Not quite new music, but I found a Zin-säy 7" titled "Love" at Mecano, full of some of my favorite songs, and with a bonus sonosheet! Happy!
- Not quite new music either, but The Suzan have a new fun video for song "Ha Ha Ha"! Watch it below.

Music events:
- On Monday March 19 was Nomiya Maki's 30th anniversary concert! See my detailed report here.
- On Saturday March 17, I went to see Vanilla Beans' in-store mini-live at Tsutaya in Nakano! The new outfits (as seen in the latest video) are very cute! It was a rainy day but the small space was quite packed. Set list: "Yes? No?" / "kimagure na Palette Type" / "Nicola" / "Choco Mint Flavor Time". I plan to go see them again on release day at Tower Records Shibuya!

Playlist: Portable Rock, Pizzicato Five, dahlia, "Crue-L Future",...

Music release news: Some Aprils collaboration works: Lo-Fi-Pnk and "Bell to issho." (DVD)

The Suzan "Ha Ha Ha"

March 17, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #11 (March 10 to 16)

Exhibition: Irie Saya's eraser art at Shiseido Gallery (Ginza)

Food: - Curry lunch set at Tapir (Ōkubo)
- White day cookies & more from Steka & Mjol (Kōenji), Zuckerbäckerei Kayanuma (Akasaka), and K-B Keiji (Akasaka).

New music: Necozawa Emi & Sphinx "Pyramidia". I've been a fan of Necozawa Emi for a long time and she hadn't released any album for some 10 years. Now she has started a new jazz band called Sphinx in which she sings and plays percussions. This first album was recorded live over two days at Saravah Tokyo, though the clear recording leaves no traces of the audience. Love it! Watch the video below.

Playlist: Aside from Necozawa Emi, I listened to Takanami K-tarō, Aira Mitsuki, capsule, Harvard, Vanilla Beans, FPM, early Denki Groove...

Music release news: Perfume, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (ordered!), "Crue-L Café" (want!), m-flo

Necozawa Emi & Sphinx "Syncopation":

March 10, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #10 (March 3 to 9)

Exhibition: Last Saturday, we went to Gallery Maki in Kayabachō for an exhibition titled "Crude I" of photos of dance company Dairakudakan by photographer Shibata Shōko. Dancer Mukai Kumotarō did a performance for the small audience.
"Crude I" goes on until March 17 (Tokyo Art Beat). Also from March 13 to April 1st is held exhibition "Crude II" by the same photographer (also photos of Dairakudakan) at Gallery Shuhari in Yotsuya 3-chōme (Tokyo Art Beat).

Music event: Yesterday I went to Aoyama Oath with a friend at work. I had been curious about the place for a long time and there happened to be an event with Ikeda Masanori (ex-Mansfield) spinning. Unfortunately it was raining that day so there was almost nobody at the early time we went. He's been a long way since his Mansfield idol days, and I'm ashamed that I couldn't recognize him after all the years. His music style also changed a lot towards Balearic house which I don't know much about, but still his set was sharp and kept us grooving!

New music: capsule "STEREO WORXXX"! Again a very techno album, with no rap stock vocals this time. There are a few quite Daft Punk-ish tracks, and there are a few really good pop tracks too: "Step on The Floor" (theme from movie "Liar Game"), "Transparent", ... In all it's a fun album, but I do always miss a little bit the older lounge-y capsule. Those who prefer pop tracks may be better with Perfume's latest, which is now available on iTunes worldwide! Check out Perfume's recently open global website.

Playlist: Aside from capsule, I had a techno and dance-y week with some Dorian, FPM, Fantastic Explosion, Towa Tei. Yesterday I was in a slightly more rock mood and enjoyed Buffalo Daughter and Groove Unchant's latest.

Food: Bread from a-ne café in Higashi-Kōenji.

Tech: I made a user script that creates a "." (dot) keyboard shortcut on the mixi timeline, taking you back to the top and loading any new entries. mixi users please give this a try! This mimics Twitter's "." shortcut that I love. Get it here. (Firefox users need the Greasemonkey add-on first.)

March 3, 2012

Weekly revue: 2012 week #09 (February 25 to March 2)

Music event: Last Saturday I went to the "Girl Pop Crazy & Future-Pop Lounge" event at Shinjuku Be-Wave. It was a lot of fun, and I could see mini-shows by The Aprils and The Lady Spade, and also see DJs milch of source, Fukuta Takeshi, The Lady Spade's Tiffany and more. I posted more photos on Flickr

Food:
- South indian curry, safran rice and onion pakora at Cochin Nivas, Shinjuku
- Strawberry & rhubarb almond cake, lemon cake & triple-chocolate brownie from Sunday Bake Shop

New music: Great new videos by Vanilla Beans and Recoride.
- By the way, Perfume have moved to Universal Music and are going global! The new site seems to be asking for more tweets in order to open!

Playlist:
- capsule's "Player". I really like the more pop songs from "Player" ("Stay with You", "Love or Lies",..) and the trip-hop-ish "I was wrong". I can't wait for new album "Stereo Worxxx" next week!
- I watched a good show on NHK where Crazy Ken Band played 4 songs and Yokoyama Ken showed his cars and studio. I was surprised that he records all his vocals in the engineer room, with the music entering his mic, he said it's his recording style. This prompted me to listen to a good CKB album, "Soul Punch".
- Also "Motley Crue-L House", "The Chocolate Factory" (Nakatsuka Takeshi & friends), p&art sasanoooha, Harvard, groovin vox, Stereolab...

Music release news: erectricmole, (((sssurrounddd))), "Liar Game" (Nakata Yasutaka), Tommy february6 & Tommy heavenly6

Continue reading in the February 2012 Archives.
Next entry: "Weekly revue: 2012 week #08 (February 18 to 24)" (February 26, 2012 at 00:31)

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