Beat Crusaders video

I'm really loving this video for the song Phantom Planet that I found on Jean Snow's blog.

Soundproof room

This story from Trends in Japan. For people who want to belt out karaoke classics or rawwwk out at home Yamaha have brought out the second model of My Room, a teeny soundproof room that fits inside your home. People are extremely courteous to neighbours about noise in Japan and musicians often practise by hiring studio time or sitting by the nearest river. The first option is really pricey and the second can be a bit chilly at this time of year. Mind you, My Room is not cheap at 1,039,500 yen and definitely not an option for claustrophobics.

Live Park in Akiba

Otaku frenzy! It appears that 'live' performances have been banned from outside Akihabara station so an alternative, albeit temporary, venue has been set up in a building on Chuo Dori. Visitors can enjoy free live shows like the one above for 100 days from 1 February to 10 May. When we went in on day one the room was filled with rotund guys in specs rawking out to the high-pitch vocal stylings of a trio of super cute girls. Check out the listings.

Fami-mode event

Calling all retro-electro-heads get yourselves down to Star Pine's Cafe in Kichijoji on the 24th of January where alongside seeing lots of incredible 8-bit acts you'll have the opportunity to participate in an old-school gaming tournament and buy vintage Super Mario tat. I'll be down there grooving to YMCK and Sexy-Synthesizer, come along!

Juana Molina comes to Tokyo

I interviewed Juana Molina for Japan Times last week prior to her live show here next week. Check it out on the Japan Times website.

Hally

Seen at Shibuya Seco lounge 28 August
Going to a Hally gig is like spending time in the bedroom of a nerdy kid at school. He gets out his synthesiser and you are given a terrifying look into the heart of his twisted obsession. Looking puny yet majestic in a tight red shiny jacket and sunglasses: Hally throws samples of 80s tracks like 'Tainted Love' into what sounds like an industrial cement mixer. Notes that doodle all over the place like the line in an etch-a-sketch picture and dirty computer game bleeps lend a jumbled Weird Science genius to this 8-bit audio assault.

Ha ha ha happy tune!

You'll either love or hate me for introducing you to this tune. The aural equivalent of devouring a stick of cotton candy in 5 minutes, it's a veritable sugar-rush of sound. Made by Swedish group Caramell in 2001, the song got internet fame in the latter part of 2006 when it was released as a short animation with characters from the novel Popton doing the trademark rabbit ear dance. I really love the Speedycake remix (see below) which can be heard practically everywhere in Akihabara right now. Uwa Uwa Uwa Uwa!

I met Noriko Tujiko!

A few weeks ago I interviewed Noriko Tujiko for Japan Times. Please read about it here.

8-bit festival

Atari attack! An all-night celebration of primitive electronic music, the line-up including my favourites YMCK. Saturday 26 Jan, Star Pine's Cafe Kichijoji. Go to the Famicon site for details.

End of Winter Party

Electronic music is a medium that inherently appeals to bedroom musos, who, luckily for us are prepared to spend innumerable hours alone perfecting that particular blip or bleep. A self-contained form of expression which, can sometimes give voice to the furious howls of disconnected souls. So it seemed with Ametsub who performed tonight at Shibuya O-Nest's "End of Winter Party". With only a crescent moon slice of face visible, the other side shadowed in hair - even before he sent out his all-out sonic attack - it was clear that he was setting up barriers. Only those tough enough to withstand the unpleasant whines and random blasts of sound are those privileged to be allowed in. A challenge is all very well but isn't music in some part about beauty as well as aggression? This is why Kashiwa Daisuke, who threw loops of piano passages into the the bit-stream, making them ricochet and decay in ways that were heartbreakingly beautiful, stood out from the crowd of electronic artists. His music is at once both aggressive and tender and, for me, created that miraculous state, where you are, for awhile, totally immersed, made transparent as the snowstorm of noise blizzards through you. Shuta Hasunuma with his almost dance music, that suddenly fractured at odd moments, catching you off guard and making you draw breath with awe at his creativity, seemed, unlike Hasunuma, slightly handicapped when he tried to draw in more organic noises - with a live bass and drums.
The most outstanding act of the night came from Shugo Tokumaru who, elfin-faced and barefoot, presented his music unclad of it's usual technological trickery. Stripped down you find that the acoustic version, is indeed the seed for his magical toy-fairground sound (see earlier post for review of ST's style), the musicianship was breathtaking. A close second highlight of the night were Group_Inou (pictured above), a couple of geeky kids straight from a scene of Weird Science, the best description I can give of them is rap accompanied by a mashup of Bach and Eurovision songs played on a Bontempi organ.

BTW the pic isn't mine, mine was too rubbish so I lifted it from their site, gomen.

Hazel Nuts Chocolate live show

Hazel Nuts Choco (aka Yuppa) brought her brand of slightly screwy happy candy pop to Club Que in Shimokitazawa tonight. Playing last but one on the bill, she was an incredible contrast to the line up of wooden idols who marched across the stage before her. She is a "one woman unit", as she says on her myspace http://www.myspace.com/hazelnutschocolate , with no songwriters or heavy management pulling the strings. Everything about her is very spontaneous from her comic ad libs to the crowd to her freestyle dancing. She gives out the refreshing feeling that her eyes are not on the prize of future fame but on what's going on around her. It seems she has a thing for geeks with glasses and Christmas songs, so she invited a group of awkward otaku on stage to shake some bells to her song asking Santa to get her "something good". The above picture reflects that Yuppa's wish has come true, she's got a very good thing going on.

Album releases

Why do half of all Japanese 'indies' bands still want to sound like Green Day? In terms of teenage rebellious gestures, listening them is on a par with sniffing Prit Stick to get high. If you want some real punk you should listen to Midori, whose latest album Shimizu jerks and spasms all over the place like a zombie with an axe in its head. Composed of piano, bass, drums and vocals, I detected a slight jazz sensibility but forgave them because of the overall brutal, raw and rude vibe coming from 'singer' Mariko Goto's chainsaw rantings. Check their website: http://midori072.com From bitter and dark ravings to sweet and light tinklings, Shugo Tokumaru's Exit, breathes life into the sparse sounds of battered music boxes, theramins and toy instruments so that they take on a rich orchestral quality. The auditory equivalent of a ancient fairground coming mysteriously to life, lush and unsettling. Check it out on: http://www.myspace.com/shugotokumaru Lastly, Afterglow, from Akira Kosemura and Haruka Nakamura, does what it says on the tin. Sparse, moving electronic music coupled with piano, some melodies are maybe a little too obvious and cloying, but this is perfect music for spacing out to after a hard day www.myspace.com/scholerecords

Sweet Caroline

A perfect antidote to the giddy, fizzy pace of Harajuku, I heard Caroline for the first time yesterday in a clothes shop while feverishly foraging through racks of frilly frocks and was instantly calmed.
Her gentle voice, reminiscent of Noriko Tsujiko, slows down and soothes, sounding out over dampened electronic percussion achieving a mellow diffuse effect without dissipating into formlessness. A hypnotic melody draws you in and opens you up to tiny nuances, so that the ting of the xylophone on Bicycle seems to resound down your spine.
Caroline's debut album Murmurs came out on the Temporary Residence label in 2006 www.temporaryresidence.com Check out her myspace: www.myspace.com/caroline