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December 24, 2005
Podcast Volume Two
Long delayed, it’s podcast volume 2!
Subscribe to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shanelester
The tracklist for Volume 2 is:
Tanaka Akira / Move
Broken Social Scene / Hotel
Deleware / Designin’ in the Rain
Max Tundra / Lysine
Animal Collective / Loch Raven
Prefab Sprout / The King of Rock and Roll
Gutevolk / Silo
Désormais / Can I Read You This?
Bochum Welt / Arnos Park
Janet Jackson / Miss You Much
Orga / Unknown Message
有紗 (Arisa) / Everlasting Love
Sharks Keep Moving / Interlude
Riow Arai / Seventeen
Notes on this selection:
1. Tanaka Akira: I found this artist through Tatsuya. He has worked a lot with another Japanese band called Asana, and apparently has remixes from notable artists like Yoshihiro Hanno, Riow Arai, among others.
2. Broken Social Scene: One of my favorite songs from their new album which I’m sure everyone already has.
3. Deleware: A wonderful song by Japanese design / music collective (quite well-known for their bitmap graphics). I don’t even remember where I found this song, I think it was linked through Momus’ Click Opera.
4. Max Tundra: An utterly brilliant track from the really great album Mastered by Guy at The Exchange, that sadly many people probably don’t know about. This was introduced to me by my friend and W+K art director woog two or so years ago.
5. Animal Collective: Beautiful and subtle song from their new and excellent album Feels.
6. Prefab Sprout is a wonderful and addictive eccentric 80’s British pop band I first heard of from my friend Sun.
7. Gutevolk: I think I’ve mentioned her before, a quirky, nice melodic Japanese female artist released stateside by 12k’s Happy. This is my favorite song from her newest mini album, Twinkle.
8. Désormais: A recent release from Mitchell Akiyama’s (who is also in the group) Montreal Canada label Intr_version. Dead Letters to Lost Friends is their third album and this is the first vocal track I have heard of theirs.
9. Bochum Welt: This is a blast from my past from Desktop Robotics, a classic 1997 EP that takes me back to highschool days. This is from Aphex and Grant’s Rephlex label, although he has a new album available from Darla, which I have not yet heard.
10. Janet: I found this album for 100 yen a few weeks ago and quickly bought it. It’s quite entertaining as a pop concept album featuring cutting edge 1989 production.
11. Orga: Some Japanese guy cracked the code: He figured out precisely how to make music that sounds like 2000-era Prefuse 73. If you didn’t already get enough then, you might like this. If not, at least it’s an amusement, and maybe his next release will be more original. There are some interesting videos on the website edited to his music.
12. Arisa: If only there were more J-pop tracks that sounded like this (I’m quite sure there aren’t, and if anyone has the wares to convince me otherwise please let me know). From the みんな大好き塊魂 game soundtrack.
13. Sharks Keep Moving: Shamefully I used this short song as an instrumental interlude to serve the podcast, but in a fair world I would have used more of a proper track from this excellent Pacific Northwest indie band.
14. Riow Arai: The last track from his 1998 album Circuit ‘72. I love this song which makes for a slowed-down soothing and subdued conclusion to the album.
Posted by shane at 07:33 PM
December 10, 2005
Street Revolution
W+KTokyoLab releases its 7th album, UC aka DJ Uppercut’s Street Revolution. I’ve been working on streetrevolution.jp this past week, and although not completely done (or optimized) it is online to coincide with the release. We are also working on a video for this album which will be released on the web only at the end of January. Street Revolution is available on amazon.jp.
Posted by shane at 12:27 PM
December 09, 2005
Bi-Weekly Blogging
Perhaps it has been even longer than that since I last wrote here. To be very brief, in that time, basically two things happened: SCVF / onedotzero Shizuoka and Resfest Tokyo. The most memorable piece from either show for me was this one called collision by Max Hattler, which is something of an abstract and interestingly removed exploration of the conflict between the US and the Middle East, American vs Muslim culture. I also really liked this video for a band (which I have absolutely no knowledge of beyond this video) called The Redneck Manifesto. Here is the video, Trust Me I’m A Thief made by Johnny Kelly.
And furthermore, beyond any of the videos was the Resfest closing party at Superdeluxe, which featured dazzling live acts by an electro breakdancing elementary schoolgirl called Strong Machine Number 2, as well as a performance group called MJ Spirit, fronted by a quiet (when he’s not performing) and skinny Japanese guy who does an exact impersonation of Michael Jackson, complete with backup dancers.
And so, I conclude with movies from the two: ストロングマシーン２号 and MJ Spirit.
Posted by shane at 02:52 AM