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January 29, 2006
Podcast Volume Three
My third podcast has been uploaded. Here is the tracklist:
Venetian Snares / Hiszékeny
Music A.M. / Big Wheel
Sketch Show / Chronograph
Broadcast / America’s Boy
Luke Vibert / Negresco
キセル / 近未来
John Frusciante / Anne
志人 / 玉兎 / Fuji Classics
Anne Laplantine / Video Game
Pia Fraus / Deep Purple Girl
Piana / Snow Bird
Aoki Takamasa + Tujiko Noriko / Vinyl Words
A Hawk and a Hacksaw / Portland Town
Notes on this selection:
1. A small selection from the ever-mad Venetian Snares’ newest album Rossz Csillag Alatt Született which I picked up from Aquarius Records on my visit to California in Dec / Jan. You’d think his music would start to get repetitive or boring with the pace of his releases, but it doesn’t, honestly. As can be said of many of his songs, this is the only song of his which sounds like this.
2. If there was a single from this Music A.M. album, A Heart & Two Stars, this would be it. I first heard Music A.M. via the excellent Quartermass site.
3. Sketch Show is Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono, formerly of YMO fame. This is a nice song from Loophole mixing male / female vocals and Japanese / English / some-unidentified-Scandinavian-language. This song (and this album...this whole group in fact) reminds me of Fukuoka, as I was traveling there at the time when my friend Kenji bought the album and gave it to me.
4. Nice song from Broadcast’s newest album, Tender Buttons. The album is really solid (like all their albums).
5. This is taken from Luke Vibert’s lovely disco revival record, Kerrier District from a couple years ago on Rephlex.
6. I honestly don’t know much about this band キセル, though their music is quite beautiful and kind of reminds me of Shugo Tokumaru. I should actually be saying that Shugo’s music reminds me of them of course, as their discography goes back to 2001, though I just heard them last year. This song is the title track of 近未来 (Kinmirai, near future), which came out in 2002.
7. Lately I’ve been totally absorbed by the two John Frusciante albums I have, Curtains and Shadows Collide With People. This is a great song from the former, released almost exactly 1 year ago.
8. I mentioned 志人 (Shibito)’s new solo album on this blog recently. This is one of my favorite songs from it.
9. This is a song by Anne Laplantine from the album Nordheim that has a lo-fi videogame aesthetic. Sandwiched in here as a bit of a transitional / diversional texture between the sound of Shibito and Pia Fraus.
10. I mentioned Pia Fraus on this blog as well when I first heard them. Of all the contemporary bands trying to bring back shoegazer (whether intentionally or not) they are easily the best in my opinion. This was initially one of my favorite songs from Sailing on a Grapefruit Lake, a compilation, and a Japan only release.
11. Maybe I’ve been mentioning Piana too often lately. I guess its because I have seen her live twice in the last couple months, most recently this past week. This song is the title track from her first album, Snow Bird. If you read Japanese and follow her blog, you can quite easily keep up with her career, which seems to be aiming higher and higher.
12. Of course I eventually had to introduce a track from this album, last year’s collaboration between Tujiko Noriko and Aoki Takamasa. While I don’t like this album nearly as much as RATN’s J there are a couple really nice songs, and this is one of them.
13. Admiteddly, I know nothing about this band. I grabbed this song off the latest Leaf compilation double album, Check the Water, as it really stood out to me for it’s narrative. A bit of a dark note to end this mix on.
Posted by shane at 12:40 AM
January 25, 2006
Kiiiii Live Movies
Did I put enough “i”s in the name? Kiiiii live movies from this past saturday at Super-Deluxe. They were the first act to go on so I took reasonable documentation, the liquor having not fully taken hold. Mas was second, of which I didn’t document anything as I was controlling the visuals. Beyond that I was probably too drunk to realize I had a camera anymore, though I could still tell you that every performer was most definitely in top form.
I suppose I could go on at length about the cultural significance of Kiiiii’s style of performance, but then I’d probably find myself bound in mental knots at 4am, and I’m trying to wake up for work at a decent hour these days...
Posted by shane at 01:02 AM
January 24, 2006
Lots of Live
Its been four consecutive days of live shows which kicked off with Make Believe last Friday, then continued on to Saturday’s DaDa Royale show with Kiiiii, Mas, Com.a, Capitol K, Riow Arai, and more (yes this was all in one night). Then following day my friend スー’s band played in very-far-away-from-where-I-live 国立. And finally, tonight was Piana opening for The Album Leaf. Maybe now I can start getting some more work done again. There are some nice movies of Kiiiii’s performance on my camera now that I will post tomorrow.
Posted by shane at 02:36 AM
January 14, 2006
DaDa Royale 2
Tokyo VJ / Motion Graphics unit and friends DaDa KingZ present an event that’s guaranteed to be great fun at Super Deluxe next Saturday, the 21st. As they say, the second event promises to be bigger, better, and crazier than the last. With absurdly high-quality visuals and music that will never let up from the start of the event, arriving on time is recommended. Check the lineup, seriously this is going to be more than worth it.
_
DaDa Royale Volume 02
Sonic and Visual Extravaganza
22:00 >> 05:00 | 3000円 (1 ドリンク付)
いよいよDaDaKingZプレゼンツ「DaDaRoyale」の第２弾をお送りします。
さらに強化して、今回もノリノリです。４６４９です！！！
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Live
Capitol K (Vroom Sound, Faith & Industry, Planet-Mu),
Joseph Nothing (Romz Records, Planet-Mu), Kiiiiiii, Mas (Flyrec),
Riow Arai (Libyus Music, Soup-Disk), Slow Drive feat. Underslow Jams
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Visuals
DaDa KingZ, Toshiko Kimura, Shane Lester (that’s me), Ai-Hz
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DJs
Captain Funk (Tatsuya OE), Ryota (Slow Drive) & Teruo (Bayaka)
Live Painting : Chieko Kobayashi
ライブ/DJ/ビジュアルの内容はすべてにおいて、とんでもなくいい内容ばかり。
完全に抜け目がないイベントとなっているので、早い時間から来ることを激しくおすすめ！！！
Posted by shane at 05:13 PM
January 08, 2006
Piana Live Movies
Also just before returning to Cali, I was able to catch Piana live at Shibuya Lush. Interestingly, exactly one week before, I had seen Hiroshi Sugimoto’s (of Minamo, Four Color, and Fonica) FilFla in the same place opening for Mas. Piana had come straight from Scandinavia and looked like some kind of snow princess, and the majority of her songs were simply played back on laptop, with her live vocal, and also a live cellist playing overtop. Piana reports from her blog that her new album has been ranked #37 of the top 50 of 2005 by UK site Boomkat. Here are hopelessly low quality live movies of Piana, and FilFla.
Posted by shane at 12:30 PM
志人 / 玉兎 (Shibito / Tamausagi)
Just before I went back to visit the US, 志人 (Shibito), who is one half of the amazing Japanese underground hip-hip duo 降神 (Origami) released a new album called Heaven's 恋文 (Heaven’s love letter). As you’d expect from all 降神-related output, it’s a beautiful and diverse mix of sounds, instrumental interludes, melodic hip-hop, poetry, found-sound style samples of conversation, and even stuff that seems inspired by Buddhist chanting. If you happen to understand the lyrics better than I, I’m quite sure it makes for an even more emotional journey. There are some samples available here, and an interview here (Japanese reading skills needed).
Posted by shane at 11:20 AM
January 07, 2006
From Tokyo to LA (and back)
As is customary during holiday periods I made a trip back to visit friends and family in California, which if you’ll allow me to be cynical for a moment, often looks a lot like this:
During this period the harddrive in my laptop crashed and was finally repaired just the day before I returned to Tokyo (therefore no posting). I needed a disconnected break anyways. I visited just about every person who I am truly close to and love in the world (they are fairly few and almost all occupying the west coast of California), observing their lives and comparing to my own, weighing my decision to live the way I do, currently at a point in which my home is neither quite here or there.
The other main thing I did on vacation was become completely infatuated with Kate Bush.
I haven’t even so much as opened my work email through this entire break, and the benfits of it are more than palpable. I feel more like a human (and less machine-like) than I have in a long time, able to see clearly where I am going, what I am doing and why. I’m starting to remember who I am, though certainly that will start into a gradual dilution again as soon as I go back to work on Tuesday.
I have a lot of catching up to do. Here’s too a prosperous two thousand six.
あけましておめでとうございます！
Posted by shane at 08:31 AM