I`m standing there, watching this guy cue up the next record. Looking at his amazing tattoos. A skull covers the whole of his left hand. I`m thinking that would be an excellent shot. His left hand back-cueing. Maybe I could use it for a flyer. Obviously I don`t get it.

Japan is a place full of contrasts, but the one you immediately notice is how the old and the new co-exist. You get a street of huge westernized hotels (anything westernized is always huge – from the fifty-third floor to the totally unnecessary four-wheel drives that are too wide for the Tokyo streets) and somewhere in the middle is a run down wooden shack – that`s just about survived countless earthquakes – selling home-made tofu and nato. You`ve got the salaryman cliché – never sees his family – but everyone takes the time to visit a shrine or temple (jinja). Takes time out for tradition.

The guy cueing the record is Zecky, from the Discossession crew. A group of extremely skilled DJs and complete music obsessives (that`s one thing I like about Japan – here I`m normal – well, at least in terms of record buying), initially brought together by a love of Italo disco. The group also includes Chee Shimizu and Dr. Nishimura, and I`ve heard stories of amazing record collections – hundreds of original pressings tracked down, acquired, assimilated and then purged as they move on. They`ve done Italo and thoroughly mined Baldelli`s Cosmic tapes. The next step is original production work forthcoming on the Crue-L label. We were very lucky to be invited to a Discosession party (we were the only gaijin there). Very small. Very underground. Thank you Jonny. And the thing that intrigued me about Zecky was the contrasts. The guy has played guitar in various hardcore punk bands for over ten years, yet when he comes to DJ he drops the sweetest mid-tempo, jazz-inflected Italo/Euro disco imaginable. Jonny calls it “Zecky working his sleazy magic”. I guess in some ways it is classic “morning” music. Mike Francis, William Pitt, Tony Esposito. I said “You`re not cosmic mate. You`re Balearic.”

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“Tokyo Balearic?” To be honest that`s cribbed from DJ Marbo. Old sparring partner of DJ Harvey, now of Star-Lowrider. I DJed with Marbo a couple of months back. He was kind enough to guest at our night. He came down and over-hauled the soundsytem. Brought down his own decks. Tone arms and 1g carts - which I thought I`d broken the first time I went to cue up a record – I blew some dust off the stylus and the front flew off. I nearly shat. Nearly. Marbo was the first person with attitude I`d met in Japan. This can be extended to his crew. They`ve all got the jacket.　 Not quite a superstar DJ cock-knocker, but he did make a point of sitting next to the decks, during my set, pulling his hat over his eyes and feigning sleep. During his set he never smiled. Maybe once. I wasn`t quite sure what to make of it. In a way it was quite refreshing, since I`d spent the last six months bowing out of (non)conversations. Meeting Marbo when he isn`t DJing is a completely different experience. He told me “I`m a party DJ”, and maybe that`s it. His audience expects a certain persona. A visit to the Lowrider site or a chat with the “Chef” will let you know there`s something on his mind.

The first night I played in Japan, Marbo came down. He`d said “Great music, but it`s old. Young people don`t want to listen to this.” He said he was looking for something new. He subsequently sold his vast collection of original disco 12s. When he played with us he dropped a lot of modern trance records, pitched down to -12%. While this might not be my thing – especially at the moment, as I am stuck at the bottom of Alfredo`s box – from conversations with him I think I understand what he is trying to do. He is not buying and playing the latest Prins Thomas/Lindstrom production, the latest Mindless Boogie/GAMM re-edit, the latest Cosmic/Harvey ID. He is not playing anything hyped. He`s not playing anything that anyone else will play. He`s truly looking for something different. And I can appreciate that. The fact that he`s had to resort to trance just goes to show how thoroughly mined “dance” music is these days. Everyone`s a F-ing DJ. When I was growing up a mis-spent youth was measured in skill at the pool table. These days its whether or not you DJ.

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I`ve been listening to a lot of old records lately. Prompted by two things really. The first was a visit to a bar in Kohinata called Café Round. The owner is a genuine music nut - trying to update and keep the old jazz café (or Kissa) tradition alive. Classic LP covers adorn the walls and a quality blue note soundtrack accompanied my red curry, but when I mentioned the Café Del Mar, he rushed to show me a load of obscure Innovative Communications releases. Round is tiny and so packed between tower blocks you`d be lucky to see the sky, let alone a sunset. Nonetheless, the broken but friendly conversation – there was a lot of smiling and bowing going on both sides – ended with me offering to put together a series of compilations together for the bar. I`m gonna call them“Tokyo-To Kissa” (To=city, Kissa=café). As a consequence, I`ve spent the last two months digging through the Café Del Mar archives, with the much needed assistance of the right honorable Moonboots (results can be found at www.jellycast.com, search “one40fivestore”).

Next up I was asked by my friends at www.keyboardmasher.com to put together a “Balearic Top 7” – as part of their celebration of twenty years of Ibizian-influenced dance culture. Balearic? There seems to be a lot of nostalgia knocking about at the moment. I`ve got a feeling there`s going to be a big twenty years on revival. Reckon there`s a book and documentary on the way. The revival will no doubt last five minutes but this could well be my chance to establish a niche.

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Getting excited over square brown cardboard packages in no way replaces the highs of sitting on the bus home with a bag of newly discovered vinyl, let me be clear…

However the beauty of square brown cardboard packages, over thin and stretching plastic bags, is that these packages could have come from anywhere. Just this morning one such box arrived from Japan. An oldish, but new to me, Force of Nature 12” inside.

Best for me not to think about the cost just to get on and post about it.

If you find more than a passing resemblance to Jan Hammer’s Crockett’s Theme you might be on to something – I did too. But the chugginess of this just manages to slam the door on visions of a couple of Miami Narcs speeding across great expanses of water in an open top boat…

Not to say that Crockett’s Theme doesn’t have it’s place on the dancefloor. I’ve heard Todd Terje drop it to devastating effect, mind you if anyone can, it probably is only him. He does have a corner on the whole 80s Rock and Pop 12”s market…

It’s a mellow, slow build, I’ll tell you now. At just over 5 minutes it could go for double the length as far as I’m concerned. And should it leave you wanting more, like say, a mix to go with it, you could do worse than to check one of the best mixtape DJs I have heard in recent times. Catch the full mix over on Giant Step by Prince Language part 3 of his No Comprendo series… all of which are amazing.

A real lesson in selection, pacing, mood and feel. Not just about dropping the most block-rockingest-bad-boy tunes straight off the top. (Are you paying attention at the back?)

So Prince, Todd and FoN, thank you for the music. And readers, here’s Force Of Nature – Liberate on Libyus Music.

Had a beautiful and unexpected night on Saturday.

It was the opening party for a new bar, LIFE.

Ex UFO member, Toshio Matsuura was djing and there were rumours of free beer, so Mr and Mrs Quaid and I headed down to check it out.

When we got there the place was rocking. A heavy jazz-dance selection played on this great soundsystem. Downstairs, the basement room was packed out with a crowd seemingly bussed in from tokyo’s hippest club; no moody east london attitudes,just this amazing mini-warehouse party.

After about 45 mins of killer music (including this deep jazz workout of inner city blues) a trio of japanese jazzers came on stage and started playing these dubbed out herbie hancock-style jams. It wasn’t until they were halfway through a version of ‘Billie Jean’ I realised I was actually watching HL fave Ino Hidefumi !!

It was a special night, so many friendly people, a space with loads of potential, great music (and an ace little goody bag)-just wish jezzy could have been there to get into it as well.

Since we’ve posted on Ino before, here is a UFO track we used to go crazy to back in the day.

楽しみなさい!!

UFO-Dig that Beat!

…is worth two after, or so the early birds tell me. And boy were they ever right. Having a media-type-creative-type job I am lucky enough to compensate low income with late starts. This allows me to stay up late and soak up all those important cultural events that go on in our fair capital…or stay up to watch Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm after midnight.

So rare is the day that I am in bed before 2am.

The other evening all that changed. Exhaustion sent me to bed early and the importance of a good night’s sleep became clear. I had amazingly lucid dreams and woke up early for work fresh and ready to go. I normally put my sour morning demeanour down to cheap coffee and quitting cigarettes just under a year ago. Now I realise after a couple of early nights in a row. It was the lack of sleep.

Which is why I’d encourage all hl readers to tuck themselves up early on these wintry nights and check out the stories that your subconcious is trying to tell you. And if you need a little help to get to slumberland you could always put this on in the background.

http://www.firemusic.co.uk/music/archivemusic/sleepmix.mp3

TRACKLISTING:

Sleep Mix

Jungle Noises…
Petit Pays Cesaria Evora (Chateau Flight Remix)
Prelude and Fugue in C Minor The Swingle Singers
Psalm Detroit Elevator Company
Peace Piece Bill Evans
Psalm Detroit Elevator Company
1st Of Tha Month Bone Thugs & Harmony (K&D Session Part III Dub)
They Came In Peace Tranquility Bass
Summer Noises…
Meditation Carlos ‘Devadip’ Santana & John Mclaughlin
Ashes, The Rain & I James Gang (2nd Movement)
Cristo Renditor Harvey Mandel
With This Love Wells Cathedral Choir
Of These, Hope From The Last Temptation Of Christ OST
Open Peter Gabriel & Shankar
La Petite Fille De La Mer Vangelis
Small Hours John Martyn
A Wonderful Life Carl Craig….

 

 

Welcome to something new. A section for the weekenders. For the peeps who spend most of Friday morning thinking about Friday night. The boys they’ll meet, the girls they’ll meet, the shoes they’ll wear, the cocktails they’ll drink and the digits they’ll receive.

And when they are done thinking about that, they start all over again thinking about Saturday night…

For people whose Friday night’s do not involve Sky Movies, DVDs, popcorn or Jonathon Ross, and whose Saturday mornings do not involve Goat’s cheese foccacia’s at the local food market. These series of posts will be about ‘weekend music’. Music to get you in the mood. To start the party right.

To start us off right, another Tokyo related post… I was in Cisco records in Shibuya marvelling at their selection of North European “Disco Dub” that we don’t even get in London…when today’s track came on.  If you are lucky, some visionary DJ somewhere might be playing this in the club you’re at tonight, and if not, why not take along a copy and offer it to them?  I’m sure the DJ won’t mind.
It’s all about the horns on this one. From Adrian Sherwood’s new album, Becoming A Cliche I give you: The House Of Games.

adrian sherwood - the house of games.mp3

A quick word about the mixtapes section

Astute followers of HL will know that not only do we take very seriously the task of dropping great music on y’all. But also that I, the newest member of the crew, have just been to Japan.

While over there I picked up some fantastic Japanese music and some hard [for me] to find American pieces. All in all a good time was had by all - spreading the love between myself, record store owners, bank managers, the credit card company, and a couple of loan sharks..

It was then suggested, as I would not shut up about my little Madlib story, that I put some of my new records together on a mix.

I am honoured to get the first bite at the HL mixtape cherry and I know there are some interesting things brewing from East London favourite Disco Jesus to come too. So here is an idea of some of the delights you too can unearth in Japanese record stores if you make it over there. All music is from vinyl, which is why I couldn’t include any Ino Hidefumi.

I hope you can look past the fact that “they are not singing in English” and enjoy the music within - and make sure to bookmark it as new things will be going in there soon…

Any people interested in a track listing, you are out of your mind. No, seriously, leave a comment below and I will get back to you. Thanks for listening. Keep on sharing.

Okay so one (new) member of the stable (geddit?) was given leave to visit our friends in the East.

It was a short but refreshing trip and the first with full family in tow. Having lived out there before it was a great opportunity to re-visit old haunts… The biggest ice coffee you can drink served in one of those Pyrex kitchen measuring beakers at Mo’Bo’ / Mo’Gal’…a trip to one of the coolest and best stocked book shops I know, with hundreds of titles on geeky record scenes and photos of lovely LP covers…[three I picked up were Record Buyer's Diary, Jazz Next Standard, & How To Play Air Guitar]

And visits to countless different record stores in the continuous quest for the ever unobtainable June Yamagishi record “My Pleasure” which features Shuggy Otis and Bobby Womack. Oh shizzle, I’ve now just created another few dozen people who will be looking for this now…

I didn’t make it out to Koenji to the Boombox collector’s place which was a shame, but I did find a great little cafe / record shop (living the dream, anyone?) in Shimokitazawa. It was named after War’s huge early NYC club hit (and Mancuso classic) City Country City, so I thought I might find some kindred spirits inside. It was a beautiful little store and Tatsuro the buyer there was an excellent host, even putting me on to some great 70s Japanese vinyl including one piece he had recently sold to an over-excited Madlib…but I’m not telling you what it is…
Instead as a tribute to a great store, and a great holiday here is a link to the track City Country City…though I have to apologise, this isn’t the 13 minute album cut, just the 3 minute single, but I think you can get the idea
See you on the dancefloor

Being of a mildly obsessional nature, it almost goes without saying that horselatitudes *heart* japan. Who could resist a nation that so readily embraces the sort of mild autistism that inspires people to make super authentic retro clothes or take car customization to the next level.

Adding fuel to this unrequited passion are sites like TURBOSONIC which stock a wicked selection of 70s/80s boomboxes and associated t-shirt range.
Heavy!

Thankfully I have good friends (yeah you, jizzy!) heading Nippon-ward anyday now-looks like their ‘what present shall I get for uncle jack ?’ problems are finally at an end.

LL Cool J-My Radio

(via boing boing/xlr8r)