tenniscoats & secai, d.v.d

o-nest 29 sept 2008

This was a 'two man live' meaning there were only two bands playing, and that meant they could play long sets - a rarity in Japan.

I had been to O-Nest on the previous night and seen Jimanica play an amazing set, just him on drums and triggering samples from his kit. Tonight he was joined by Itoken and YMG who make up the unit d.v.d. In d.v.d, Jimanica and Itoken trigger visual samples from their drums, along with visual artist YMG on laptop and electronic toys. It's hard to know whether these guys are primarily a band or a digital art project. The music is a tight math-rock-like percussion extravaganza with digital sounds. Still managing to stick tightly together, they sometimes compete against each other with simple computer games like pong and pinball which are triggered by their drums and projected on the large screen behind them. At one point, YMG produced a Tenori-on and announced that he wanted to show Japanese technology to the Live From Tokyo documentary crew from America who were filming the show. I was surprised to see a musician actually using this toy live, though I suspect that Yamaha must have given it to them.

If you know me at all, you know that I love Tenniscoats.
Saya and Takashi Ueno make warm, japanese free-folk-naïve-pop. Saya, with her sweet if unconventional voice and analogue keyboards, and Takashi's original style of playing guitar, saxophone and all kinds of instruments. I've even seen him play the harp! Anyway, tonight he stuck to the guitar and the duo were joined onstage by another duo, Secai.
Secai are NSD and Dasman and together they make atmospheric abstract breakbeats (secai - mammoth mp3). Tenniscoats are known for great collaborations such as with Tape and DJ Klock, Saya with Nikaidoh Kazumi and Satomi from Deerhoof, and Takashi with almost everyone in the Japanese music underground.
With Secai, they've hit upon a beautiful combination of ambient sounds, beats, and the Tennsicoats sound. I was lost in their sound world throughout their long set of songs mostly from the new Tenniscoats & Secai album, causing goosebumps, goofy smiles and slow body-swaying from the audience. In the last song, Saya suddenly held the microphone out to Kiyokazu from Andersens who was standing in the front row and who tried to sing along with the song with help from Saya. It didn't really work out and Saya left the stage in a ball of embarassment. I was glad some of the usual charming Tenniscoats clumsiness could find its way into the performance.

A great interview with Saya can be found at Tada Music, where you can also hear their song 'baibaiba bimba' as well as a bunch of other good Japanese music.

Tenniscoats & Secai are playing again on October 28th.

Tenniscoats are playing this Thursday, October 9th with Tape from Sweden. Details.

Takashi is playing with Gutevolk and Kazumasa Hashimoto on October 12th and 13th.

He is playing with Ignatz and LSD March on October 27th and 29th.

Saya is playing with Mimura Kyoko on October 21st.


d.v.d


tenniscoats & secai

miaou, jimanica, .plot, epic45

o-nest september 28th 2008





miaou



.plot



jimanica



epic45

Club 8

Fancy some Swedish pop?
Club 8 will be in Japan on April 3rd for a show at O-Nest, supported by 4 bonjour's parties and Mondialito.



Club 8 is Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård, also in the great indie-pop band, Acid House Kings. Since 1995, Club 8 have released 6 albums on Spanish label Siesta and Swedish label Labrador. Their sound has moved between twee, bossa-nova, electronica and shiny, happy but melancholic pop.

Their new album, Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming, is out in Japan now.
Listen: Whatever You Want mp3




4 bonjour's parties is a seven piece band who play a large array of instruments from guitar to flute to synthesiser and everything in between. Could they be called dreamy chamber-pop or Belle & Sebastian meets Tortoise? However you describe them, they are definitely one of the most interesting and original bands in japan right now.



Mondialito play beautiful down-tempo, acoustic-electro-bossa. Singing almost all songs in French, you can hear the influence of Keren Ann. Their 4th album, Cher Mon Amoureux, is out now.

On The One, Tearbridge International and Cookie Scene present Club 8.
April 3rd (Thursday) at O-Nest in Shibuya.
The doors open at 6:00 and the music starts at 7:00.
Tickets can be purchased from Lawson. The L-code is 72151.
It costs 3400yen advance or 3900yen at the door.

O-Nest Jan 4 2008

by craig


i am robot and proud


group_inou


ametsub


kashiwa daisuke


shuta hasunuma

a place in the sun vol.7 @ O-Nest 24 march

by craig

O-nest is an odd venue. For most shows, you arrive at the bar from the elevator on the 6th floor, then clamber down to the 5th floor via the fire exit out the back among the love hotel rooftops. For this show, bands were playing both on the 5th floor and in the bar on the 6th floor, so it meant there was a lot of clambering. All this clambering plus overlapping start times meant missing the start of sets or missing some bands altogether.
I'd been wanting to go to one of the events put on by the great a place blog and had been looking out for the chance to see some of these bands, so I was glad I could make it along to this show. Even though there were the festival-like hassles of dashing between bands and even though I arrived late. Unfashionably late, that is, because I came from work still wearing a tie. Loosening my tie, I really enjoyed the couple of songs I managed to catch from Cokiyu who was playing on the bar floor. She was short and fragile, quietly playing delicate sounds on her laptop and whispering. So quiet in fact, that I could barely hear her. I need to get my hearing checked and pick up her new album when it comes out in May. The only chance at the moment to hear Cokiyu's vocals is on one of the tracks on the excellent new album by aus, also beautiful, fragile electronica. Cokiyu plays toy piano in Shugo Tokumaru & The Magic Band. They'll be playing on april 29th, also at O-Nest. Details.
I found my friends downstairs waiting for Miaou. I'd seen Miaou once a couple of years before and kind of liked them but also kind of got bored. Since then they have greatly improved, and I'm also getting more into this guitar stuff again these days. They use intertwining guitars and bass building up and back down, breaking out into louder sections and settling back down again in classic post-rock style. The song that impressed me the most also sounded quite like one of my favourite Múm songs. I picked up Miaou's latest EP which I've since been enjoying.
Moving back upstairs where we spent most of the rest of the night, we caught the end of Lullatone who I was really disappointed to have missed. Child-like electronica complete with toys and soft vocals. I'll have to try to see them again. Next was the Australian indie-popster Alexis with her band The Motifs. Wow, so Melbourne! Lovely twee vocals, simple melodies and a bunch of guest musicians. Again it was too quiet for my poor ears to properly hear. More indie-pop was up next with 4 bonjour's parties, this time a bit louder. They move between indie-pop and Tortoise-like instrumentation with all kinds of instruments plus seven ever-so-cute members crowding the tiny corner acting as a stage.
Downstairs The Sun Calls Stars started off seeming interesting with 2 drummers and 2 mini-saxophone(?) players. But soon the repetitive trance-jazz squawking became tedious, so back upstairs (or downstairs? I'm lost..) for drinks.