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This month's Feature isn't an artist but a monthly event called FLO Union. FLO Union is a venue for artists of all types to show what they do and meet like-minded people. Every month is different but often there is short film, live music, poetry, painting, photography, performance art, comedy and anything in-between. The audience and participants are a friendly mix of non-Japanese and Japanese, and in between showings everyone has a chance to chat and enjoy the music provided by DJ craige (me). FLO Union started in around February/March 2004 by two girls, Meena and Camala. They actually started it as a group that could share art and a sort of book exchange club, where they would introduce books they liked and then lend them out/ swap etc. This was all happening at The Third Stone Cafe in Shimokitazawa once a month. By around June/July both Meena and Camala had to return to their respective countries, so they asked their friends Jessie Diblasi and Matt Peipert to take over. They ran the event at The Third Stone for one or two more months and it was growing in popularity, so they started seeking a bigger space. From then on it has been held at The Pink Cow, a cool loungeroom-like event space/restaurant/bar in Shibuya. They serve drinks and nice Californian-style food (great for vegetarians). For directions and a map, check out the Pink Cow website. FLO Union is held on the third Sunday of every month from around 7:30pm and is free. This month it will be on June 19th. Everybody is welcome to present, watch or just socialise. If you want to present, get more information or join the mailing list, email Jessie or Matt at flounion@gmail.com. The website is flo-union.com.
Lost in Found play some breezy, easygoing pop with cute boy/girl vocals, horns, and occassional rock moments. They would be a perfect soundtrack for a summer party in a park. If comparisons are necessary, they are something like Belle and Sebastian meets Saturday Looks Good To Me, with a definite influence from their Japanese pop contemporaries like Advantage Lucy.
Kahimi Karie was quite a big star in Japan in the mid-90's with a few popular singles including 'Humming ga kikoeru,' the theme song of the famous anime, 'Chibimarukochan.' Around this time, Kahimi was collaborating with the Scottish singer/songwriter, Momus, and was an important part of the Shibuya-kei style along with likeminded artists such as Pizzicato Five and Fantastic Plastic Machine. Kahimi has also collaborated with musicians like Katerine, Francoise Cactus and Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius). It was the latter who discovered her in the early 90's. Kahimi was a music photographer dating Oyamada and he asked her to sing with his friend's band. Her trademark voice was found, and she went on to release her own top selling EPs and singles. Her voice could be described as soft, whispered, fragile, girly or childlike, but underneath, the lyrics in French, English and Japanese are not so childlike or fragile. Her vocal style is somewhat similar to Mum or Takako Minekawa. In fact, Kahimi once played in a band called Fancy Face Groovy Name with Minekawa. Kahimi currently resides in Paris and her influences would probably include French music from the 50's and 60's, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, and Fran�oise Hardy. In 1992, Kahimi released the single 'Mike Alway's Diary,' obviously dedicated to Mike Alway, whose musical ideas and promotion of exotic music was another influence on her. Since then her discography includes many singles, EPs and albums which have taken her in many directions depending on the co-writers. On her last two albums, 'Trapeziste' and 'Montage,' she worked with Tomoki Kanda and Koki Takai who took her in a more experimental electronic-jazz direction. This has lead to her latest collaborator, the avante-garde jazz musician Otomo Yoshihide. Perhaps her next album will be made with him? He will accompany her on guitar for this month's show at Club Quattro along with his New Jazz Ensemble. The members are Naoko Eto (keyboards), Kenta Tsugami (sax), Taiichi Kamimura (sax), Sachiko M (sinewaves), Taisei Aoki (trombone), Hiroaki Mizutani (bass), and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums). It's on April 22 and doors open at 6:30. Tickets are 5000yen advance or 5500yen at the door. The show is organised by the great magazine Marquee.
Tenniscoats are Saya and Takashi Ueno, often helped by other musicians and non-musicians. They, in turn, have performed in, or collaborated with a large number of underground bands and musicians like Maher Shalal Hash Baz (with Tori and Reiko Kudo), Cacoy (with DJ Klock of Clockwise Records), Puka Puka Brians and other artists on Tenniscoats very own Majikick label. Both Saya and Ueno also perform and release solo works. Their record label's name 'Majikick' is a combination of the Japanese word for 'serious' and the English word 'kick'. The name 'Tenniscoats' comes from the way 'Tennis courts' sounds when changed to the Japanese syllabet katakana. In Tenniscoats, Saya sings beautiful original melodies in a delicate falsetto and mainly plays keyboards, piano, and synths. Ueno accompanies mostly with guitar, saxophone, and occassional vocals. A lot of other instruments are also used to create their fragile pop and experimental songs. MTV in Sweden recently produced an interesting profile on Tenniscoats which can be found here. Some great clips of Maher Shalal Hash Baz can also be found on the site. Tenniscoats brilliant album 'Bokutachi Minnadane' (We Are Everyone) was released last year on both Majikick and Rover Records. Tenniscoats previously made two EPs, 'The Theme of Tenniscoats,' and 'The Ending Theme', as well as appearing on a number of compilations including 'Songs for Nao', a recent Australian compilation of Japanese artists on Chapter Music. Some clips of Tenniscoats songs can be found on the Otonson website. Tenniscoats will be appearing at O-Nest in Shibuya on the 26th of March with a bunch of other experimental artists as part of the White Noise event. Doors open at 6:00, it starts at 6:30, and it costs 2500yen. Tenniscoats will also be supporting The Red Crayola from the US at Thumb's Up in Yokohama on the 11th of March. Nikasoup & Sayasource (Saya from Tenniscoats with Nikaidoh Kazumi) will play Club Quattro in Shibuya on the 28th of March as part of a showcase of Headz. It starts at 6:00 and costs 3000/3500yen.
Tenniscoats website is here.
For indie-rock, the place to go is Shimokitazawa, and in particular, Club Que. A prominent band on the indie-rock scene is Cruyff in the Bedroom, and they'll be playing Que on Friday, the 4th of February. Cruyff in the Bedroom are on the appropriately named label OnlyFeedback, and play noisy, effects saturated guitar-pop influenced by My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth and other shoegazer, britpop and indie-rock bands. Singer/guitarist Yusuke Hata can often be seen in clubs around Tokyo playing this kind of music as a DJ. In CITB, he is joined by guitarist/singer Shigekazu Sannohe, bassist Hideyuki Hironaka, and drummer Tsuyoshi Miyagawa who formed the band during the 1998 World Cup in France. They are obviously obsessed with soccer. The 'Cruyff' in their name refers to their favourite Dutch soccer player Johann Cruyff, and their debut album, 'Perfect Silence,' has a soccer ball printed on the CD and was released on the first day of the 2002 World Cup finals. Their second album, 'Hikarihimawari,' was released last year and can be found in any record stores in Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku, Shibuya, or any other place beginning with 'shi.' For their show at Que, CITB will be joined by pop-punk poster boys, Hi-5 (not to be confused with the Australian children's band of the same name!) as well as dreamy-noisy band, The Jetze Johnson. The doors will open at 6:30 and it will start at 7:00. It will cost you 2500yen at the door or 2300yen advance from Pia or Lawson. If you miss this show, or want to see them again, they'll be playing Club 251 (also in Shimokitazawa, naturally) on the 2nd of March. Cruyff in the Bedroom's website is here.
Tomonori Hayashibe (programming, keys, etc) and Takeshi Wakiya (guitar, bass, etc) with supporting vocalists Yuppa and Wanta somehow create the hyper, cute, eclectic pop on amphetamines that is Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, the name being as crazy as the band. They studied at the same Shibuya-kei school as Pizzicato Five and Hi-Posi. They were in the same hip-hop class as Cibo Matto and Halcali, dabbled in electronic craziness with Yukari Fresh, watched a lot of cartoons, TV commercials and old movies, and spun their radio dial randomly through stations playing JPop, club music, exotica, jazz, bossa-nova, easy-listening and punk. They've cut and pasted it all together and somehow it fits, or when it doesn't that just makes it more fun anyway. "It's imitation music from Plus-Tech Squeeze Box" is one line from a song on 'Cartooom!', PSB's new album on Vroom-Sound, a great Japanese indie label that they share with other great Japanese pop artists like EeL and Petset, and great international groups like The Go! Team and Noonday Underground. PSB caught international attention recently when they appeared on the BBC's very humorous TV show 'Adam & Joe Go Tokyo' where they played a wild live version of 'Early Riser', a song from PSB's equally as good previous album 'Fakevox.' A special mini-live remix version of PSB will appear at Star Pine's Cafe on the 30th of December with Vroom-Sound's other special artist EeL, DJ Yasutaka Tanaka (Capsule/Contemode), Petit Mit, and Titan Gokinzu. It kicks off at 6:00pm.
PSB's website is here.
Ryuji Tsuneyoshi used to play guitar in bands before he discovered Macintosh software and an AKAI sampler. Then he started making music himself as Color Filter in 1996 with help from different female vocalists. Nowadays Yuki Nishimura is the vocalist of Color Filter. Her soft voice helps Color Filter sound a little like electro pop bands like the Cocteau Twins or Saint Etienne. Color Filter are much more chilled-out than Saint Etienne though, with washed-out layered guitars, keyboards and trip-hop beats. Ryuji is actually an award-winning nuclear physicist who also writes music for TV commercials when he's not making the dreamy soundscapes of Color Filter. Apparently they are a favourite band of Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips who said they give him a psychedelic feeling. Color Filter have appeared on dozens of compilations and have released albums and singles on various labels such as God's Pop Records (Japan), Darla (USA), and Elefant (Spain). Their new album called Silent Way is available in Japan on P-Vine, in the USA on Darla, and in Europe on Pointy Records. At the moment Color Filter are recording again. Color Filter are playing at Basement Bar in Shimokitazawa on Saturday 13th November with Daffodil-19 and sophy (otomo mami). Doors open at 6:30 and it starts at 7:00pm. Info. Color Filter.
Osaka's Nagisa Ni Te ("on the beach") are a very important Japanese psychedelic-pop avant-folk duo. Shinji Shibayama was part of psych bands Idiot O'Clock and Hallelujahs in the 80s, then founded Org Records which he still runs, and which has released other important artists Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Naoki Zushi. It was Tori Kudo of Maher Shalal Hash Baz that helped with Nagisa Ni Te's first album 'On The Love Beach.' Tori Kudo actually described Nagisa Ni Te very well like this, "Nagisa Ni te's naked Progressive rock-based worldly songs, which are sung not so much deliberately as seriously, on their love beach, now fill a blank somewhere between underground hi-fi and overground lo-fi." Shinji's girlfriend, Masako Takeda, is now a permanent member of Nagisa Ni Te, and they have gone on to record more albums, The True Sun, The True World, Feel, and their recent release The Same as a Flower. The beautiful natural colours of Nagisa Ni Te's album covers are a nice representation of the music contained inside; entrancing, slow, minimal songs about experiencing nature, and about Shinji and Masako's developing relationship. Their innocent unaffectedness lets them get away with this sentimentalism without sounding pretentious. Their music is generally quite naked, just slow strumming of an acoustic guitar and slightly out-of-tune male and female vocals sung in Japanese, but they show their influences (they're often compared with early Neil Young, middle-era Pink Floyd, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley, Velvet Underground, etc) with occasional guitar and keyboard freak-outs, layered vocals, eerie guitar solos, and long drawn-out songs. Nagisa Ni Te seem to exist in another world, but this month they're coming down to Tokyo and this big artificial city shall be a nice contrast to their natural songs. They're playing at Club Quattro in Shibuya on the 23rd of October. It costs 3000yen advance with 1 drink. Doors open at 6pm and they start at 7pm. Information from Smash is here. You can buy tickets from e+, Pia, or Lawson convenience stores. Nagisa Ni Te don't have a website but their page on Jagjaguwar is here.
Guitar-pop genius Hideki Kaji, born in 1967, was the bass player in Bridge, a fun early 90's preppy pop band. As Bridge dissolved, Kaji-kun released his first solo E.P, 'Muscat' in 1996, a brilliant catchy pop hit. He went on to record many more Eps, albums and singles on the Shibuya-kei label Trattoria (now Felicity), popular at the time with Cornelis, Kahimi Karie and others. Kaji has worked with many artists including Chocolat, Crue L Grand Orchestra, and Hiromix. Kaji's style can be described as 'Swedish pop' and he has certainly helped make Swedish guitar pop known in Japan. A lot of his recordings have been done in Sweden with the help of his Swedish buddies like Eggstone and producer Tore Johansson. If you check out Kaji's website, you'll see some beautiful photography from Sweden. His latest album, 'L�v Songs' (L�v means 'leaf' in Swedish) is full of uplifting pop, maybe not as enjoyable as his earlier efforts, but he certainly hasn't lost his touch. Hideki is great to see live with the audience bopping away and obsessed girls screaming "Kaji-kun!". On his last tour he played with members of Ray Wonder (from Sweden of course), and he often plays with Hirohisa Horie (Neil & Iraiza) and Gakuji Matsuda (Cubsimo Grafico, Neil & Iraiza). It doesn't matter if you can't understand what he's singing in Japanese, the melodies will never leave your head. Check him out at Liquid Room in Ebisu, which has relocated from it's former location in Kabuki-cho. It's on the 14th of September and starts at 6PM. Tickets can be bought from Pia, Lawsons or e+. Hideki Kaji's official website is here and the Felicity site is here.
Cobalt released some excellent lo-fi-folk-pop-rock demo tapes in 1999 from Warszawa Records which used to be in Parco Quattro in Shibuya. Since then those Waszawa guys opened Some of Us in Shibuya which continues to sell Cobalt's recordings, now on CD of course. And now you can buy his music in Disc Union, HMV and everywhere else. 'Mare' which was released in 2000 and 'Fuyu no hi no Baraddo' in 2001 had Cobalt doing his acoustic lo-fi-reflective-mellow-somewhat-melancholy folk with beautiful 60s pop moments. Unfortunately Cobalt got out his distortion pedals to record the post-rock ep 'Chibibamerareta Yoru' in 2002. His latest release, 'Konomama Hidamaride' has him returning to the pop territory, more upbeat and with a full band, sometimes reminding me of POP Japanese artists like Hideki Kaji. Cobalt is also the man behind the record label Poet Portraits which released some CDs and compilation CDs featuring a variety of artists like Moools, Jamaican Cheek and Win a Sheep Free. Poet Portraits often holds day time concerts at Salon by Marbletron but this month Cobalt's new label No Name Note is holding one at Nest. It's on the 22nd of August and opens at 6:30, starting at 7:00. Tickets are 2000yen advance from Nest or 2500yen at the door on the night. The artists supporting Cobalt on the night will be Moools, Mash, and Folk Squat.
Yes, their name is from The Shaggs song. However My Pal Foot Foot aren't quite as shambolic and naive as The Shaggs, yet they are a little mussy and skewed. MPFF are really just two people who write and record pretty minimal music, mostly moody guitar and beautiful vocals. But on stage they are usually jazzed up by a twee live line-up of friends on melodica, drums, bass, keyboards, guitars, vocals and toy instruments. So their recorded and live output are quite different, making MPFF fit in well with Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, and the other members of the Majikick community. MPFF aren't quite as chaotic and experimental as their colleagues, instead leaning alot more in the pop direction. They are a friendly band whose essentially melancholic songs somehow have the power to make you smile. Their first CD "Black knight, Black tie...Where Do The Strangers Meet?" came out on Majikick in 2002, and then in 2003 they released "Last Night Songs" on Flange House. If you want to hear something original, I suggest picking up either of these CDs and/or going to see them at BlooMoon (here's a map) in Kichijoji on Sunday 18th July, an event organised by Kirori Records. My Pal Foot Foot's website is here.
Advantage Lucy are a bright guitar pop band influenced by 60s pop records. Listen to them in your living room with a glass of lemonade. Soon you'll find yourself getting up and dancing around to the jangly guitars and sweet female vocals. They're not exactly deep, but so happy and nice that you will be grinning. They have been recording and playing gigs under the name of Advantage Lucy sice 1998. Before that they went by the name Lucy Van Pelt, named after the Peanuts character. Advantage Lucy are Yoshiharu Ishizaka, Aiko, and Kaname Banba. Catch them at Red Cloth in Shinjuku on Saturday June 5th with other smiley pop bands Lost in Found, Snowball, and Sloppy Joe (ex My Coffee Moment). Doors open at 6:00 and it starts at 6:30. Tickets which include 1 drink are 2000yen advance or 2300yen at the door. They're also playing at Que in Shimokitazawa on Friday July 2nd with No Stars innovation and Grimm Grimms. Advantage Lucy website.
Mono are hard to listen to on a walkman on the subway. Sometimes their music is so quiet that it can't be heard above the rattle of the train, but then it will become so deafeningly loud that you'll jump out of your seat. So yeah, Mono follow the quiet-loud formula that you've heard before from all those post-rock bands. But Mono are a band of extreme contrast, of beauty and darkness, and eerie, soaring guitars. They are an instrumental band of long, building, quiet songs with outbursts of absolute violence. The obvious comparison is Mogwai, but Mono make white noise like only the Japanese can. We could also mention Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Sonic Youth if comparisons are needed.
Four quiet people named Takaakira Goto (guitar), Tamaki (bass), Yasunori Takada (drums) and Yoda (guitar) formed Mono in 2000 and recorded 'Under The Pipal Tree' which was heard by John Zorn and released by his Tzadik label. Their 2003 album was 'One More Step and You Die', followed by this April's album with the ambiguous title 'Third Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and The Sun Shined' which was recorded by, you guessed it, Steve Albini.
Have a listen to some samples on their cool Website, and go see them on Tuesday the 25th of May at Shinjuku Loft with Wrench. Doors open at 6pm and the bands start at 7pm. It's 2500yen advance from Pia, e+, or Loft, or 3000yen on the night. Your ears will definitely be ringing afterwards.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz are a cult-psych-folk-improv-rock-naive-soundtrack-shambling-Japanese-Scottish-avant-pop band. I think it would be easier to say that they're unclassifiable. Tori and Reiko Kudo and their helpers use cutting guitars, shuffling drums, school band horn instruments, toys, fragile voices, and other sounds. Imperfection is part of their perfection. The Kudo pair have been part of the Japan underground music scene since the late 70s in bands like their duo Noise, and part of the Minor cafe and A-Musik. MSHB were formed in the mid 80s, though two of their original members died. Now they often collaborate with Saya and Ueno of the Tenniscoats and other Majikick people, their son Tamio Kudo, and a host of others. Shinji Shibayama of Org Records released their legendary 83-song Return Visit To Rock Mass box set, then they were heard by The Pastels, who released MSHBs recent music on their Geographic label.
The name 'Maher Shalal Hash Baz' is Hebrew in case you're wondering, and comes from the bible. It means something like, "the spoil speeds, the prey hastens".
Each live show is quite different, and quite an experience. They are usually orchestrated by Tori and his famous scores and concepts. They are playing on the 17th of April at Super Deluxe in Roppongi with the UK slow-quiet band Movietone. Tori Kudo will also play some solo shows in May including one on the 1st at Artland in Musashi Koganei.
MSHBs official but hard to navigate website is here, and also features some of Tori's interesting pottery work.