There’s another sunset event happening at Enoshima this weekend. They are always good to go to - spectacular venue and a friendly, up for it interesting crowd… like these cool cats…

Here are a couple more snaps from the last event…

I haven’t stopped listening to the new M.I.A. record since I got it last week. Miss Arulpragasam represents one of my trends in music: globetrotting populists who make music on the fly and on the road (think Manu Chao and Diplo). She’s set her sights on becoming the spokesdiva of the 3rd world, and succeeding. The low-tech mix of worldbeat and old-school electro is as vibrant and seizure-inducing as her site and myspace page.

The video for Bird Flu:

A big farewell and R.I.P. to CBGB founder, Hilly Krystal.

Image from Phawker.com

One of the finest mixes we’ve heard in a long time, this week’s mix comes from Alex Kid. Born in France, with his Mother being Spanish, he was raised in the Balearic Islands, this Kid is currently one of the names to watch in dance music.

So without further ado, here is the Hyptyo MiX of the Week.

Thanks to Jami for the heads up on this one (via Blentwell. I know we’ve blogged briefly about Blentwell before, but if you haven’t yet checked it out, it’s one of the oldest and best DJ mix sites. Respect.).

Catch Jami, yours truly, Bob Miyagi and a host of other DJs at Soft in Shibuya tonight. More details here.

Ping Magazine has a great interview with Richie Hawtin:
A lot of what we do with Minus stems from my kind of experiments with sounds, like what I did with the Plastikman albums. When working with sound, and as my songs don’t contain too much information, I kind of visualise them and place them in a three-dimensional space. For me, to fully understand how these sounds interact physically or in these virtual spaces is to go and see another artist’s representation: standing in front of a Rothko or walking around a sculpture of Serra, go towards his huge pieces of metal and get the weight of the situation. That enables me sometimes to formulate a musical idea. It’s a way connecting to our sonic expression…

Full interview is here

Hawtin also talks about collaborating with visual artist Ali Demirel, who mostly does the VJing and video work for Hawtin and his label minus, and blew the crowd away at Metamorphose this weekend. See some of Demirel’s work here.

Special Bonus, Richie Hawtin documentary:

After writing about the new Joe Strummer documentary below, I remembered reading somewhere about the punk dicotomy represented by the Clash and the Sex Pistols. I thought it was in this great piece from the New Yorker, but I just re-read it and didn’t find what I was looking for.

The point was that with these two bands, you could already see a rift in the newly-formed punk movement: the Sex Pistols represented nihilism and decrepitude, while the Clash represented earnest anti-establishment sentiment. This rang true with me: I discovered the Clash much later than I’d like to admit, mostly because nihilism appealed to the 13-year-old me much more than activism (I was 8 when London Calling came out, btw). I followed that line all the way into college, really (Pistols to Exploited, then Misfits, Cramps, etc). In retrospect, it was rebellion against my orderly Christian upbringing more than anything else, but once I started looking at the world around me, the Clash made much more sense.

One of the main reasons Joe was (and is) loved so much is because he never lost touch with people or took himself too seriously. Promoters here will tell you how he would stay after shows long after the band had packed up, talking with whomever wanted to speak to him. One of my favorite quotes from Steve Buscemi, of all people (he shows up in a Mescaleros video, actually). He talks about when he first saw the Clash play in the 80’s, Grandmaster Flash was the opening act (!). All the punks screamed “Fuck you!” and Joe came out and berated them, saying “Give the guy a chance!” Damn.

Strummer’s very worthy charity is here

Black & White photos by the venerable Bob Gruen (Look here for more). Above photo from Yottamusic.com

Joe Strummer is all but dieified in the minds of many fans (even stronger among Fujirockers), and the new documentary about his life and career, The Future is Unwritten, will likely draw large crowds. And damn well it should.

I saw a little sneak preview of it the other night and was blown away. There are many Strummer disciples here in Japan, and I’m not one of them, but the guy deserves praise more than most rock stars, for sure (reasons could fill many more posts). And as a document of the punk movement, it’s jaw-droppingly great: amazing footage and editing, but always cutting back to friends and old bandmates sitting around a fire relaying their experiences with the guy. Joe himself does most of the voice over. Was afraid this would turn into a petition for sainthood (there are moments), but overall, director Julien Temple (the guy that did Galstonbury, The Movie) shows Strummer as a real person.

There are too many people and great quotes here to choose from, but for some reason a very stoned Johnny Depp shows up and sounds like a putz:

I keep waiting for him to shout “AAARGH!”

Spoon, are about the most consistently great band in indie rock. Little Keepon thinks so, too apparently, as you’ll see below. They had him and his scientist buddy walking all over Tokyo. How many places can you identify?

Decent Spoon profile in the New Yorker here. Stay tuned for Spoon and Keepon to reunite for a benefit in San Francisco for Creative Commons. All part of WIRED Magazine’s Nextfest.

Just uploaded a few vid clips from the Fratelli’s show at Shibuya AX last week. Reminded me of that wave pool I mentioned recently. Wow. Amazing what one iPod ad can do for your career, huh?

Cory Doctorow, of the badass Boing Boing team, will be in Japan at WorldCon, a Sci-fi convention held this year in Yokohama. Some of the events sound pretty cool. Just look at the very first one on the program guide: Exomusicology - The Study of Alien Music.

Science fiction has been creating alien cultures for decades, but we rarely think about alien music. Where are there descriptions of alien music in the genre? What might truly alien music sound like? Would we like it? Would we even recognize it?

And would it have a good beat? Could you dance to it?

Cory has posted his schedule on his personal blog

Japan’s love affair with ska, reggae, mambo and other Caribbean music is well-documented, but I’m starting to see steel drum bands popping up all over the place. Is it just me? First there was the Panorama Steel Drum Orchestra at Fujirock this year, and now the Caribbean Magic Steel Drum Orchestra from Trinidad & Tobago play next next week, and just this weekend a Steel Drum band played at my local grocery store – I’m not kidding:

A big R.I.P. to activist, bandleader and drumming virtuoso, Max Roach.

A belated R.I.P. to Manchester’s finest, Tony Wilson

An old friend of mine has a piece in the IHT today about Taiwanese black-metal band and Taiwan Independence advocates, ChthoniC. As an old Taiwan hand and (very) amateur Sinophile, I love the how these guys tweak the dungeons-and-dragons melodrama of black metal by adding elements of Taiwanese folklore and old-school Chinese temple-festival elements. For example, the face paint may remind you of KISS or King Diamond, but they’ve added elements of the traditional makeup used for the Eight Generals often celebrated in temple festivals.

If you want to escape the Tokyo heat for a weekend, this looks like the way to do it. 25,000 yen gets you round-trip bus from Shibuya, 2 nights accom, half a day of rafting or canyoning, a BBQ and a DJ patio party.

Carlos Gibbs of the notorious Red Box Project is part of this – one good sign that this will be a proper party to remember.

Bus leaves at 9pm, Friday, Aug 31 and returns Sep 2.
Reservation deadline is August 20th. To make reservations and ask for more info (packages, discounts, room upgrades) write greenbybus@gmail.com

Animator Yannick Puig creates a beautiful video for French band Kwoon, who incidentally make some lovely stuff themselves (come to Japan, come to Japan!).

More info on Kwoon here:
Kwoon on LastFRM: http://www.last.fm/music/Kwoon
Kwoon’s MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/kwoonmusic

One of my favorite acts this year was Marva Whitney with Osaka Monaurail, Japan’s finest funk outfit. These guys do a note-perfect impression of the JB’s, and have all the moves down cold.

Whitney was in James Brown’s backup band, and she is still a show stopper. Check this out: that’s her walking in from the left - hard to see, but she trips on a wire and wipes out.

Then what does she do? Pops right back up and bring the house down, that’s what she does:

Here she is back in the day:

One of the most pleasant surprises at this year’s Fujirock was stumbling upon Panorama Steel Orchestra: over 25 young Japanese playing covers on massive array to Caribbean Steel Drums.

Personal faves, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

and the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”

Completely made my morning

The Palace or Wonder area has always been my favorite part of the festival. I’ll add more details later, but here’s what your confronted with upon entry:

Giant sculptures made out of scrap metal, trees made out of mufflers, freaks of all stripes and usually some kind of carnival act that revolves around pain and/or danger. This year it was the “Globe of Death”

That’s THREE motorcycles in there. Great cheap thrills. And if that wasn’t enough, the bottom opens up. I caught it as it closed.

I’m finally recovering from my Fujirock hangover and catching up with life in the real world, so I’ll start posting a few clips I took last weekend at the festival.

Here’s a couple of Deerhoof. They played two shows, but I chose to see them on Naeba Shokudo stage, a little chunk of plywood attached to a lounge area near the food stalls (you can see people sitting/laying down behind them). This was a great move, cause the crowd was into it and Deerhoof’s jerky thrust-and-pause songs were tighter than I’d ever heard them.

If you’re not familiar with their song, “Panda” then this may sound like nonsense, but to see them stop and lunge forward without even looking at each other was pretty amazing.

This weeks mix of the week is by Cosmo Vitelli, from I’m A Cliché Records, a special DJ, with his own very eclectic, yet very dancable, electro disco sound.

Born in 1974 in Montreuil, France under the name of Benjamin Boguet, and raised in Africa, he named (and perhaps, styled) himself after the character who plays a Sunset Strip nightclub owner in the 1976 film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, by John Cassavetes.

The mix is from Tim Sweeny’s Beats in Space, one of my favourite mix sites, constantly topping up the old ipod with quality sounds.

Sit back and enjoy. Here it is, mix of the week: The Beats in Space Cosmo Vitelli mix.

Tracklist:
1. Dub Narcotic Soundsystem - Dub Narcotic Renew - K Rds
2. Barry de Vorzon - Theme From ‘The Warriors’ - A&M
3. Lee Douglas - Breakwind - Wurst
4. Rhetta Hughes - Angel Man(Disco Devil edit) - Disco Devil
5. Pete Shelley - Many a Time(dub) - Genetic
6. Model 500 - Play it cool(Instrumental) - Metroplex
7. Skatebard - Supersoul
8. Robert Görl - Eckhardt’s Party - Mute
9. Jackos - Xorsister - Street Trash
10. Bot’Ox - Babylon By Car - I’m a Cliché/DFA
11. Poni Hoax - Antibodies (Chateau Flight remix) - Tigersushi
12. Supertramp - Canonball(Instrumental) - A&M
13. Chez Damier - Can You Feel It (M.K. Dub) - KMS
14. Dave tech Nice - Nasty(Seduction Mix) - Sleeping Bag
15. Ame - Balandine - Innervisions
16. Straight Shooters “My time, Your Time” (Cosmo Vitelli’s instrumental edit)
17. Andrew Powell & The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan
Parsons Project “I Robot Suite” - Dutch
18. Phantom Band “Relax” - Sky rds
19. Can “Sunday Jam” - Harvest

We ranted and raved about Theo Parrish a few weeks back, and I know you took our reccomendation to heart and went to check him out at Yellow the other day. Here’s a Theo Parrish mix for your listening goodness. (I’m afraid you have to have Real Player installed).

Here’s the tracklist:
Jaco Pastorius - ‘Portrait of Tracy’ (Sony)
Hanna - ‘Hanna’s Waltz’ (?)
Blackbyrds - ‘Mother/Son Talk’ (Fantasy)
Common - ‘It’s Your World’ (Good Music)
Jean Luc Ponty - ‘Between you and Me’ (Atlantic)
Ojeda Penn - ‘Happy People’ ((?)
Al Jarreau - ‘Take Five’ (Warner/WEA)
The Crusaders - ‘Chain Reaction’ (MCA)
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - ‘Cubano Chant’ (Philips)
Herbie Hancock - ‘Sleeping Giant’ (WEA)
Herbie Hancock with Bill Laswell Feat Chaka Khan - ‘The Essence’ (Transparent)
Miles Davis - ‘Ife” (Sony)
Lenny White - ‘Venusian Summer Suite’ (Wounded Bird)
Haki Madhabuti & Nation - ‘Medasi’ (Third World)
Theo Parrish - ‘Love is War for Miles’ (Peacefrog)
The Rebirth - ‘This Journey In’ (Cajmere Sounds)
Fertile Ground - ‘Yellow Daisies’ (Blackout Studios)
Dee Felice Trio - ‘The Cricket Sing’ (?)
Hanna - ‘Laughin’ (?)
Ronnie Laws - ‘Tidal Wave’ (Blue Note)
The Heath Bros - ‘Smilin’ Billy Suite’ (Strata East)
Georgia Anne Muldrow - ‘One For the Funk (Stones Throw)

Wicked video of Japan vs Korea B-boy battle teams fighting it out. Link via tvinjapan.com

A few highlights so far:

The boys from !!! turning a few thousand people into frothing lunatics

The Cure playing 2 hours and bringing back a thousand high-school memories

A steel drum orchestra covering the Jackson 5

Deerhoof playing a muddy side stage the size of my living room

Iggy Pop nearly breaking his neck only to get up and wail some more

Omar Rodriguez Lopez touching the moons of Saturn

Kaiser Chiefs vocalist leaping the stage gates to lead a fan-chase onto an unsuspecting Pocari Sweat stand

A didgireedoo and three drummers making kickass techno/trance

A crowd for the Lily Allen show that you couldn’t wedge an icepick into

Alien mummies on bamboo stilts.

Cavemen with sharpened sticks rolling a boulder down footpaths

and that’s just off the top of my head…

back to work. No time to upload any vid clips now, but my reports (under “jinki”) and many, many others HERE

The Red Box events are a great example of where club culture and art collide. Carlos Gibbs, the guy behind Deep House Project and Red Box, pulls together killer DJs, VJs, painters, photographers, sculptors, etc and throws them all in a room for the evening, with the image of a Red Box as the common thread (add your own symbolism here).

HYPTYO faves, Rimpa Eshidan were there, too (you may know them from their intro to Youtube Japan.). I wondered how they would translate their sped-up painting exercises into a live performance. So what did they do? Red Boxes, of course. BIG ones:

These rotated throughout the evening, taking on different images and patterns. Great stuff. Only problem was this jackass wanted to perform with them.

Everyone tried to avoid the guy (he started hugging people), but it was unavoidable that someone got house paint on their clothes. Myself included (and on my favorite shirt, dammit). Once they got under control, the painting continued:

Been getting geared up for FujiRock next week. I manage the English-language component of Fujirockers.org, and one of my duties every year is to write the schedule - basically, telling writers where who they should cover. Everyone gives me their top requests and alternatives, and every year I’m always surprised that one particular band either lacks requests or is inundated by them.

For example, this year I was SURE there would be at least 3 or 4 writers wanting to cover the Cure. Nope. Only one, and it was his alternate.

And who would be the most popular this year? It’s a tie between Blonde Redhead and Battles.

Both on my list, as well, but c’mon! Have you seen the schedule?

My money’s on !!! to bring the serious party.

Great night this past Saturday (7/14): Asobi Seksu, Sphere and Cruyff in the Bedroom. This show was put together by On the One, a new promoter connecting western indie bands with like-minded local acts. They were spot-on here, all three acts and the DJs in-between flowed seamlessly together.

The common thread between all three bands is their shoegazer influences. Cruyff in the Bedroom perhaps most of all:

Sphere were a pleasant surprise, but they’re working it a bit too hard.

The visuals projected over them in this clip? Pretty cool stuff, except that text would roll across every so often: song titles or lyrics, and then at the end “SPHERE, NEW ALBUM OUT NOW!”

Nice try.

Asobi Seksu sounded great in a small club like Chelsea.

My memory card cut off at the end, which is a shame, cause tiny little Yuki Chikudate got behind the drumkit and bashed something fierce while strobes flashed in seizure-inducing mode. A sight to behold.

Samm Bennett wears many musical hats: bluesman, avant-guardian, percussionist extraordinaire. He and his wife, Haruna’s project, Skist, is a dark and mellow affair. Here they are performing at Loop-line, a cool little gallery-cafe in Sendagaya:

Sequencers and percussion are the basis, but they also played bells, a jew’s harp even candy wrapper. Here they are using little electric fans for effects on the mic:

I want one of these drums Samm uses:

So…do white people have soul? The verdict’s still out, but they do know how to have a good time. Just look at spasmo Yacht here:

He had NO problem doing the white-boy dance. Au Revoir Simone were a little more subdued, but lots of fun:

a recent video here

Here’s another great resource of DJ mixes for your ipod.