Monday 26 December 2011

End-of-year DJ schedule:

I've got a few appearances lined up, mostly just playing a few songs inbetween bands, but generally pretty good bands, so it's worth coming along.

Event: Vision Quest
Date: December 27th
Place: Higashi-Koenji UFO Club
Time: Midnight-5:00am
Cost: 1500yen adv./2000yen door
LIVE:
- Yuchi
- Keiichi Misawa
- Timutaku
- Ian Martin

Event: YIW X'mas and new year party "Don't countdown"
Date: December 28th
Place: Koenji One
Time: 6:00pm-11:50pm
Cost: 1000yen
LIVE:
- Girls Pancakes
- Fidel
DJs:
- NAH&SUE (Youth Is Wasted)
- 510373 (WEEKEND NEVER DIES / Youth Is Wasted)
- Gosuke (Youth Is Wasted)
- komlasaki (CLUB iNBETWEENERS / Youth Is Wasted)
- Tack Terror (Youth Is Wasted)
- Ian Martin (Call and Response / Fashion Crisis)
- Yuta Sekiyama (ACCOMMO / from england to me!)
- EISUKE (les qwells)
- tantan to tantan
- ABE (Girls Pancakes / smilelove)
- Keiichi Misawa (Friends)
- Aik & Prince Ness
- Minna no Ototo Kikurin


Event: Switched On! Bonenkai
Date: December 29th
Place: Kichijoji Ichibee
Time: 6:00pm-11:00pm
Cost: 1000yen
LIVE:
DJs:
- Ian Martin
- Kovacs
- Takayuki Tonegawa
- Kato Catherine
- Gachamuku (Choshinsei ver.)
- Shiroyamada Yo Orchestra

Friday 23 December 2011

Trinitron: Subsidence -- Now online!

Trinitron have finished recording their new mini-album, Subsidence. Why not go and have a listen to it on Soundcloud now?

On the group's new Soundcloud page, you can also hear their new cover of Edge by electro-idols Perfume:

Rummage around the page and you can hear their earlier More Real than News EP in its entirety and their first recording, a cover of the Candies' Heart no Ace ga Detekonai.

Christmas Presents from Canada

According to their web site: "Poulet Neige takes Santa Claus' spot and offers more than 140 albums to the music lovers, of all kinds, and from about everywhere in the world. French, English, from Québec, USA, Canada, indie, folk, rock, metal, hip-hop, known bands, underground bands... But most of all, generous bands. So go make your choice!"

In return for sharing your email with the bands you're interested in, you get a choice of a huge range of free music. They seemed like lovely people and it feels good to be able to do something nice for Christmas, so Call And Response are lending Hyacca's "Hanazono" to their seasonal offer. There are more than a hundred albums on their page, so there's sure to be something to attract your interest. See the list HERE.

They also have a Facebook page and a they made a promotional video (below):

Friday 2 December 2011

Fashion Crisis (December 2011)

Merry Fucking Christmas, it's 2011's final Fashion Crisis!

Playing live this month, we have a new wave and postpunk double-feature of Lihappiness and Anisakis to ensure that 2011 goes out with a bang-bip-pop!-SKREE! rather than a whimper. Guest DJ will be Tahitian post-nudewave Krautgazer Gotal, along with the regular team.

Date: December 2nd (Friday)
Place: Koenji One
Time: 8:00pm-Last train
Price: FREE
Live:
- Anisakis
- Lihappiness
DJs:
- Gotal
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin

Friday 18 November 2011

Connect And Receive, October 2011

Even later than before thanks to my busier-than-usual real world engagements, but I didn't forget my rapidly dwindling listeners, oh no. This month's podcast only features four tracks but is in fact almost ten minutes longer than usual due to the crazy lengths that Nisennenmondai tracks run to.


It can be downloaded from its host at Archive.org

1. The Warm: Flask (From the 2007 album Fantastic Something)
2. Mir: TV (Unreleased)
3. Kaki: Schokoladige Disko (Unreleased)
4. Nisennenmondai: Mirrorball (From the 2011 live double-album Nisennenmondai Live!!!)

Thursday 17 November 2011

Zibanchinka Kyushu Tour (November 18th-20th 2011)

Zibanchinka are embarking on a three-day mini-tour of Kyushu from the 18th to the 20th of November, playing alongside a few Call And Response favourites, with me joining them as a DJ for the first couple of shows, and Nagoya's Sekaitekina Band will join us for the Fukuoka show.



Place: Fukuoka Utero
Date: 11/18 (Fri)
Time: 18:30
Cost: 1500yen (+drink)
LIVE:
DJ:
- Ian Martin (Call And Response)


Place: Kumamoto Navaro
Date: 11/19 (Sat)
Time: 20:00
Cost: 1500yen (+drink)
LIVE:
- Zibanchinka
DJ:
- Ian Martin (Call And Response)


Place: Kokura UN
Date: 11/20 (Sun)
Time: 17:30
Cost: 1500yen (+drink)
LIVE:
- Zibanchinka
- The Mamalede

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Electric Riot (November 16th)

Youth is Wasted & Call And Response Special Free Party, in association with Chicks Riot:

Chicks Riot 2011 is hosting a series of art parties at Koenji Amp Cafe with artwork from a number of mostly female artists and different DJs and live acts curating each night's musical lineup.

ELECTRIC RIOT is a night of postpunk, new wave, 80s electronic, minimal wave, NDW, synthwave, technopop and krautrock, hosted by Tokyo DJ party Youth is Wasted and Koenji postpunk label Call And Response, and featuring the fantastic technopop/rap sounds of Ai Kobayashi.



Place: Koenji AMP Cafe
Date: 11/16 (Wed)
Time: 18:00-22:00 (maybe a bit later if we're allowed)
Cost: FREE
LIVE:
- Ai Kobayashi (ex.Miami)
DJs:
- NAH&SUE
- Tack Terror
- Komlaski
- Ian Martin

11/15 【Opening Party: Girls Pop Night!】FREE
-Band V/ORDER
-DJ: SLF!! (The Lady Spade) / Tong-Chang (Cherry Times) / A-Yummy! / Katrine
-Start: 19:00

11/16 【Electric Riot Night!】FREE
-Band: Ai Kobayashi (ex.Miami)
-DJ: Ian Martin (Call And Response Records) / NAH & SUE / Tack Terror / Komlaski
-Start: 19:00

11/17 【Spade Night!】1000yen +1drink
-Band: The Lady Spade
-DJ: Uchiyama Yuniko / SLF!! / Katrine / and more
-Start: 17:00

11/18 【Riot Grrrl Night! 】FREE
-DJ aki / Asucca (Watercloset) / A-Yummy!
-Talk
-Start: 19:00

11/19 【Cookie Cookie!】FREE
-Cookie Performance: steka and mjol
-DJ: aki / Helmet Underground&Riko
-Time: 14:00-15:30

11/19 Kichijoji Star Pine's Cafe【Chick's Riot 2011】
2,800yen adv/3,300yen door +1drink
-Band: The Girl / N'Shukugawa Boys / Kettles / The Let's Go's
-Fashion: Toko
-Live painting: Shibuya Girls Pop / Keiko Ogawa & Eimi
-Artwork: hipBORNtwin
-Cookies: steka and mjol
-Video: Slice Cheeze
-Open/Start: 16:30/17:00

11/20 【Closing Party: Indie Pop Night!】
1000円 +1drink
-Band: Girls Pancakes / Twinkle Twinkles
-DJ: Meganeth (Style Band Tokyo Tomo & Helmet Underground&Riko DJ team) / aki /A-Yummy!
-Start: 19:00

11/21 【R&R Night】FREE
-Band: Charlotte (Merpeoples)
-DJ: Cherry Bomb
-Talk
-Start: 19:00

Friday 11 November 2011

Telephone Club presents: The Stingrays (November 11th)

Postpunk/new wave party Telephone Club is back for its first event since January, this time playing host to Bristol new wavers The Stingrays, who will conclude their 2011 Japan tour here, backed up by electronic new wave eccentric Lihappiness, jittery postpunk trio Steiner, confrontational artpunk weirdniks Anisakis and no wave freakadelics LOVEBUYLOVE.

Guest DJs Satoko from Kichijoji garage rock/indie party Take Me Now and Kaname K of Trinitron/3TE1 will join me behind the decks to keep the beat between bands.

Date: 11th November (Fri)
Time: 11:00pm-5:00am
Cost: 1500yen adv/2000yen door (+1 drink)
Live:
- The Stingrays (From Bristol, UK)
DJs:
- Satoko (Take Me Now)
- Kaname K
- Ian Martin (Call And Response)

Thursday 3 November 2011

Fashion Crisis (November 2011)

Fashion Crisis strikes again, with the November edition featuring the handmade live stylings of the magnificent Samm Bennett, who may (or more likely may not) end up sounding something like this:



On the decks, the usual crew will be augmented by guest DJ antics from all-girl DJ team 3TE1 (featuring N'toko promo video stars Haru and Kaname). Also not to be confused with this:



Place: Koenji One
Date: 4th November (Friday)
Time: 8:00pm-last train
Cost: FREE
Live:
DJs:
- 3TE1
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin

Friday 21 October 2011

[Updated] Praha Depart & N'toko in Europe (October 20th-November 8th)

Tokyo's finest psychedelic postpunk Gypsies Praha Depart are on tour now in Europe with Slovenia's finest yacht-rap future sailor N'toko. If you're in the area, come and check them out at any of these dates:

Oct. 20 Menza, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Oct. 22 MC Pekarna, Maribor, Slovenia
Oct. 23 Le Kraspek, Lyon, France (with Zero Absolu)
Oct. 27 Moog, Barcelona, Spain (with Bardo Pond)
Oct. 28 La Boite Madrid, Spain (with Bardo Pond)
Oct. 29 Matadero Ekintzak Azkoitia, Guipuzkoa, Spain
Oct. 30 Gastiez, Vitoria, Spain
Nov. 5 De Onderbroek, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Nov. 6 Musikbunker, Aachen, Germany
Nov. 7 Hauptwache, Frankfurt, Germany
Nov. 8 West Germany, Berlin, Germany

[Extra Spain and Germany gigs now added.]


Praha Depart have a new EP/mini-album called Dot. available exclusively for fans on these European dates (Japan release is pencilled in for early next year). By way of a preview, here's the song Portrait Man:


Praha Depart: Portrait Man by callandresponse

Friday 14 October 2011

N'toko: Superhuman PV

Can't believe this slipped through the blognet, and this will be old news for anyone who follows me on Facebook or Twitter, but there's an N'toko promotional video out there now, directed by the magnificent Matt Schley and filmed at the wonderful Koenji One, home of our monthly Fashion Crisis parties.


Matt and I came up with the concept, and we crammed the thing full of self-indulgent Easter eggs. I'm in there, looking fatter than I would have liked, as the unimpressed DJ. Matt himself and my Fashion Crisis collaborator James Hadfield are playing an unusual version of Othello, Trinitron vocalists Kaname K and Zana make an appearance reading a series of books and smoking a series of cigarettes respectively. Also making a brief appearance is Tokyo ambient noise weirdnik Dr. Daddy, as well as disco commander Harumi Ito, so thanks to all of them for their help.

Also a reminder that from next week, N'toko will be on tour in Europe with the excellent Praha Depart. There are still lots of free dates thanks largely to the apparent impenetrability of the Berlin and Paris live scenes and the flakiness of one or two promoters, so any last minute booking offers in Western Europe are gratefully received.

Hyacca in Canada (Oct 13-18)


Over the next few days, Fukuoka postpunk disco monsters Hyacca will be in Canada as part of Steven Tanaka's Next Music From Tokyo tour, along with Natsumen, Chiina, Merpeoples and Akai Ko-en. Details on the tour can be found on the NMFT web site:

Oct 13 Montreal @ Divan Orange (w/ Devil Eyes)
Oct 14 Montreal @ Club Lambi (w/ tonstartssbandht)
Oct 15 Toronto @ the Rivoli
Oct 16 Toronto @ the Velvet Underground (All Ages)
Oct 18 Vancouver @ the Biltmore Cabaret (w/ the SSRIs)

Friday 7 October 2011

Connect And Receive, September 2011

A week late, but here's Episode 3 of Call And Response's Japan music podcast:



It can be downloaded from its host at Archive.org

1. Nezishiki: Quatre Ans (From the 2008 CD/R EP 6 Songs)
2. Pop Office: 300 Castles (From the 2011 CD/R mini-album I Was Killed Here)
3. The Mornings: Mad Cheergirl (From the 2011 album Save The Mornings)
4. Her: Her no Mirror (From the 2007 CD/R mini-album Her no Music Phone In)
5. Pq: Channeling (From the 2011 CD/R mini-album Hausdorff)
6. Buddy Girl & Mechanic: UltraWitchCraftyFab (From the 2011 CD/R EP 4tracks Demo)

Thursday 6 October 2011

Fashion Crisis (October 2011)

October's Fashion Crisis features the hard-riffing sounds of Harajuku butterfly catcher Ryotaro Aoki (of Kulu Kulu Garden fame) and Portuguese postpunk party sounds courtesy of the mysterious yet effervescent Poet & Fabric. The regular crew will be there with more of the usual rainy 80s Anglo-jangle (Ian) and post-dubcore Afro-grime (James).

Date: Friday 7th October
Place: Koenji One
Time: 8:00pm-last train
Price: FREE
DJs:
- Ryotaro Aoki
- Poet & Fabric
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin


Friday 23 September 2011

Koenji Pop Festival 2011 (September 24th)

Place: Higashi-Koenji 20000V (den-atsu.com)
Date: 9/24 (Sat)
Time: 4:00-10:30
Cost: ¥2000adv/¥2300door (+drink)

Live:
プラハデパート
Friends
tacobonds
otori
New House
cottonioo
JEBIOTTO!
pq

DJs:
Wizzjones (Telepatia/Throw That Beat)
Ian Martin (Call And Response)

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Connect And Receive, August 2011

Episode 2 of Call And Response's Japanese music podcast is now up. Enjoy!



It can be downloaded from its host at Archive.org.

1. Ydestroyde: zzzzzMONSTERzzzzz (from the 2011 album Synzosizer)
2. Skyfisher: Zero Emission (from the 2005 album Eco-Side 21)
3. Umibachi: Body Conscious & Joystick (from the 2010 album Body Conscious & Joystick)
4. bctnx: Zombie D (from the 2011 CD/R mini-album Dareka no Karuma)
5. otori: Kaitai/Sai Kochiku (from the 2010 CD/R mini-album Seisei1)
6. Miila and The Geeks: New Age (from the 2011 album New Age)
7. cottonioo: Three Girl Rhumba (from the 2008 compilation Post Flag)

Friday 19 August 2011

Bye bye Miha and Zana; hello new Trinitron EP

We had a going away party at Koenji One last night for Miha (a.k.a. N'toko) and Zana (a.k.a. Kaki), with the Fashion Crisis crew and members of Trinitron on the decks. Kaki did a live guest appearance on N'toko's DJ set, and he then returned the favour on her set later. I played a trashed-up set of bubblegum electro, Japanese technopop and shrieking noise punk that veered between tracks like Perfume's Jenny wa Gokigen Naname and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's excellentPonponpon, and The Mornings' harsh, blood-and-sweat-drenched cover of The Dead Kennedys'Drug Me. Kaname K also made a rare DJ appearance playing an excellent set that took in Girls Generation, The Strokes, The Go! Team and sadly missed dystopian Tokyo indie-synth
shamblers Mir.

The night also featured the premiere of the rather fine new N'toko music video for Superhuman, which will be appearing on YouTube once final tweaking is complete. It's a fantastic achievement considering the entire thing was made for the cost of a single lightbulb, and director/editor Matt Schley has done a brilliant job recreating the late 70s/early 80s Suicide/DAF look we were shooting for.


And on the subject of Suicide and DAF, the tracks are all laid down for the new EP by Trinitron, the band henceforth known as "the coldwave ABBA". We have five new songs as well as a rather sweet sounding cover version of Edge by Perfume. The as-yet untitled EP will be out once Miha finishes mixing it, and it's already sounding rather fine. Think of it as a cloying, sycophantic love letter in musical form to Mute Records legends Daniel Miller and Vince Clarke. I was a bit worried that we'd taken the Clarke homage a bit far on at least one song, but then I listened to LCD Soundsystem again and was reassured. If you ever feel like you've been too shameless in ripping someone off, just crack open the LCD and you can be reassured that no matter how much you love someone, you don't love them as much as James Murphy loves Bowie, Eno, Kraftwerk and The Fall.

The EP ranges from avant-garde synth-noise to insanely catchy disco-pop via dirty electro EBM and some nice, scuzzy Kraut. We're still not sure whether the Perfume cover will make it onto the EP or whether we'll use it for something else. Miha and Zana are adamant that we include it, but I'm opposed. Lyrics-wise, it's a triumph of willful obscurity, fatuous nonsense and ambiguously worded critiques of pop cultural ephemera over, well, everything else really.

Anyway, keep your eyes on this space.

Thursday 28 July 2011

Connect And Receive, July 2011

Call And Response now has its own internet radio station. Listen as we shamelessly promote our own releases and dig out other modern indie classics for your enjoyment:



This month's tracklisting is:

1. Hyacca: Hanazono (from the 2009 album Hanazono and the 2011 compilation Style Band Tokyo Vol. 1)
2. tacobonds: This Count (from the 2011 album No Fiction)
3. Praha Depart: Kyo no Nagare (from the 2009 album Uou Saou)
4. Zibanchinka: Nagisa no Hors D'oeuvres (from the 2011 album Hatsubai Chushi)
5. Puffyshoes: Anata ni Muchuu (from the 2010 compilation Valentine's Candies)
6. She Talks Silence: Fragment (from the 2011 album Some Small Gifts)

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Zibanchinka, "Hatsubai Chushi" availability update:

The distributors are still holding the Zibanchinka album back from a full release because of concerns over the band name in the wake of the March earthquake ("地盤沈下" means "subsidence"), but they've agreed to allow Tower Records in the band's home town of Kagoshima to stock it and they've responded with this lovely display:


Buyers in the rest of Japan can get hold of the album online from a few sources:

Saturday 23 July 2011

Hyacca > Tomomi Itano


Courtesy of Style Band Tokyo, whose 15-second ad is currently running on one of the big screens at Shibuya's famous Hachiko crossing, here's proof, if any is still needed that Fukuoka spazz-punks Hyacca are better than the girl who came 8th in AKB48's latest senbatsu election (assuming "better than" is covalent with "positioned physically above").

Friday 22 July 2011

Hyacca in Tokyo (August 2011)

Hyacca will be back in Tokyo on August 6th and 7th, with a couple of very exciting shows.

The first is "Denko Mangetsu Matsuri", an all-night event that Call And Response are organising in collaboration with our friends Tessendoriko and DJ Rally from The Mornings.

Date: August 6th (Sat)
Time 23:00-Morning
Place: Kichijoji GOK Sound
Cost: 1500yen (adv.) / 2000 (door)

LIVE:
- N’toko (from Slovenia)
- Hyacca (from Fukuoka)
- Velocityut (from Nagasaki)
- pq
- Tessendoriko
- Dotsuitarunen
- DJ Puri Puri [Real Kintaro]

DJ:
- Rally (The Mornings)
- Ponta (The Mornings/Dickerve)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response)
VJ:
- HUH


The second Hyacca show will be the release party for Style Band Tokyo's excellent compilation album at Club Asia.

Time 14:30-23:00
Date: August 7th (Sun)
Place: Shibuya Club Asia
Cost: 3000yen (adv.) / 3500 (door)

LIVE:
- Bo Ningen
- Lillies and Remains
- Plasticzooms
- 6eyes
- moja
- Hyacca
- Sekaitekinaband
- Pop-Office
- Purple

DJ:
- Tomo (Style Band Tokyo)
- Yamada (File-Under Records)
- Twee Grrrls Club
- Taigen Kawabe (Bo Ningen)
- Fujiwaramone & Minoruelvis (Cannabis/Lillies and Remains)
- Tommy (Boy)
- Wizz Jones
- Nites (CMP)
- Lotus & 373 (Weekend Never Dies)
- Gypsy Badman (Control)
- Black Neon Party
- si oux
- Yusaku Brando (Club Passione)

VJ:
- Maruty+
- Yuki Maeshima

Saturday 2 July 2011

Some differing views on K-Pop/J-Pop

Was pointed towards this by a friend today and it seems like my last Japan Times column has provoked a lot of comment over on a a popular Livejournal group recently. They don't accept comments from non-members unfortunately, but I wouldn't want to come across like the kind of journalist who refuses to engage with people who dare to disagree with him online, and some of the criticisms on there are points that are worth responding to. Obviously the comments below are open to anyone who has anything to add.

First, my comments are of course a personal opinion. Strange Boutique is a monthly column and the purpose is for commentary. I'm lucky enough that there is someone at The Japan Times who thinks my subjective opinions are worthy of attention, but obviously not everyone's going to agree with me.

Secondly, while I get some leeway with my articles, they are published in both the paper and online editions of the paper, so I have to stick to a word limit, which means I can't discuss every aspect of a topic. I have to draw the line somewhere, which is why being able to continue the discussion online is such a boon.

As for the big point about the idea of Girls' Generation "saving J-Pop" or whatever, I think this is important. J-Pop has historically moved forward in big, juddering lunges about once every ten years, usually influenced by some behind the scenes realignment of the industry (Nabepro in the 60s, Star Tanjou in the early 70s, Dentsu and the "CM idol" in the 80s, and Avex in the 90s, among others) and usually these shifts have been accompanied by musical influences from outside (jazz, eleki, disco, new wave, Eurobeat, etc.) The reason some music commentators are focussing on Girls' Generation so much now is because it feels like one of these periodic realignments is overdue and Korea looks like it might be the staging ground for a new influence entering into the J-Pop mix.

If this does happen, I would guess that the result won't be Japanese pop that sounds exactly like American music. It'll be something new that fuses elements of both. As when 60s singers in Japan built early careers off covering Western pop hits, before local songwriters started creating their own original takes on these influences, I guess something like that might happen in the wake of Girls' Generation.

Yes, this is partly because I'm a music writer. I need constant change in music because I need new things to write about. As a music fan I want these things too though. Lots of people seem to like J-Pop as it is because it differs from American pop, but for people here in Japan where this is all we get, something with an American influenced sound getting as popular as Girls' Generation have is quite exciting.

As for some of the other smaller points, yeah, I debated with myself whether to call Immi an idol or not. I have a word limit and didn't want to drive myself up a new path trying to describe her so I went with a quick, easy descriptor. She's in a similar category to Meg though, which is often referred to as "oshare idol" in Japan, so I'm sticking by it. I understand why people might disagree though.

As for my label, I always try to keep it separate from my writing about music (apart from this post, natch -- my general music blog unfortunately can't handle comments at the moment). I'm certainly not jealous of AKB48 or someone for being more successful than Zibanchinka!

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Fashion Crisis (July 2011)

July's Fashion Crisis features live performances from friend of the event Kiyokazu Onozaki of the lovely Andersens and the hard-rocking Quick Explosion Scratch Hurricanes, and Slovenian electropop anti-idol Kaki, with guest DJ team Youth is Wasted joining regular DJs James Hadfield and I. Expect the usual mix of scratchy folk, technopop, postpunk, dub, Iranian tribal disco-funk, kosmische, indiepop and the rest.

Date: July 1st (Friday)
Time: 8:00pm - LAST TRAIN
Place: Koenji One
Cost: FREE
LIVE:
- Kiyokazu Onozaki (Andersens)

DJs:
- Youth is Wasted
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin

Friday 3 June 2011

Fashion Crisis (June 2011)

The June edition of Fashion Crisis welcomes back friend of the event, the funktastic Ryan Erik Williams, and bids farewell to cinematic guerilla Matt Schley, who is currently immortalising Koenji One on film in the forthcoming N'toko promotional video.

Date: June 3rd (Friday)
Time: 8:00pm - LAST TRAIN
Place: Koenji One
Cost: FREE

DJs:
- Ryan Erik Williams
- Matt Schley
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Praha Depart & N'toko in Europe (Sept. 2011 updated)

This coming autumn, two of Call And Response Records' favourite acts will be taking on Europe with a three-week joint tour from Oct 21st to Nov 11th. Anyone interested in booking, please get in contact with Call And Response on carrecords [at] gmail [dot] com. For information and links, please see below:

Praha Depart:
Tokyo-based alternative/postpunk band Praha Depart ("Prague Department Store") formed in 2004 around guitarist Tsukasa and vocalist Mai, with drummer Junpei completing the lineup one year later. Starting out bassless, Mai eventually added bass guitar to her vocal duties, as the band honed their sound through non-stop gigging around Tokyo, in the process gaining a reputation as one of the city's hardest-working bands.

Described by The Japan Times newspaper as "irrepressibly danceable gypsy punk", Praha Depart made their first venture overseas in March 2011 with a U.S. East Coast tour, while solidifying their position in the domestic music scene where their swirling, almost psychedelic postpunk grooves have seen them playing alongside Japanese underground legends like DMBQ, performing together with Damo Suzuki, and sending local audiences into a frenzy at packed Tokyo live venues.


Praha Depart are eager to take their sound overseas and bring the same unstoppable energy to audiences the world over.

Praha Depart: Dot

Praha Depart on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/prahadepart


N'toko:
N'toko is an experimental hiphop artist from Slovenia. He first made a name for himself as frontman of a local funk/alternative/hiphop collective called Moveknowledgement. He became well known for his technical skills and speed as a rapper, winning two national freestyle championships in a row. Competitions scored him his first record deal as a solo artist, the result being his albums 'Cesarjeva nova podoba' and 'Dobrodelni koncert ob koncu sveta.' N'toko also released two EPs (Where's Waldo and Elixiryproslam). These records gained cult status among underground hiphop fans and alternative music lovers for their open aproach to rap and spoken word, blending influences from rock, free-jazz, electro, noise and psychedelia to name a few. At the same time, N'toko performed anywhere he could, from poetry slams to impro-sessions and drum n' bass parties, no longer just rapping, but also using his voice as an effect-processed instrument, playing other instruments and often screaming his brains out.

He continues his work with Moveknowledgement, which has morphed into an experimental dub, rock group and went on to record a very original album entitled 'Listen to Nebukadnezar' and its recently released follow-up 'Pump Down!!!'. He is currently on the move between Slovenia and Tokyo, doing solo concerts, playing with Moveknowledgement, a duo with drummer Seijiro Murayama, and DJ-ing in clubs. He firmly believes that it's OK to do anything in music and there should be no difference between musical genres, scenes or cultures.



In the past year, N'toko has been particularly prolific, releasing two albums, both of which featured in Slovenian alternative radio's top ten of 2010, including the English language Ex-Shanti / Future Shanti, on Tokyo label Call And Response Records. He is currently preparing for the release of a new Moveknowledgement album this summer.



N'toko on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ntoko

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Kyushu Pop Festival 2011

Hyacca

After the success of last year's Kyushu Pop Festival, Call And Response Records is very happy to present another evening of mentai-rock, kurobuta-punk and kabosu-pop, now with added basashi-disco.

All bands at this event are either travelling down from Kyushu for the show (the event features bands from Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Kagoshima), or they are Tokyo-based bands with key members hailing from Kyushu.

Date: May 21st (Sat)
Place: Shinjuku Motion
Time: 16:00-23:00Cost: 2000 adv/2300 door

Zibanchinka

Bands:

Zibanchinka (Kagoshima)
- Avant-garde garage-punk from the dark side of your imagination: video

Hyacca (Fukuoka)
- Dance-oriented post-punk/alternative. Metal bees attacking your brain: video

MacManaman (Fukuoka)
- Explosive post-rock instrumental quartet:video

cynicalsmileisyourfavorite (Kumamoto)
- Disco-hardcore scream freaks: video

bctnx (Fukuoka)
- Fukuoka's newest indie/alternative avant-pop stars: video

She Talks Silence
- Lo-fi indie fuzz-lullabies: video

Dotama-Kachi-World
- Picopico new wave techno-punks: video

Jebiotto
- New wave synth-punk: video

Fallopian Disco Force
- Improvisational avant-disco duo: video (dating from group's previous days as a trio)


Monday 16 May 2011

Happy Birthday James!

James Hadfield, my longstanding partner in the Koenji Fashion Crisis event, had his birthday party today, and I spun a few tunes. Here's my best recollection of the set I played. Crowd pleasers one and all:

Happy Birthday to Me - Puffyshoes
Gloria - Miguel Angel & Los Sharps
Why Don't You Smile Now - The Downliners Sect
Neon Rainbow - The Box Tops
Yellow Rainbow - The Move
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
Itchycoo Park - The Small Faces
Evil Hoodoo - The Seeds
Laissez Tomber Les Filles - France Gall
Comment Le Revoir - Chantal Goya
Well Respected Man - The Kinks
After the Lights Go Out - The Walker Brothers
The Seventh Seal - Scott Walker
Jesus Christ - Big Star
Rock'n'Roll Suicide - David Bowie