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.
March Fashion Crisis is an irregular edition in aid of Slovenian electro/hip hop artist N'toko and his mini-album Ex Shanti / Future Shanti, released last October on Call And Response. It's his first gig in Japan since the release, so instead of the usual free Friday night party, we're doing a proper live event at a proper live venue, with a bunch of ace live bands, plus regular Fashion Crisis DJs me and James Hadfield.
Place: Higashi-Koenji 20000V Date 3/5 (Sat) Time: 6:00PM - 10:30PM Cost: ¥1500 advance / ¥1800 door
Those with memories that stretch all the back to last autumn might recall the release of Slovenian electro hip hop artist N'toko's excellent Ex Shanti / Future Shanti mini-album on Call And Response in October. We had to dash to get it out in time for his European tour and before the release of N'toko's Slovenian language album Parada Ljubezni, which came out the following month and caused a bit of a stir in the music scene over there.
Anyway, while things on the Japan front have been quiet of late, Ex Shanti / Future Shanti was voted 4th in Slovenian alternative radio station Radio Student's Best of 2010 (with Parada Ljubezni at No.1 making it two N'toko albums in that year's Top Five), as well as being chosen as one of International Hip Hop Market's best of the year.
With all the European and domestic commitments now behind him, however, N'toko is finally ready to take on Japan with a long overdue release party and tour.
Joining N'toko for the Kyushu dates will be Tokyo jazz/hip hop/psychedelic/whatever duo Uhnellys, whose vocalist Kim recorded the track Fashion Crisis with N'toko.
The song is named after the monthly party that Call And Response organises with journalist James Hadfield, and as a play on that name and this utterly awesome song by N'toko lookalike Bret McKenzie and Flight of the Conchords, we decided to christen the tour Fashion is Danger.
Anyway, the dates and info:
March 5th @ Tokyo, Higashi-Koenji 20000V 18:00 Open/Start ¥1800 advance / ¥2000 door Live: N'toko / Quick Explosion Scratch Hurricanes / Takashi Nakayama with LABSiCK Man-Machine ReMiX / Fallopian Disco Force / Steiner DJs: James Hadfield / Ian Martin
March 9th @ Nagoya KD Japon 19:00 Open / 19:30 Start ¥1500 advance / ¥2000 door Live: N'toko / ZONZONO / Yuki Kaneko x Juzo / 「Manner Off」 "Unsilence" sound performance
March 13th @ Osaka Sengoku Daitoryo 17:30 Open / 18:00 Start ¥1500 advance / ¥2000 door Live: N’toko / Acid Peacock / Rough Chord Rudies / Red Dolphins / Unchained Punk / Bashauma
March 19th @ Fukuoka, Yakuin UTERO 18:00 Open/Start ¥2000 Live: N'toko / Uhnellys / Hyacca / bctnx / men's relaxations / Fake doll Nott (electrify set) / Perchume ☆ Mix DJs: Ian Martin / Miyagawa Electric 808
March 20th @ Kumamoto Navaro 20:00 Open / 20:30 Start ¥1500yen Live: N'toko / MacArthur A Contti/ Uhnellys / 101nZ / Fuckin'Shits + more DJs: Esuda / Noizima/ Ito (ex. Jabberwocky)
The Tokyo and Fukuoka shows are both Fashion Crisis events, so I'll be posting individual info about them in the lead-up to the gigs. Also, yes, Perchume is a Fukuoka-based Perfume tribute act. And no, I have no excuse.
Live music and pre-recorded sounds transmitted via the medium of compact disc to your ears, courtesy of some of the finest musical brains in the metropolis of Tokyo, this Saturday in Koenji.
Place: Koenji Penguin House Date: 7/17 (Sat) Open/Start: 6:30/7:00 P.M. Tickets: 1,800 adv/2,000 door
Live:
tacobonds - Explosive post-punk band, who have been tearing up live spaces in Tokyo and beyond for years. The sound of rock & roll being broken on the wheel.
Puffyshoes - Dirty garage punk poison delivered in the form of honey-sweet 60s girl group melodies. The best tunes, played on instruments wielded like weapons of mass destruction.
Steiner - Sharp-edged, 80s-influenced post-punk, recalling Gang of Four, Einsturzende Neubauten, and The Pop Group, like a disco under the shadow of nuclear war.
Uruseeyo - Losing themselves, like a punk rock Dylan, Uruseeyo are raw power, spat out in a machine gun rattle of sprawling, poetic fury.
DJs:
Fresh from Koenji's regular Fashion Crisis events, James Hadfield of Metropolis fame and Ian Martin of Call And Response Records will spin tunes from the darkest recesses of their record collections, but better than that sounds.
Call And Response is a Tokyo-based independent record label and event organiser, specialising in post-punk, new wave and assorted experimental pop trash.
