Tententen: Insurrection Dance (LO-SHI「貘」VINYL RELEASE PARTY) - June 21st, 2015

Tententen is making a brief but spectacular comeback this June, exactly six months after its last outing. With the more spacious venue of Kichijoji’s wonderful GOK Sound, the event is a release party for Lo-shi’s new limited-edition vinyl release of 『貘』("Baku”) through Call And Response Records.

Joining Lo-shi (who will perform on this occasion with dancer Misako Kikuchi) in this nightmare-devouring revolutionary dance spectacular are junk noise EBM whirlwind Halbach, progressive-Kraut-disco sound system Transkam, and Osaka’s finest minimal postpunk-industrial duo Yolz in the Sky. DJs Evil Penguin, James Hadfield and Tententen regular Ian Martin complete the bill.

Place: Kichijoji GOK Sound
Date: 6/21 (Sun)
Time: 5:00pm
Cost: ¥2000 (no drink order)
Live:
- Lo-shi (with Misako Kikuchi)
- Yolz in the Sky
- Transkam
- Halbach
DJs:
- Evil Penguin
- James Hadfield
- Ian Martin

Art Bar Ten - R.I.P.

For the past year and a half, Call And Response Records has been working with our friends Gotal and Ralouf from Lo-shi to produce Tententen, a monthly collision of live music, DJs, art and moving pictures. The place we did this was Koenji's wonderful Art Bar Ten, a tiny little place that we sometimes had screaming at the edges of its cosy capacity, but which was always a generous and easygoing host for the event.

Unfortunately, thanks to the tenuous basis on which most music venues in Tokyo cling onto life, Ten has been forced to close (we don't think it was our fault!) Some of my best memories of the past couple of years have been connected to the little scene we had going around Ten, not to mention its more regular stock in trade of nightly jazz sessions with an always welcoming crowd of often amazingly talented musicians who were almost ridiculously tolerant of us punks, indie kids and noise freaks who kept invading their space.

While we could probably find a new venue to tolerate our whimsy, Tententen was, as the name suggests, intimately bound up with the venue. We are not killing the event, but we are putting it on hold, allowing us to take a break and focus on some other projects and events, reviving the event name on a more sporadic basis and maybe returning to regular events at a later date. Call And Response is now in its tenth year, so we have a busy schedule of events and releases planned, including a return of our own Telephone Club live event, so keep an eye on this space for more notifications.

Looking back over the time we did Tententen, I think we can be proud of the shows we did. Here's a rundown of all the acts who performed over the seventeen months the event ran:

• Lo-shi
• She Talks Silence
• Servals
• 人魂 (Hitodama)
• Nevernevereverland
• Mars & Eye
• Fancy Numnum
• Fallopian Disco Force
• Mir
• Jebiotto
• group A
• Abikyokan
• うるせぇよ (Uruseeyo)
• Communication Breakdown
• Gloomy
• N’toko
• Umez
• Voided By Geysers
• Slowmarico
• Zad Kokar
• emulsion
• Troglobytes
• steel music
• Kentaro Nagata
• LIF
• Under
• Ultrafog
• Tropical Death Metal
• Compact Club

The past week I spent a lot of time at Ten eagerly snapping some memories of the place and its menagerie of jazz-freaks:

Tententen: Satan (December 21st, 2014)

Tententen celebrates the Longest Night with a Christmastime audio-visual exorcism. Pile all the year's greed, hate and evil onto our pyre and burn it away in a raucous celebration of beauty and joy!


Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date: 12/21 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Compact Club
- Tropical Death Metal
DJs:
- Ralouf (Lo-shi)
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin
Expo:
- The Holy Hole

Tententen: Peau de zébu (November 16th, 2014)

Tententen welcomes back Lo-shi once again for a night of space-drone and phallic night terrors, featuring live guest Ultrafog and DJ guest Evil Penguin with his steel wheels of ancient magic.

Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date: 11/16 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Lo-shi
- Ultrafog
DJs:
- Evil Penguin
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin
Expo:
- Peau de balle

Tententen: Mégalithisme (October 18th, 2014)

October's Tententen explores the monoliths, megaliths and henges of empires past and present through the contrasting electronic-industrial claustrophobia of LIF (solo work by Soh from Hysteric Picnic) and rural psychedelic drone of Under. Guest DJ is Sue from Rhyming Slang, while the Pink Lodge this month features art by Ada Flores-Vidal.



Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date: 10/19 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- LIF
- Under
DJs:
- Sue (Rhyming Slang)
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin
Expo:
- Ada Flores-Vidal

Tententen: il a un an (August 9th, 2014)

Nous avons un an! Due to schedule issues, we're holding this month's Tententen (our first anniversary event!) on Saturday the 9th of August rather than our usual 3rd Sunday timetable, but please come along anyway. Joining us live are Troglobytes and Steel Music, while Gotal, Ralouf and Ian will all be DJing.

Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date: 8/9 (Sat)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Troglobytes
- steel music (zoo tapes)
DJs:
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ralouf (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin
Expo:
- Lignon

Tententen: Baku (June 15th, 2014)

June's Tententen sees the return of event hosts Lo-shi, who will be celebrating the digital release of their new album, Baku. They will be joined by noise-pop duo Slow-Marico and guest DJ Maki from Communication Breakdown.

Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten
Date: 6/15 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Lo-shi
- Slow-Marico
DJs:
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin
- Maki (Communication Breakdown)
Expo:
- 菊川香渉 x Drew Barthélemy

Tententen: Kids (May 18th, 2014)

Listen up, boys and girls: the May edition of Tententen features a double live treat of Tokyo's finest Guided By Voices covers band Voided By Geysers, whose almost-unique rock'n'roll stylings will be rocking the house first, and the icy, existential, new wave art-pop of the incomparable Mir. Joining on decks will be Ralouf and Gotal of ambio-dextrous kraut'n'bass duo Lo-shi and DJ team Maitake & mitsunavilino. The exhibition this month will be in the form of Mr. James Hadfield's lens-flaretastic punk rock photography. Come on down and get buzzed, kids!




Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date:5/18 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Mir
- Voided By Geysers
DJs:
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ralouf (Lo-shi)
- まいたけ & mitsunavilino
Expo:
- James Hadfield

Tententen: Energy (April 20th, 2014)

Lo-shi are back for the the April edition of Tententen, performing a live soundtrack to the drug-addled 1916 Douglas Fairbanks comedy short "The Mystery of the leaping Fish" along with collaborator Tamachi Joe.



Completing the live bill will be Lo-shi's comrades-in-arms from Damo Suzuki's Network, noise pop duo Umez.

(Note the slightly earlier than usual opening time)



Place: Koenji Art Bar 天/Ten
Date:4/20 (Sun)
Time: 7:30pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Lo-shi with Tamachi Joe
- Umez
DJs:
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- DJ Smoothface
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)
Expo:
- Karmic Butthole x Ralouf

Tententen: Kill Your Sempai! 2 (March 16th, 2014)

The March edition of Tententen features live performances from synthpop kitten Gloomy and hip hop beat-hounds Communication Breakdown. The whole Tententen crew will be behind the decks and Ian and Ralouf will offer a sequel to their crypto-situationist 2012 "Kill Your Sempai!" expo. It will, as usual, be rad.

(Note the earlier-than-usual opening time and get down there EARLY!)

Date: 3/16 (Sun)
Time: 7:00pm
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Communication Breakdown
- Gloomy
DJs:
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ralouf (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)
Expo:
- Kill Your Sempai!

Tententen: Paranoid (February 16th, 2014)

February's Tententen celebrates the release of Call And Response Records' Valentine's gift 「チョコくれるのはいいが・・・、何を企んでるんだぁぁ！？！？」("Thanks for the chocolates… what's your agenda!?!?"), an album of covers of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" that will be available to download for free on the 14th.

Starring on the night (and hopefully on the album too) are avant-popsters Abikyokan and post-punkers Uruseeyo, while Ryotaro Aoki will be bringing his metal hammer to the decks.




Date: 16th Feb (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten/天
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Abikyokan
- Uruseeyo/うるせぇよ
DJs:
- Ryotaro Aoki
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)
Expo:
- Liaisons Mètalliques

Tententen: Naked (January 19th, 2014)

January finds Tententen revelling in the icy grip of winter with Gallic beat expressionists Lo-shi and industrial noisettes group A. Join us and greet the new year with arms and legs open: feel its chill breath on your bare flesh and laugh, hahaha!

Date: 19th Jan (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten/天
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- group A
- Lo-shi
DJs:
- Umez
- ケンジル・ビエン
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)
VJ:
- eetee
Expo:
- Tintin au Congo à poil (Thomas Lebrun)

Tententen: Méduse (December 15th, 2013)

Helping us say farewell to the Year of the Snake in this final Tententen of the year are icy fake-Russian synthesists Mir and disco-punk fantasists Jebiotto, with the Tententen team on decks and this month's exhibition by photographer and dedicated documenter of Tokyo backstreets Matt Schley.

Old Year: New Wave!

JEBIOTTO!//DEACON PUNK from STUDIO GLAMOUR on Vimeo.

Date: 15th Dec (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten/天
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Mir
- Jebiotto
DJs:
- Ralouf (Lo-shi)
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)

Tententen: Chimères (November 17th, 2013)

This month's Tententen is a celebration of all things alchemical, hysterical and chimerical. Live music features the menacing loops, rattles and chimes of Lo-shi and the explosive squeals and growls of Fallopian Disco Force, while our guest DJ is Tasmanian disco saint Evil Penguin.

Date: 17th Nov (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten/天
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Fallopian Disco Force
- Lo-shi
DJs:
- Evil Penguin
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)

Tententen: Yonaguni (October 20th, 2013)

October's edition of Tententen welcomes back the psychedelic sounds of Mars & Eye and the kayou-kraut adventures of Fancy Numnum. As usual, we'll be running from 8pm till late: come one, come all...

Date: 20th Oct (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar 天 (Ten)
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- Mars & Eye
- Fancy Numnum
DJs:
- craig eee
- Gotal
- Ian Martin
Expo:
- Ada Flores-Vidal

Dondondon (September 15th, 2013)

Because of a one-off change in venue, this month's Tententen is temporarily becoming Dondondon. This month we welcome the disconcerting tones of Servals and the discount tunes of Nevernevereverland as live guests.



Since we're doing it at a studio, you're free to bring your own booze from the convenience store, or you can buy drinks reasonably cheaply from the staff at the studio if you don't fancy the walk.



Place: Koenji Studio DOM (A & B Studios)
Date: 9/15 (Sun)
Time: 8:00pm-1:00am
Cost: ¥1000 (no drink charge - bring your own or buy cheap from the studio)
Live:
- Servals
- Nevernevereverland
- Hitodama
DJs:
- Sue (Rewind Tapes / Rhyming Slang)
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)

Tententen: Fire Walk With Me (August 18th, 2013)

After my experiment doing a show at Koenji's Art Bar Ten in May, it went well enough that in collaboration with good friends Gotal and Ralouf from instrumental kraut&bass duo Lo-shi, we'd try to make it a regular thing, so starting in August, the third Sunday of every month is hopefully going to feature two bands and a handful of DJs. Think of it as a more live-orientated companion to Fashion Crisis.

Our first show is a Twin Peaks-themed event with Lo-shi performing live, along with indie duo She Talks Silence as well as art by Camille Bui and the mysterious "Toru Yamadera".

Date: August 18th (Sun)
Place: Koenji Art Bar Ten/天
Time: 8:00pm-late
Cost: ¥500+1 drink
Live:
- She Talks Silence
- Lo-shi
DJs:
- Soh (Hysteric Picnic)
- Gotal (Lo-shi)
- Ian Martin (Call And Response Records)