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)

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)

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

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)

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)

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.