Suzannah Tartan - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Jan 4, 2004

Sitting in his record distributor's office in a small house in Naka-Meguro, Riow Arai is ostensibly being interviewed. But he isn't answering questions, he is asking them.

CULTURE / Music

Dec 28, 2003

Satanicpornocultshop: "Anorexia Gas Balloon"

Osaka's Satanicpornocultshop has been described as a hip-hop band due to their cut-and-paste aesthetic, but one wonders if even that famously elastic genre has enough room to accommodate the absolutely gleeful musical abandon that surfaces on their sixth album, "Anorexia Gas Balloon."

CULTURE / Art

Dec 10, 2003

Imagine art for all people, living peacefully

Yoko Ono loves me. Or at least she said that she does in the e-mail interview we conducted as she crisscrossed the globe.

CULTURE / Art

Dec 10, 2003

Think Positive

To the general public, Yoko Ono is best known as the wife of John Lennon. Some may have a vague inkling that she is important for something other than the far-out records she made with her husband, but without knowing exactly what.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Nov 9, 2003

In a community of like-minded spirits

Psychedelia, for most people, was all about bad fashion and, of course, bad trips.

CULTURE / Music

Sep 24, 2003

Sounds Numero Ono

You could call Seigen Ono a connoisseur of sound. He chooses only the finest sonic ingredients and knows exactly how to obtain them. As an avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist, he might not be a household name, but check out the credits on some of the best records of the last two decades and there's...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 10, 2003

Music of the spheres

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. is arguably one of the most influential Japanese bands in the world at this moment.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Sep 10, 2003

Scout Niblett

Scout Niblett deserves to be a star just on the strength of her name. Born Emma Niblett, she adopted "Scout" as a performing moniker because of an obsession with the leading character in the Southern saga "To Kill a Mockingbird."

CULTURE / Music

Sep 3, 2003

The big band sound reimagined

Sun Ra Arkestra aside, a big band is an unlikely format for experimental music. Too many players; too much history. Yet two veteran experimental musicians -- electronica guru and performance artist Matthew Herbert and keyboardist Naruyoshi Kikuchi, a stalwart of Tokyo's improvisational music scene --...

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Aug 24, 2003

The incredible remixing man

A good remix uncovers an element of the song that was already there so the listener perceives it in a whole new way. A bad remix often ends up as a vehicle for someone else's ego, with the original becoming so contorted and manipulated that it is unrecognizable in the final product.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 20, 2003

Fat Cat Records Compilation: "Branches and Routes"

The high profile of Sigur Ros and Mum (playing in Tokyo next month) make the Fat Cat label look like a haven for atmospheric Icelandic bands. But the label has made its name not so much for a sound, but for intriguing sounds. That, more than anything, is why its new compilation, "Branches and Routes,"...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 6, 2003

Koinu Entertainment Showcase Volume One

Japan has produced so many great hip-hop DJs, like Krush and Kensei, that it is easy to overlook the dearth of equally great MCs. No surprise then that most of the intriguing artists at this weekend's underground hip-hop confab, sponsored by hybrid metal rap group Koinu, are turntablists such as DJs...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 23, 2003

Ze Records: "N.Y. No Wave"

For New Yorkers, "downtown" is more than just a location -- it's an attitude, an aesthetic. From the explosion of punk and new wave that came out of CBGB in the '70s to the improvised music that emerged from the Knitting Factory in the '80s, downtown has denoted a certain type of risky, eccentric music....

CULTURE / Music

Jul 16, 2003

From town to country, tie-dye to leather

Geography as destiny might explain the different characters of the summer's mega-festivals: Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. The sylvan hills and babbling streams of Naeba have undoubtedly contributed to the slow insinuation of a hippie-dippie vibe at Fuji Rock, with its Field of Heaven -- at first a tie-dyed...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 9, 2003

OOIOO: "Kila Kila Kila"

As drummer and sole female in the Boredoms, Yoshimi Pee Wee has often been overshadowed by Seichii Yamamoto's virtuoso guitar playing and Eye Yamataka's idiosyncratic charisma. But listening to the fourth album from, OOIOO, her all-girl group, one wonders if Yoshimi hasn't quietly been directing all...

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Jun 22, 2003

Complacency-bustin' beats

Despite the slowly growing hype around DJ Klock, he arrives at for the interview, not with a label rep, but with his wife, Yuki. At the office of his small record company, Clockwise, he even answers the phone.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

May 25, 2003

Classic country without the hair spray

Neko (pronounced like Nico) Case certainly has the tresses to make it in Nashville. Her long luxurious auburn locks would need only a little coaxing and a lot of hair spray for a Loretta Lynn do.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Apr 27, 2003

The wandering laptop minstrel

With his long black hair pulled back in a tight, neat ponytail and his pale complexion, electronica musician Nobukazu Takemura has an otherworldly quality somewhere between a computer geek and a monk.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Mar 26, 2003

Space Invaded

"Space Invaders," an exhibition of cutting-edge architecturally inspired design from the United Kingdom currently showing at the TN Probe space in the Hanae Mori building, explores the way visual design shapes and defines space. Space Invaded, an evening of electronic-based music featuring Janek Schaefer,...

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Mar 23, 2003

A beautiful day in the life of sound

The phone line buzzes, the electric heater drones and the pitter-patter of rain can be heard in the background. Not the perfect sonic environment for a phone interview, but for Yuko Kitamura, it is perfect.

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