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November 21, 2024
 

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Ian Martin
Ian Martin is a freelance writer covering music and pop culture. He has been active in the Tokyo music scene as an indie event organiser, DJ and label owner since 2004 and has been contributing to The Japan Times music page for almost as long.
LIFE / Digital
Nov 21, 2007
iPod DJs gear up and face off at music event in Tokyo
Everyone knows the iconic image of the DJ — the permanently worn headphones, satchel full of vinyl, twin Technics 1200 turntables — but that could all be about to change with iPod Battle Tokyo: The Clash this Friday, where nine DJ teams will fight it out using nothing but a pair of slimline, portable...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 14, 2007
Online music store helps Japanese music go global
You've heard the stories: The music industry is in crisis, CD sales are dropping year on year, iTunes is taking over the world, the future is digital, the revolution is here. While a lot of this may be true, music fans could be forgiven for some cynicism when all about them the music industry seeks to...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 2, 2007
"Re-make/Re-model Art, Pop, Fashion and the Making of Roxy Music 1953-1972" By Michael Bracewell
Roxy Music were a powerful force in 1970s pop, with their art-school roots an important aspect of their influential style. It is with a background of British Pop artists such as Richard Hamilton and David Hockney in mind that writer Michael Bracewell attempts to tell the story behind Roxy Music's formation....
CULTURE / Music
Oct 12, 2007
Shugo Tokumaru "Exit"
"Exit" is Shugo Tokumaru's first album since switching from a tiny indie label to the larger P-Vine Records, but the move hasn't been accompanied by any compromise of the bedroom-music aesthetic that made his previous albums "L.S.T." and "Night Piece" so beguiling.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2007
Totsuzen Danball "Junsui de Socchoku na Omoide"
Japanese punk's first generation produced some of the country's most creative and enduring music. The Tokyo Rockers scene of 1979 gave us Friction, formed by bassist Reck and drummer Chico-hige, formerly of New York's Contortions; the Kansai No Wave scene produced punk poet Phew, who has collaborated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2007
Tokyo Pinsalocks
"Spoon Market" is more than just a music event. Organized by female new-wave/electro band Tokyo Pinsalocks and Holly, owner of live house Sangenjaya Heaven's Door, the event includes live music and DJs, as well as video, art, photography and craft exhibits, fashion, food and even "hair arrangement."...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 7, 2007
Miami "Good Morning Playground"
Formed in 2004 by two women called Ai — one a classically trained violinist whose hobbies include cooking, flower-arrangement and "home crafts," the other a "Star Wars" fanatic and lightning-speed MC — Japanese technopop duo Miami are releasing their debut mini-album after a year spent ricocheting...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 24, 2007
Kiiiiiii "Al & Bum"
As comfortable playing traditional gig venues as they are art galleries, Tokyo girl duo Kiiiiiii have built their reputation on their live shows, in which vocalist U.T. and drummer Lakin' dash through a technicolor car crash of songs and musical skits performed in the character of 1980s American schoolgirls....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 10, 2007
Two fingers to the mainstream
"We were playing these 200-capacity venues that weren't really legal. There were just too many people in there, climbing on the bar, climbing on the speakers and jumping off," Chris Batten, the 20-year-old bassist from British post-hardcore band Enter Shikari tells The Japan Times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2007
Playing their last show, again
"This year is 30 years since I first went onstage with a band called The Cure and 2009 will be 30 years since our first album," says proto-goth Robert Smith, speaking via telephone on a suitably ghoulish Friday the 13th.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 8, 2007
PanicSmile "Best Education"
The old cliche about The Velvet Underground was that few people bought their records, but everyone who did formed a band. Something similar is probably true of Tokyo-based experimental punks PanicSmile, whose early fans included indie-rockers Number Girl and quirky J-pop singer Shiina Ringo. PanicSmile's...
CULTURE / Music
May 25, 2007
100s "ALL!!!!!!"
Kazuyoshi Nakamura made a name for himself here as a solo artist in the late 1990s, fusing his Beatlesesque melodies with a more traditional J-pop sound at a time when Oasis were selling hundreds of thousands of albums a week.
CULTURE / Music
May 11, 2007
Midori "Second"
The combination of Osaka punks Midori's furious performances with their fans' robotic, idol-band type synchronized dancing makes them difficult to pin down. On the one hand, they sell themselves as Osaka's answer to J-pop legends Judy And Mary. On the other, their music is a chaotic mixture of hardcore...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 30, 2007
Motocompo "Chiptop Lips"
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Tokyo technopop band Motocompo. Along with Polysics, the then-three-piece -- now reduced to a duo -- were co-architects of the Tokyo new-wave revival, updating the synthetic pop sounds of classic '80s bands like The Plastics and Yellow Magic Orchestra for a new...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 9, 2007
Tommy Heavenly6 "Heavy Starry Heavenly"
Tomoko Kawase is a woman of many identities. After shooting to fame in the 1990s as singer for J-popsters The Brilliant Green, she went on to make two albums of '80s-style pop pastiches as Tommy February6. Now she has completed her second album as that incarnation's "dark side," Tommy Heavenly6.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007
Damo Suzuki networks with younger generation
'My home is everywhere. I am a nomad of the 21st century; my address is my e-mail address," writes Damo Suzuki in English via, naturally enough, e-mail.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2007
The Good, The Bad and The Queen "The Good, The Bad and The Queen"
Just shy of 40, Blur/Gorillaz vocalist Damon Albarn has ticked most of the boxes of middle-age rock star cliches: He's done film scores ("Ravenous"), got "down" with ethnic music (2002's "Mali Music") and he's flirted with politics (he's a prominent antiwar activist). The Good, The Bad and The Queen...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 5, 2007
Lullatone ". . . Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous"
Recorded for over two years in a bedroom, probably at 11 o'clock on only the laziest of Sunday mornings, the Nagoya duo Lullatone's newest album is quite possibly the cutest thing that you will hear all year.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2006
Moools "Dub Narcotic Sessions"
Moools' modest inroads abroad, as documented in "Dub Narcotic Sessions," a CD/DVD package of the trio's tour around the Pacific Northwest in 2003, come from their music's own merits alone. The tone of the album is set by "Bubble Ki," the opener on the four song EP, a quirky piece of lo-fi-psychedelia...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006
Nhhmbase "Nhhmbase"
One of the problems facing Japanese indie-rock bands is that their genre's traditional audience tends to be biased toward Western bands. Groups like Supercar and Number Girl have successfully crossed over to reach a wider audience by making music that essentially copies Western rock but with a Japanese...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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