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November 22, 2024
 

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Jason Jenkins

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Jason Jenkins
Jason spent 13 years in Tokyo writing about cameras, parenting and the arts. In 2013 he left to travel, homeschooling his kids in Spain, Mexico and Southeast Asia before moving back to Japan in 2019.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003
Four Tet: "Rounds"
Whether through dewy-eyed computer-animation's marvels or Sony's Aibo, today's "digerati" yearn to simulate real life through hardware. The same goes for "laptop musicians," but few sound as warm and organic as the one-man band Four Tet, which is Kieran Hebden. Using extensive samples of instruments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 14, 2003
Prefuse 73: "One Word Extinguisher"
Atlanta-based DJ/programmer/producer Scott Herren will perform at the Fuji Rock Festival this year, which should come as no surprise. The event has hosted both techno-prankster Aphex Twin and vinyl bon vivant DJ Shadow, and fans of each will easily recognize Herren's cut-and-snip hip-hop project, Prefuse...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 30, 2003
Aoki Takamasa, Ogurusu Norihide and Takagi Masakatsu: "Come and Play in Our Backyard"
Last week a friend of mine complained about a performance of "laptop music" he saw recently. "If I wanted to elbow through a crowd just to watch someone sit behind their Powerbook," he snarled, "then I could just go to my office -- and it's not as smoky." He's got a point, but computer-generated music...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 23, 2003
"Saddle Creek 50"
To the surprise of many, the American underground's most fertile soil is now found on the parched plains of Omaha, Neb. Despite the scarcity of clubs, record shops and other hipster-habitat markers, this remote Midwestern town has cultivated a bumper crop of interesting bands. Early bloomers Tom Bascle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 12, 2003
Cody ChestnuTT's "The Headphone Masterpiece"
Staring smugly off the cover of his debut double album, "The Headphone Masterpiece," DIY-soul upstart Cody ChesnuTT looks more than a little full of himself. High-fives from both critics and bands like The Roots and The Strokes could be to blame, but ChesnuTT's condition is probably more a case of delayed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 5, 2003
Q & Not U
Few words in the English language contain the letter q without the letter u (Iraq and Qi Gong being two exceptions). And in Washington D.C.'s thriving underground scene, very few bands lack some resemblance to hometown heroes Fugazi or any other post-hardcore project from the mind of Ian MacKaye.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2003
The real deal of high fidelity
Twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal pass the phone back and forth like siblings accustomed to dividing everything. Today they're sharing an interview, and only the tone of their near-identical voices indicates who is on the line. Kelley's measured, Midwestern accent remains at a clipped, cordial distance,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003
Bright Eyes: "Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground"
Connor Oberst has hidden under the moniker Bright Eyes for more than five years now, but he began recording in 1994 at the ripe old age of 14. From the start, his salted-wound confessionals and distraught delivery left precious little middle ground between fans and detractors. Some made him out as the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 19, 2003
Mary Lorson and Billy Cote: "Piano Creeps"
Aside from a newborn and an overlooked body of work, Mary Lorson and Billy Cote share a passion for film. After their band, Madder Rose, died from a bad case of under-appreciation in 1999, they began to compose music for motion pictures whenever they weren't wandering through each other's solo efforts....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 12, 2003
Massive Attack
No one would call the trip-hop architects of Massive Attack hopeless romantics, but I suspect that their music has been enjoyed in just as many bedrooms as clubs. Their collages of seductive vocals and slow, fleshy beats appears to activate all the appropriate hormones and makes that itch -- to dance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 5, 2003
Baka Beyond: "Heart of the Forest"
Before we get into the new album by the world-beat collective, Baka Beyond, let's get something straight about the name. In Japan, "baka" may be what you call your boss behind his back, but this four-letter word also denotes the pygmy tribe indigenous to the rain forests near the Cameroon/Congo border....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003
"Synkretizm: A Mountain Thinking the River Fire."
Voodoo, with its mix of West African mysticism and French Catholicism, plays a vital role in the lives of Haiti's rural poor, but it gets a bad rap elsewhere. For the faithful, the communion of saints and shamans offers even the most piteous peasant his own sliver of paradise. But to outsiders, voodoo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 22, 2003
Common: "Electric Circus"
Hip-hop and Hollywood share at least one thing in common: Star-studded lineups never guarantee a work of art. In fact, some material's strength is often diluted proportionately to the number of egos featured.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 15, 2003
The Sea and Cake
Post-rock seems to have been born a genre already approaching middle age. While rock 'n' roll swaggered and screamed, this reticent cousin of indie-rock purposefully strode away from the testosterone. Post-rock's aim was a departure from rock's basic instincts, placing mood and texture over guitar hooks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 8, 2003
Doves
During the late-'80s halcyon days of rave, Jimi Goodwin and twin brothers Jez and Andy Williams congregated with other high priests of acid-house at Manchester's Hacienda, then the mecca of club culture. But as their group, Sub Sub, evolved from beat worship into melody-driven guitar pop, they began...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 18, 2002
"el Christmas: The World in Winter"
Before British label el records went belly up, they were considered one of the hippest dispensers of candy-coated twee-pop and lounge music from the '70s and '80s. A holiday compilation album pulled from el's catalog of aural confectionary makes perfect sense as so much of the holiday season nowadays...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 11, 2002
The Roots: "Phrenology"
'They have reached the level of their dreams: a major-label record deal and some international notoriety. But for all that, their concept has not yet blown up, and it is possible it won't."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 4, 2002
Aphex Twin: "Out From Out Where"
Techno music is never short on energy, but with artists now letting their laptop algorithms call the shots, electronica often comes up dreadfully short on actual human emotion. Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) best displays this embrace of the cold, clinical side of the sampler. Most of his ambient...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002
Sigur Ros: "Kid-A"
When listening to Icelandic postrock outfit Sigur Ros, it's easy to conjure up romantic images of their homeland: frosted clouds framing a cobalt sky, ice monoliths frozen stoically over ancient lava plains, muffled blasts of the geothermal powerhouse deep below. These postcard shots may have held no...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 6, 2002
The Polyphonic Spree: "The Beginning Stages Of . . ."
Smile. Go ahead, it's good for you. That's right, smile now. Can you do it? If you're finding an impromptu grin difficult, pick up the first album by The Polyphonic Spree, "The Beginning Stages Of . . .," and wash away any gloom for at least 68 minutes.
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.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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

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