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November 23, 2024
 

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Jeff Hammond
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2005
Roots Manuva: "Awfully Deep"
After three years away from the circus, Roots Manuva is back to remind listeners just who runs U.K. hip-hop. It's not easy to describe Manuva, aka Rodney Smith, but then he does a pretty good job himself, boasting on his new album, "Awfully Deep," of his "venomous eloquence" and his "cryptic displays...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 26, 2004
The Clash: "London Calling: 25th Anniversary Edition"
"London Calling" is one of those timeless songs that can't help sending a shiver up your spine anytime you hear it and the double album it lent its title to is, for many, the quintessential Clash album. To celebrate 25 years since its release, "London Calling" has been re-issued as a special CD/DVD pack....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 26, 2004
V.A.: "WarpVision: The Videos 1989-2004"
Sheffield's Warp label has been associated with cutting-edge visuals as well as its electronic music -- a reputation no doubt based on the strength of its packaging, as well some of its more striking videos, notably by the lauded director Chris Cunningham. His best work for Warp stands out on this DVD...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004
"Studio One Funk"
American influences in Jamaican music have always been unmistakable -- the R&B and jazz backdrop to ska, the soul influences in rocksteady and reggae, and today the hip-hop gangsta posturing in contemporary ragga. In this collection, drawn from the vaults of the prolific Studio One label, attention is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2004
2 Lone Swordsmen: "From the Double Gone Chapel"
Since 1996, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood, under the guise of the Two Lone Swordsmen, have been busy pushing dance music's emotional range into areas it doesn't usually go. Their dark and twisted instrumental electro touches on feelings of despair, frustration and submerged violence.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2004
The Abyssinians and Friends: "Tree of Satta"
Only in the world of reggae could you get away with a whole album of different versions of a song formed from a single backing track, yet how each version voices the track -- with new vocalists, lyrics or different lead instruments -- is exactly what excites the reggae audience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2004
A subversive sampler of the future
Since the '80s -- when the first samplers came on the market -- sampling in music has evolved from a revolutionary and barely understood practice to become a standard tool in the production of even the most mundane pop song. It's all in the hands of the user -- and when those hands belong to Coldcut,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004
A testament to the love of Gainsbourg
A week before her concert appearance in Tokyo, I call Jane Birkin. That's Jane -- heavy breathing on the raunchy 1969 Serge Gainsbourg classic, "Je t'aime . . . moi non plus" -- Birkin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 14, 2003
Shooting gallery aimed at sumo
On the other side of the Sumida River from Nihonbashi is Ryogoku, the undisputed center of the sumo world. Popular ways for a visitor to experience the character of the area include watching one of the three annual Tokyo basho (tournaments) at the Kokugikan (Sumo Stadium), joining some of the wrestlers...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 14, 2003
Bento pioneers stay the course of time
As the hub of the Gokaido, the five roads radiating from old Edo to major centers around the country, the Nihonbashi district of the capital was long one of its most bustling areas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 9, 2003
Project puts sizzle back on dance floor
Paris has long been a musical, as well as an artistic, melting pot, earning itself a reputation as the global center for world music. The city's central and North African population have long been the main source of spice, but recently some new flavors are coming through.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 12, 2003
His finger on the pulse of life on Earth
The Philip Glass Ensemble has been performing the music to the film "Koyaanisqatsi," live with screenings of the film, since the year after the film's release in 1982. This was later complemented by the performance of music from the film's 1987 followup "Powaqqatsi." So far, these cinema concerts have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2003
Bygone beauties in the modern age
Shoen Uemura was a rarity -- one of the few Japanese female artists who worked in a traditional style and found recognition and acclaim. "The Shoen Uemura Retrospective," an exhibition showing at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (then moving to the Utsunomiya Museum in Tochigi Prefecture later this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 1, 2003
The fine arts of craftsmanship, then and now
Among the various styles of art born in the former capital of Kyoto is the highly cultured style known as Rimpa that flowered early in the 17th century. The pioneers of the style were Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637) and Tawaraya Sotatsu (?-1643?), and the art form didn't become known as Rimpa until it was...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2003
Singing in the ageless language of love
Among the rags-to-riches stories that make the annals of popular music such a colorful read, few tales are as dramatic as that of Ibrahim Ferrer, now age 76.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 27, 2003
Broadcast: "Ha Ha Sound"
Rarely does a gem shine out from the dull ground of contemporary electronica, but when one does it should be treasured. Such is "Ha Ha Sound," Broadcast's second album.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003
Rough Trade Shops: "Post Punk 01"
When punk hit a recession-ridden U.K. in 1975-'76, using a rudimentary version of rock 'n' roll as a platform to scream obscenities and threaten to smash the state, it was enough to ignite outrage across the land. And then, before your grandfather could curse "They should bring back military service,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003
Hard beats from an open mind
An unspoken hero of dance music will unpack his box of tricks in Tokyo this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 9, 2003
Dub-tropical of Little Tempo travels well
While most of Tokyo is frantically trying to cool down, Japan's prime dub outfit Little Tempo will be heating things up this summer with a series of live gigs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003
The Octagon Man: "Magneton"
His real name might be J-Saul Kane; no one knows for sure. Kane is, however, known to possess multiple bank accounts and aliases. Most commonly known as Depth Charge, he also works under the name Alexander's Dark Band and seems to reserve the pseudonym The Octagon Man for his most twisted and deranged...
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Saitama court bans demonstrations over anti-Kurd hate speech
Kurdish people in Japan in 2015. A court injunction has banned acts that defame the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association and are disrespectful, such as putting up banner flags or handing out fliers with hate speech like “Refugees should go back to their home countries.”
China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals
Beijing Daxing International Airport
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
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.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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By Kathryn Wortley

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