Selfridges, one of London's poshest department stores, looks more Shibuya than Oxford Street these days. As part of London's Japan 2001 Festival, the store has made itself into a Japanese-style depaato, complete with elevator girls and counters piled high with azuki bean sweets and twee stationery goods.
Visitors can be forgiven then for doing double-takes at a recent in-store DJ event. Though sponsored by Tokyo's trendy Play label there wasn't a Tokyo hipster in sight. Instead, two pale-faced Englishmen were behind the decks.
It was an appropriately playful gesture for a label whose name is also a working philosophy. Though these days electronica may tend toward the avant-garde or the arty, Play's A&R director, Jeff Hammond, is more focused on the fun.