It's easy to forget that the products we use every day are made up of smaller components, made not by big-name brands, but by small factories across the world.
Family-run, downtown factories, known as machikōba in Japanese, have recently become a popular subject in domestic media. With several television shows and books about machikōba being released in quick succession, including hit drama series "Shitamachi Rocket" and its recent sequel, it seems like Japan can't get enough of nostalgic stories about honest hard work and manufacturing.
The team behind Industrial JP, a record label dedicated to capturing the sounds of machikōba, is also eager to cast a renewed light onto the small factories and workshops that have existed for decades across Japan. Instead of focusing on the struggles of machikōba, however, the label's approach relies on the hypnotizing sights and sounds of the machinery.
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