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Jeff Rosenstock at Shelter, November 1st 2024

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  Many people believe that seeing a show at a small sweaty club with a band rocking out on a tiny stage is the ideal way of experiencing a concert. Even though I couldn’t say that I’d done that numerous times, I tend to agree with that sentiment. If you add to the equation a big -or relatively big- artist, then you’re privileged. That’s sometimes the case in Japan where artists that are huge in other parts of the world are not necessarily popular here. It usually happens with hip hop or hip hop adjacent performers. I know that Tyler The Creator and Doja Cat played really small venues in Tokyo not so long ago while they either headlined or co-headlined festivals like Coachella. Recently I reviewed the Marisa Monte show. It was a mid-size venue, in her country she plays stadiums. Jeff Rosenstock is not, by any means, a mainstream artist. He does attract a considerable audience, though. His name has gotten a lot of traction in recent years having popped up in multiple top ten lists f...
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Gilberto Gil at Meguro Persimmon Hall, September 27th 2024

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  “Majestic” is the word I’d use to describe the moment when, halfway through the show, standing in the middle of the stage just by himself, Gilberto Gil exchanged the acoustic guitar he’d used throughout the bossanova inspired first half of his set for an electric guitar that was handed to him by a stagehand. The impressive lighting design, some of the best I’ve seen for a concert, seemed to attempt to reproduce the dusty atmosphere of the Brazilian Sertao. Gil stood there glowing with that strong backlight behind him. Having been seated up to that point, the moment became even more intense. And then he strummed the opening chords of one of the most recognizable songs in the world which happens to be, arguably the best song ever written about the experience of living in a developing nation. It was No Woman, No Cry . In spite of the title, there were more than a pair of teary eyes in the audience. It was a magical moment. The kind of moment that highlights what’s special about a l...
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Horace Andy, Creation Rebel and Adrian Sherwood at Spotify O-East, September 14th 2024

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  The list of candidates that could join Bob Marley in reggae’s Mount Rushmore is quite extensive. I think it can’t be argued that there are more than a few legends in the genre. When it comes to solo vocal artists, I’d say that Horace Andy is a strong contender to be among the selected few. His voice and career trajectory, from recording with Studio One in the late sixties and early seventies, to the work he did for the American label Wackies in the eighties. Not to mention his membership to the prestigious Massive Attack crew from the nineties as well as an endless list of classics of the genre empowered by the strength of his unmistakable high pitched voice. I always thought he was the most likely to make the trip to Japan out of the reggae legends that are still with us, even though he confessed during the show that the reason he hasn’t been before is because he hates flying. I was elated when it was finally announced that he will coming for a three dates tour. The show was und...
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Fruezinho 2024. Mulatu Astatke, Juana Molina, Masakatsu Takagi and Yuta Orisaka at Tachikawa Stage Garden, July 6th 2024

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  Festival de Frue has taken place at Shizuoka every November for the past six, seven years. Unlike most other festivals, this one explores the fringes of experimentalism and World Music. They’re outside the mainstream, true; but their lineup throughout the years has included some truly legendary heavy hitters. Headliners have included people like Tom Ze , Hermeto Pascoal, Terry Riley , The Master Musicians of Joujouka, among others. They also have been looking ahead and have invited some of the most interesting boundary pushers from the current scene. Names like Billy Woods , Angel Bat Dawid, Tim Bernardes and Carlos Niño. I haven’t had the chance to do the pilgrimage there, but one day I would love to More accessible in term of location is, in my case, the offshoot that takes place every July in Tokyo, Fruezinho . This year was the third edition and my first time there. Once the announcement was made that Mulatu Astatke was going to headline, I didn’t have to wait to find out who...
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Marisa Monte at The Garden Hall, May 11th 2024

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  A friend of mine told me he once saw Joao Gilberto here in Tokyo about fifteen, twenty years ago at the Tokyo International Forum Hall. He said that at one point, in the middle of a song he nodded profusely to the point of falling asleep. It’s a funny anecdote. To me, I wouldn’t have minded seeing him taking a nap for a whole show, just to being in the presence of a legend of such stature. The truth is that Japan has a strong committed Brazilian music fan base. Labels like Disk Union have released music from upcoming artists with an impeccable taste and ear for their selection. Just last year young artists like Amaro Freitas, Tim Bernardes and Bala Desejo came to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to see four giants of Brazilian music. Egberto Gismonti (Nana Vasconcelos was scheduled for the concert as well but sadly passed away a couple of months before the show), Hermeto Pascoal, Tom Ze and Caetano Veloso (one of my all-time top 10 concerts). To that list a fifth name is added: Mari...
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Carcass at Spotify O-East, April 19th 2024

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  Unlike in other aspects of music and life, frankly, it feels like the UK hasn’t gotten its dues when it comes to their contributions to the extreme metal genre. Of course there’s Grindcore and Napalm Death, but even they are usually placed on the undercard at festivals featuring Norwegian, Swedish or American bands from a similar musical vein. In a different but somewhat related context, is like Kiss being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but not Iron Maiden (I’m not saying Kiss doesn’t deserve it, though). I don’t think it is too wild to ask why is Carcass not as big as Metallica? For one thing, they are a group of musicians that seem to be unwilling to compromise their vision and yet there’s a clear and fascinating evolution in their seven albums and almost forty years trajectory. The founders of the goregrind genre set the foundations with their first album Reek of Putrefaction and perfected the structure with their sophomore Symphonies of Sickness . The following two album...
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Mr. Bungle at Toyosu Pit, February 28th 2024

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  I think I already mentioned that I used to host a couple of radio shows more than twenty years ago when I lived in Los Angeles. They were on KXLU, a station that broadcasts from the campus of Loyola Marymount University, my alma mater. One of them was a jazz show that went on the air on a weekday, I think Wednesday or Thursday. My co-host Joseph came up with the title ’The Gift of Jazz”. It followed an instrumental show that was hosted by DJ Ned. Ned’s show was one of my favorites, he introduced me to a ton of music. Two releases in particular, that he personally recommended while music played between the end of his slot and the beginning of mine, ended up being among my favorite albums of all time. One was the Ethiopiques 4 compilation with music from Mulatu Astatke -we’re talking years before the movie Broken Flower exposed these songs to the world. The other was a new release at the time, the album The Director’s Cut by Fantomas. That album, a four-piece rock band reinterpr...
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