The Tokyo Concert Experience

    "I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies and hypothesis can’t define how I be dropping these…" There are many that will rate this intro as the best in hip hop. For some it is the best verse all times. It comes from Triumph , a song from Wu Tang Forever , the second album from the Wu-Tang Clan . At the time this album came with huge anticipation. It was the conclusion of a run of releases, probably unparalleled since. Their first one, Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) , was a bona fide classic from the get go. It was released in 1993 and introduced a super group of sorts where each member had its personality clearly defined and their strengths worked combined to assemble a catalog of unheard lyrical prowess, witty wordplay, engaging storytelling and hard hitting beats. The core members followed with solo/side projects for the following couple of years and each one of those, to this day, are considered hip hop milestones. Gravediggaz/ 6 Feet Deep , Method Man/ Tical , Ol’ D...

  When I first listened to Night Reign , the second and most recent album by Arooj Aftab , I immediately knew that I was listening to the best album of 2024. It’s eerie and mysterious and yet accessible without making concessions. It felt like an artistic statement. Confident and very unique sounding, unlike anything else. The album defies genres, you can’t call it World Music, Jazz or Hip Hop and yet it has elements of each. I then revisited her collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile and was reminded of its vast soundscapes and the way that the electronic and acoustic instruments blend with Aftab’s voice to create this tapestry of sound that slowly builds itself throughout lengthy tracks. The album, as hinted by the collaborators background, has strong jazz/experimental attributes. I’d say that her masterpiece, though, is Vulture Prince . There’s the balance between accessibility and experimentation, but in this earlier album she seems to be taking far m...

  The other day I was watching a TV show, the kind of show where they go to specific areas and talk about their food. They profiled a cook who was well known among the locals for making an amazing ramen. In the show they called him a legend. It made me think that term didn’t exactly fit the person in question. After that I noticed that the word ‘legend’ is used a lot, but who’s truly a legend? To me a legend is someone who overcoming hardship was able to make a mark on their field. Someone who established a before and after. Someone who’ll be remembered long after their gone because of their everlasting impact. Without a doubt, on September 29th at WWW X we were in the presence of a legend.                          Born into royalty in Mali, Salif Keit a was ostracized by his family due to his condition. On top of that he pursued music as a profession, something t...

  It’s been a while since my last show at an Arena of this size. Ariake Arena was built to host events for the Tokyo Olympics, so it is pretty much brand new. I really like that feeling of anticipation when walking through the large round corridors searching for your gate and walking past those enormous gaps -the gates. Getting a peak of what’s going on inside. Passing food vendors, restrooms, etc, until finding the actual gate, walking in and the huge contrast of the full illuminated arena with the stage. It’s a really cool experience.                          My seat was the cheapest, so I sat way up and luckily for me I was at the end of a row with a wall next to me I could lean on when inevitably everyone will stand once the show starts. The amount of cosplay, furry hat, shorts and tie wearing patrons was larger than I expected, as well as the generational gap...

  In the Edgar Wright documentary The Sparks Brothers, there’s a scene that shows a concert at a small venue here in Tokyo, maybe Club Quattro, and the warm reaction of the crowd, implying that in Japan, Sparks has a strong dedicated fanbase. It is true. I remember they coming here almost annually for a while. Not for nothing they chose to do some of the initial promotion for their new album Mad! here as well. You can’t help but draw the similarities between them and Cheap Trick. The quirkiness in the contrast between the sort of goofy oddball looking member and the adonis type one is an obvious one, but also both bands have delivered powerhouse pop material. The difference, in my opinion, is that unlike Cheap Trick, Sparks had the ability to evolve and adapt their sound with the times without ever sacrificing their personality.                          It is fa...

  In the nineties, when rock was king, according to some, the biggest band of them all hailed from Washington State. No, it wasn’t Unwound . It was another one we all know that to this day has its nameprinted on t-shirts worn by people whose parents might not even had been born when they were active. Seattle, Olympia, Aberdeen, Tacoma, that whole area shaped popular music in that era, modern culture even, to an extent, Unwound operated within that space and were able to stand out among the bunch. They were quite possibly among the most experimental and interesting groups that came out of that scene.                          Their first recordings definitely were grounded on grunge and its post-punk emo offspring, but soon they developed their own sound embracing electronic influences and a more ethereal approach to their music. By their last album, L eaves Turn In...