The Tokyo Concert Experience

Last year I went to Fuji Rock Festival for the first time and had a great time. The food was great, the location spectacular and most importantly, the shows were awesome. As I was leaving the gates on the last day, and even after experiencing torrential rain almost non-stop from day one, I told my friend I went with: “we need to come back next year”. Do I feel the same way now that the 2018 edition is on the books? The answer is yes, but with a caveat. Let me explain. When the first lineup announcement was made back in February and my prediction of Kendrick Lamar headlining this year’s festival came true, I was hyped and ready to buy a ticket. Then I read the rest of the bill and felt underwhelmed. I thought maybe it’ll be like last year and each announcement will bring the goods like last year (Death Grips, Slowdive, Chronixx, Cornelius).  This didn’t happen and each lineup update failed to impress, with a couple of exceptions. The first one was the revealing of the...

“Visionary” is an adjective that comes to mind when thinking about reggae history. Not only were there individuals, such as King Tubby or Lee Scratch Perry, that contributed to the progress of the music idiom in general, there were also instances in which reggae envisioned how music will be experienced for generations to come. Back in the forties in Jamaica, selectors came up with the idea of using turntables and speakers instead of musicians as a way of reproducing music in front of a large audience. By the late fifties the sound system was an established fixture of the Jamaican music industry and also its backbone. Clement “Coxsone” Dodd and Duke Reid, former selectors and owners of the most popular sound systems in the island, became record producers and built their own studios. Mr. Dodd’s Studio One label recorded and released music from the likes of Burning Spear, Horace Andy, Ken Boothe, The Abyssinians, Marcia Griffiths, Jackie Mittoo, The Skatalites, Bob Marley and...