Minyo Crusaders, Wool & The Pants and Foodman at WWW X, November 12th 2021

 

This year’s Fuji Rock Festival was an all Japanese affair. Because of the pandemic there were no international acts on the bill. This didn’t translate in a reduction in ticket prices. Can’t really blame the organization for trying to make ends meet, in addition they were kind enough to stream most of it on YouTube. For the financially strapped it was difficult to justify the trip to Naeba this year. As much as I wanted to witness my fourth consecutive edition I had to pass on checking it out this year.

I saw this Alternative Night at WWW X as a way of recreating a mid-afternoon Fuji Rock experience at a fraction of the price in one of my favorite venues. A solid lineup that included one of my top three choices from this year's edition of the aforementioned festival, made the offer even more tempting, so I ventured and got a ticket. Didn’t regret it one bit. This was an eclectic evening of really good music.

It started off with Yakenohara, from the side next to the audience, spinning a DJ set that clearly delineated what the evening was going to be about. An amazing feat of juxtaposing genres that went from ambient to Latin, transitioning with an a cappella cover of the late Cheo Feliciano’s classic El Raton, that then went to a sort of free jazz drum solo freak out and then to a sort of Terry Rileyesque minimalist groove that culminated with about two minutes of techno. This opening DJ set received a well deserved applause at the end.

The following was by far the most challenging set of the evening. Without a pause in between, Foodman started his allotted 40 minutes relying almost exclusively on percussive sounds that went on for about twenty minutes in a polyrhythmic fashion not easy to grasp. Nonetheless he was grooving on stage as well as a guy in the front, not far from me. Every show has its dancing fool and that's fine, I guess. More power to this guy for busting a move to this kind of music. I enjoyed Foodman's challenging set, though. The whole unpredictability of it and how it evolved to a more beat based groove. The build up to the sort of “traditional” dance groove was like the famous Andy Kaufman routine in which he goes from a shy heavily-accented character to a spot on Elvis impersonation. A trip that connected two elements that seemed to be extremely far apart.

The context of the footwork genre is not one I’m too familiar with, I know the artist Jlin but that’s about it. Latin music is a different story, though. For one I grew up with it. Later I even got the chance to work at a Latin radio show and to meet some of the legends that were fortunately still with us back in the early two thousands. When I first heard of Minyo Crusaders I thought the idea of mixing traditional Japanese music with Afro Caribbean music was a bit of a gimmicky one. I was wrong. The album Echoes of Japan is solid, I enjoyed it very much. When I heard it I wished the band were tighter, but now -about four years after that album release- I think they definitely are. The live renditions of these songs are, in my opinion, where it’s at. The musicianship was outstanding and the clave beat was never put to the side.

The cumbia, boogaloo and salsa tunes were joined by a sort of cover of Pharaoh Sanders’ epic The Creator has a Master Plan. In these pandemic times that song truly resonates. It also brought forward the band's spiritual jazz, cosmic psychedelic influences. This was one of the acts that I would have liked to catch at Fuji Rock, I was really looking forward to seeing them. They exceeded my expectations. The clockwork percussion ensemble interlocking with the guitar and brass section, on top of the bass providing that solid base to groove on, was a joy to watch. And I didn't even mention the electronic flourishes and the steady piano montuno. The contrast with the traditional Omatsuri high pitched vocals, in addition to the Omatsuri choreography that even had people in the audience joining in, made perfect sense. I couldn’t tell because of the masks, but I bet that by the end of the set everyone had an ear to ear smile. I sure had.

Wool & the Pants I discovered checking their music on Spotify to prepare for the show. I read in an interview that hip hop is a main influence, but perhaps Sly and the Family Stone milestone There’s a Riot Going On is what they’re mostly aiming from. You can tell by the vocalist delivery and the muffled sound of their debut album. I think it’s mostly the atmosphere of soulful music bathe in darkness what that classic Sly record achieved like no other. Wool & the Pants is going for it, but the soul is not quite there, I’m not talking about soul music nor “excitement”. It’s that magical thing impossible to define that feels absent. Nonetheless the stakes are extremely high. In my opinion they delivered an engaging set that improved as it went on. It was a good close to the show. It closed in a soothing mellow note.

The first big concert I went to was a date of the Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Tour in 1993. This evening’s eclecticism reminded me of him and his large scale showcase of music from different parts of the world. When you have a tune like Minyo Crusaders’ Aizu Bandaisan, that quotes Duke Ellington’s Caravan, famously covered by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, and that salsa music lovers immediate associate with the classic Piraña by Willie Colon, you have eclecticism of the highest order. The one that dreams of music where every combination is possible, where there’s no barriers. Like Peter Gabriel will say: Games Without Frontiers.

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