The Tokyo Concert Experience

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  Back in 2008 I saw Ween in Paris. I haven’t seen them since and I think they haven’t toured Europe since then either. The show was a three hour tour de force at the tiny La Maroquinerie in the 20th. I was lucky to see the not so often played Fluffy as the concert closer, one of those epic 15 minutes plus renditions. I still remember it as one of the most jaw-dropping, goosebumps inducing moments I’ve seen in a concert. The reason I’m bringing this up at the beginning of this review is because before the show I bumped into Gene Ween at a cafe and something similar happened to me at this show you’re about to read about. Gene was chilling by himself having coffee at the most inconspicuous Parisian cafe you can think about. It was not far from the venue, my sister and I were killing time when we spotted him. We approached him and told him we were on the way to the show. He was very nice and laid-back. Told us thank you and to enjoy the show. 15 years later I’m on my way to WWW. Got ...

  This year’s Mode Festival ran for about a week at the end of May and the beginning of June. The first edition was held in London in 2018, curated by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also performed. This year the festival is dedicated to his memory and gathered some big names from the electronic underground scene.  I went to two shows. The first one was at a venue I was not familiar with, Wall & Wall in Omotesando, an upscale area of Tokyo. Once inside my suspicions were confirmed, this place didn’t feel like the kind of joint you’ll see some music experimenting going down. The vibe felt more like a kind of a fancy club. I thought it was weird. Feeling already out of place as the only ojisan with cool-biz clothes in the building, I decided to go right to the front and focus on the performers on stage. The first one of the evening was Lucy Railton . She started her fifty-minute set creating percussive sounds with small mallets lying on her table next to her electronic rig. The whole...

  Music for 18 Musicians is quite possibly the most accessible avant-garde piece of music ever. That doesn’t diminish its impact nor its complexity. It’s not accessible because it’s simple, it’s accessible because it connects with the listener on a primal level. The comings and goings of the bass clarinets and voices are like breathing, while the rhythmical throbs of the marimbas feel like the pacing of movement. This Pulses , as each of the sections are called, paint a complete and fascinating picture of human movement. It never ceases to engage through its one hour length. The ECM premiere recording, with the participation of the composer Steve Reich himself among the 18 musicians, is a classic. It’s perfect for relaxing, studying, as background music or for deep listening. I’ve been a fan of that recording for many years but I’ve only seen it performed live once. It was as a contemporary dance production. Rain , choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Palais Garnier in ...