Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Time is short. Japan can ill afford any further delay in preparing for the inevitable. In the next year or two, Japan will enter a phase of irreversible population decline. The time to act is now. (Matsutani)












Outside Tokyo and its other metropolises, Japan is dying a strange death. It's due to demographics. First: advances in medicine and a diet high in raw squid have helped to make Japan the oldest society that has ever existed in the long history of human societies. Second, because of its ridiculously low birth rate and frosty attitude to immigrants, Japan is now the first large industrialised country to experience a population decrease as a result of natural causes. In short, as its oldsters get even older, and its youngsters spend all their time commuting on packed trains in identical black suits instead of having wild unprotected sex, Japan's population is shrinking.

Richard Hendy was based in Tokyo for 10 years before deciding to up sticks into the Japanese hinterland to fulfill his 'lust for rust'. He documents and photographs the derelict and neglected sights of the country, offering up a blog that is a deeply melancholic yet wry read that gives a sometimes sad, sometimes eerie and sometimes hilarious insight into real life, contemporary Japan. His economically informed commentary married to his images turns the journal into a procrastinators best friend. I've killed hours on it already. Check it out below.

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/

Friday, 12 March 2010

A few albums

Wire - Pink Flag (1977).

Punk/post punk/experimental

Recommended if you like; The Fall, Gang of Four, Television, Minutemen.

If i were to compile a list of my top 10 British albums, Pink Flag would effortlessly make the cut. This is one of the most influential post punk albums ever that's influenced everyone from the likes of MBV and REM to Blur, the Manic Street Preachers and Bloc Party. The album itself is a blitzkrieg attack that doesn't relent until the end, coming in at just over 35 minutes. The guitar tone throughout is outrageously good - single coils and fuzz boxes!




Hip hop/psychadelic
Recommended if you like; Kool Keith, Madlib, Percee P, Mr. Lif.

This record will only be 5 years old come the end of the month, but already it's a certifiable hip hop classic. Edan's intention when making it was to give the listener an LSD like, ethereal experience and with his 60's psych infused samples and spiritual style of lyric, he certainly delivers. It marries 60's psychadelica with underground hip hop and the result is a left of center classic. The man himself once expressed his musical goal to put Syd Barret's face on Biz Markie's body with Kool G's brain, and it's eclecticism like this which sets Edan apart from the rest.


Tangerine Dream - Phadera (1974).

Electronic/krautrock/ambient.
Recommended if you like; Popol Vuh, Brian Eno, Ash Ra Temple/Manuel Göttsching, Kraftwerk.

Brooklyn band Yeasayer are riding on the crest of a wave at the minute and are blowing up everywhere. I'm a massive fan of the 3-piece myself and so i thought it'd be cool to upload a record that left an indelible mark on the band when they were in their seminal stages. Phadera is a stunning record of (often) improvised cosmic rock and rich soundscapes that is soaked with emotion. The record never enjoyed commercial success in Germany (although attained a cult following internationally) on it's initial release, but thankfully it was never lost and it's influence can still be felt today. I have no idea why I didn't include this on my list of Krautrock records. 




Jaga Jazzist - A Livingroom Hush (2001).

Experimental/jazz/post rock.
Recommended if you like; Squarepusher, Tortoise, Herbie Hancock, Aphex Twin, Duke Ellington.

One of my personal favourites of the 00's. Jaga Jazzist's influences range from Mingus to more contemporary electronica stuff. They've come to be the posterboys of the early millenium Scandanavian 'nu jazz' movement, but i'd say they aren't necessarily genre specific. Their music is hardly inaccessible, but I once read that the band command a massive mainstream radio appeal in their native Norway, compare and contrast that with the Radio 1 bullshit we're subject to over here.




Indie/electronica/synthpop
Recommended if you like; TV on the Radio, Gang Gang Dance, Julian Casablancas, Liars, Dirty Projectors.

Nice little indie debut from Brooklyn duo Telepathe with TV on the Radio's mad scientist Dave Sitek overseeing production. This is synth heavy avant-pop that features guest vocals from Sitek himself, fellow TVOTR bandmate (and majestically beareded) Kyp Malone and !!!'s Shannon Funchess.


Busdriver - Temporary Forever (2002).

Hip hop/alternative hip hop/abstract
Recommended if you like; Q Tip, Black Star, Kid Kudi, MF DOOM, The Cool Kids.Temporary Forever was Busdriver's sophomore release and for me, his magnum opus. It amalgamates everything he does so well, from abstract and non sequitur lyrics to hilarious freestyling (one track features BD rhyming off improv at the booth of a fast food drive-thru and another delivers a sardonic twit on the problems of spontaneous human combustion), all packaged in his own hyperactive idiosyncratic delivery.