Tokyo Tracks 011 / あけぼの印 – 夜ノ街ヲ駈ケル
Mori Art Museum / Metabolism / The City Of The Future / 17092011 – 15012012 (click on poster for link to the Mori web site)
010 / Far East Family Band / Nippon-Jin
To explain for the newer readers, Dr Rob is the other key contributor to Test Pressing alongside myself. He lives in Japan and here writes about living in the country post-earthquake. If you didn’t know the good doctor has a radio show and you can stream it here. When the Tohoku earthquake hit I was...
009 / Seigen Ono / World Collision
I’m back in Tokyo for the weekend. DJing on the Friday at Right Right Right. About to enter its 5th year. Goodness knows how we’ve made it this far. Sleep is scarce but done in a small hotel in Hibiya, called R.E.M. The more I stay here the more I love it. The rooms are...
008 / Haruomi Hosono / Hotel Malabar Upper Floor, Moving Triangle
A hirsute Jonny Nash wrote a short essay on his favourite Tokyo record shops. Handed it to me as he left Japan. Both a blessing and a curse. This was back when I only had two kids and I made it my mission, once a week to head into central Tokyo and find these places....
007 / Joe Hisaishi / Play On The Sands
I got up to work on a radio show, but “Sonatine” (ソナチネ) is on Channel Neco. It`s one of my favourite Kitano films. There’s no need for language or sub-titles since its practically a silent movie. Simple in its violent beauty. A small group of hoods in hiding in Okinawa attempt to entertain themselves while...
006 / Kotani Kozuya / ティンサグの花 / Blueline
We arrived in Karuizawa to six feet of snow, and a tiny old house with no central heating or air con. Saved by a kerosene heater that mockingly sings ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ before it shuts down if you have it on longer than three hours. Kerosene’s quick easy flame. Still, it’s so cold I...
005 / Yuichiro Aratake / Beautiful Love / Live At Bunca
Shiki. I’m out here talking to an architect about building a house in the mountains. Or rather I’m talking to my wife, and my wife is then talking to the architect. I’m trusting that record storage is not being sacrificed for Jimmy Choos. To reassure me that they understand, the head architect has brought me...
004 / Jazzadelic / Better World
It’s 1993. Weatherall’s on the radio. Kiss 100. 1 – 3 AM. Sir Alan (Russell) of Green Tights on the knobs. I’m lying in bed, drinking cheap wine. Listening on my headphones. I’m in a rented room in a shared house on Carmichael Road. Round the back of South Norwood station. I’m surrounded by all...
003 / Osamu Kitajima / Thru Cosmic Doors
Fusion’s excesses give way to a new age. Instruments dance a ballet. In my head. A second-hand ticking. Time hurries by. A shakuhachi mourns its passing. Pleading. Calling it back. As if it were trying to prevent a lover from leaving. A koto marks the attempts at persuasion and the inevitable. A lyricon. The struggle....
002 / From The Jazz Kissa / Casiopea / La Costa
Dr Rob’s back with more comment, reportage and music from Japan… I’m a regular here now. A fixture if not an attraction. I only have to pay for the first cup of coffee. The other fixture here is woman in her forties who wears her hair in a beehive and seems to use the coffee...
001 / Copa Salvo / Wave & Imperador Do Samba (Plant/RD Records)
I’m sitting in a jazz café, or jazz kissa, at the junction of a four-lane highway about five minutes away from my kids’ sports (taiso) club. Sneaking in a coffee while they vault boxes and dodge ball. Seems a pity to drown the jazz out. Sometimes I pop in here in the morning and it’s...