FREEDOMTIME, Art&Design OSAKA

This weekend was big fun, the old Kobe-Osaka 1-2 again. Lazed around Saturday morning, just finishing off a couple of tunes. Check my myspace page to hear them! No please. Really. Please. Late afternoon, went down to Kobe and met Trish. We walked over to Harborland and despite having been there loads of times I couldn't find Chinatown on the way... My sense of direction was proved to be a bit crap many times this weekend, even when assisted by by my mobile's GPS. Had dinner overlooking the bay. I've figured that Umeshu is my favourite drink in Japan, and as no doubt it's pretty hard to come by back home (although maybe I just never looked) I'm going to drink as much of it as I can before coming back. After, we headed over to Osaka for FREEDOMTIME! Woo! Unfortunately about 15 mins away from Umeda the train stopped for ages, and then it turned out there was a guy who had jumped in front of our train. So we were stopped for about an hour and a half as the cleanup guys were searching under the train, and the police wouldn't give the all clear. They shut down the lights in the train (to help the search guys or something) and it was a bit serious. When we got to Umeda, all trains in and out on the lines that used that section of track were delayed by over 70mins! If you know Japan's trains you know that's MADNESS.

Anyway, went to Osaka and FreedomTime. I've come to the conclusion that this monthly night is my favourite club night I've ever been to, and also one of my favourite things about Japan. Cool club under the JR rail tracks in Umeda, clued up unpretentious crowd, deeeeep jazz crossover with a house feeling spun by a DJ I've idolised since high school and always a fantastic guest who takes it more into their own particular style... (and you can drink Umeshu here.) I think this is the best music for clubbing. For listening I prefer a bit more on a broken tip, but you can lose yourself in the deep deep soulful funky jazzy beats that Yoshihiro Okino spins (and he is a master at sets, when it was time to leave we were like 'after the next track... okay the next one... okay the next one...'). Your more soulful or hiphop type is also fun, when you're out to meet people or just chill but not so much about getting really into the music, and DnB, while definately something you can get well into, is more sound therapy (or 'jumping around like a nutter'.) This strikes the perfect (jazz influenced) balance, you got your tough beats, latin percussions, jazz improvisations, deeeep bass, soulful vocals. Anyway this Freedomtime was Mark de Clive Lowe's Freesoul Sessions, all improvised (well, sometimes I think 'collection of ideas' is a better way to put it). It was the third time I've seen him do this, but today he was doing it with Lady Alma instead of Bembe, and it had a very different vibe. Bembe is more floaty, more off beat rhythms, but Lady Alma is on a more soulful, funky tip, and she has definately got the chops. So Mark de Clive Lowe did his building beats on the spot with his MPC and his Rhodes, Lady Alma vocalising (that should really be a word), then they did a few on the spot remixes of her tracks, Mark's remix of Yukihiro Fukutomi's "Peace", and his own housey cut on Especial Records, "Twilight". Towards the end of the night, they did a wicked version of MJ's "I can't help it" and then to finish up, a heavy extended version of "Hold It Down" similar to the Bugz rework with a rewind halfway through where MdCL took it even more broken bleepy. Lady Alma was LOVING it, the crowd all knew her tracks and were loving the improvisations, and I would imagine compared to the the crowds elsewhere who are either smaller or too cool to really get into things (London) it was refreshing. During Hold it Down, she jumped down into the crowd and danced around the floor still dropping vocals. I enjoyed this the most of any Freesoul I've seen, I think the beats get better every time, I guess as MdCL perfects the improv craft. Big big fun.

Sunday was about art and design type places in the wonderful city of Osaka. Started off in Umeda with breakfast at Cafe Bibliotheque, where they have art and design books up around the tables for you to browse, and a really funky little design bookshop with books from around the world.



Next headed to Osaka Photography Month 2007 "One Space with 150 Photographers" Exhibition. Small little gallery space in the Nikon centre, with work displayed from various amatuers, some really nice pics.


Headed over to Shinsaibashi. Hit the Modern Art Museum on the top floor of a building, where there was a poster exhibition (crazy name: 5 Star Designer's Banquet) of some fantastic designers from round the world.


Then hit a little place in Minami Horie called &'s . 2F is a very eclectic little shop, bit from round the world (bizzare and obscure goods from the 60s and 70s, shadow puppet books, classic calculators, obscure old magazines and for some reason loads of Peanuts goods.) I picked up a bilingual Peanuts book. The 3F is a tiny little gallery where there was the Oops! here I go again exhibition, a mix of paintings and photos, in little series on the wall and photobooks.



After lunch and a bit of a wander, headed down into Amemura, finally checked the record store called King Kong which has some nice bits, then to digmeout cafe, a cafe/art space. Their current theme is online art t-shirts store. The tees themselves are pretty nice, but it's the display more than anything else that's cool.



Osaka is definately the place.

Headed back to Umeda, went to the Sky Building where underneath, by chance they were having a Aloha Hawaiian Festival with groups in colourful costumes doing Hawaiian dancing. Not really my thing but still looked pretty cool. The wind was howlingly strong though, seemed pretty tough for them.



Went up to the Floating Garden Observatory (which is not floating, nor a garden, nor an observatory but 'rooftop viewing platform' doesn't have the same ring to it) just as the sun was setting. I love you Osaka. Even when I cheat on you with Kobe you don't mind.


EDIT: Check Mark de Clive Lowe's Blog about the Japan Tour! You can see me in the pic of Noon's crowd (and like Trish's arm I think, hehe) I'm in the centre 4 back in the grey flat cap. Woo!