These 3 guys in the first pic of the next set crack me up. The kid on the left is the borderline bad kid of the school, but when he's together with these 2, they are ALWAYS laughing about something. I've seen them in a small conga line, wandering around the school trying to be 1 person, walking in step and speaking together in unison, lying on the benches in front of the vending machines staring at the sky pondering the meaning of life, and oddest of all last week, singing/humming at the desks outside the staffroom with their mouths closed but full of food, doing a strange sort of dance that i can most closely describe as what dick van dyke and his chimney sweep friends do on the London roofs in Mary Poppins.
Fri nite went down down to Kobe. I love random bar hunting, just popping in to places to see if they're the Best Thing Ever. We hit this one called Alco-Hall, with a cheesy name like that you'd think it would be a budget kinda place - oh no. We each just had a single made up with some water (it was a specialist Scotch Whiskey place - i remember thinking I wasn't educated enough about whiskey to fully enjoy the place, seemed to have every single one under the sun, just went with their recommendation) and I was kind of wondering how such a small place (maybe 7, 8 seats) could afford to pay the bills, and it turned out they can cos 2 small drinks like that comes to over 16 pounds. !!!!. Still.
Next place was better, we drank for over 2 hours for the same price, and it was very chilled, all couches, obscure knick knacks and freebie cake from the proprietor who's bday it was. Music was a surprise, along with standard poppy rock stuff (blech) they dropped in cool stuff like Brad Mehldau's version of Paranoid Android, the original of Runaway which Nuyorican Soul covered, Tito Puente's classic Oye Como Va, and Nitin Sawhney's Homelands. Nice.
Saturday, headed down to the football with my supervisor, stopping on the way at a French patisserie he recommended, called 'Bigot'. Hmm. It was supposed to be the crowning moment for Vissel Kobe. Basically we lost. But I wore my Vissel shirt! And I learnt the whole Vissel Kobe song in Japanese! And I bought Vissel Kobe little thing to tie on my phone! And I (re)learnt the phrase for "the referee is blind"! WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE DONE? It was supposed to be a perfect ending to a story as well - our coach, Stuart Baxter (he's English, hence the British flags in the picture below) had just returned from 3 months at his ill daughter's bedside in Switzerland as Vissel were top of the table, this was the game to show we were going to J-1! (Here, the first 2 teams are automatically promoted, and the third has a playoff with the third last in J-1) Yokohama FC were clearly superior though, winning 2-1, and the fact that our goal was an unbelievably good free kick doesn't really make it any better but meh. We all traipsed out of the stadium under a grey sky as the rain drizzled down. Depressing.
(I couldn't get a high quality pic, but check the fan club leaders with their megaphones and jackets. They are nuts.)
Next to KYOTO to visit Shivana where Jazztronik were doing a live set! Exciting times. In a club called Metro, which is in the old subway system. I guess with the train connection thing, the inside looks a little like cargo (raw bricks and stuff) but much more enclosed and intimate. Yoshihiro Okino (KJM) DJed for a couple of hours before the band started, and played some of the tunes he always drops at Freedom Time, also a few Jazztronik tracks (like the minimalistic Yoruba remix of Dentro mi Alma) to wet the crowd's appetite. There are some tunes I know just from him playing but have no idea what they are, but wish I did. Theres a really deep soulful house tune that goes,Love
love is the key to my happineeeeeeeessss
it shines a light on togetherneeeeeeeeesssss
it is the peace in my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife
which I would kill to know about, and another one slightly more broken on the chords talking about 'you give me that feeeeeeeeeeeever' that I'm almost half sure I should know what it is but maybe it's just from hearing it out. He also dropped a remix of Afronaught's Transcend Me, MASSIVE tune from way back, and I always thought the beauty of the song was in the beat (twisty broken rolling) but this one was all four to the floor bass kick, and you notice way more complex rhythms in the vocals when it's accompanied by a straight beat. TUNE!
Jazztronik came on about 1.30 in the morning and I was wondering how they'd do... I mean Jazztronik has done a whole bunch off different stuff, you've got deep broken dance tunes, but also sometimes almost a bit too light nu-jazz which isn't as good. First tune was okay, Livin' High, an old one, but I wasn't 100% convinced, but then the second tune was Nana, with the Sax guy KILLING it, absolutely wicked. They ran through a lot of their standard vocal tunes (couldnt do any of the ones heavy on production or requiring a brazilian vocalist with the band) - highlights were the version of Nanairo where Yurai sings lead vocals (I almost prefer her voice to Bebe and she's a lot cuter - theres a pic of her with Ryota [main guy] behind her) and a heavy version of Samurai. Finished up with a awesome version of Estar Com Voce, starting with the standard version (minus the brazian spoken word), letting it settle then BAM the samba mix. Same thing Airto's band did last year at Jazz Cafe, to finish on a high there's nothing like everyone grabbing some percussion and samba-ing out. Turned out it was Okino's bday, so they played a couple of songs 'for him' (not sure how they were special.)
Thing is, I don't doubt Ryota Nozaki's ability as a songwriter producer or DJ, but he was the only guy in the band who didn't take a solo the whole night. Some of the tunes are calling out for it... but overall still was awesome and he more than made up for it with his DJing later. After the band finished, Okino got back on the decks and more soulful jazzy house til dawn. He's fast becoming my favourite DJ - okay so its not eclectic, but he knows his specialism and he's a master at building sets. Jazztronik jumped up about 4 in the morning to DJ, took it a little more broken, including another Afronaught classic Golpe Tuyo Calinda - both of those tunes of his have such recognisable riffs that when you hear coming through in the mix just SOOOAAAAR, the twisty wah-wah chords for Transcend Me and the simple bleeps for Golpe.
Sunday just sleeeeeept til late in my friend Shivana's place, then had some sushi and back to Aogaki. Life is good.
Let me end this longish post with this. If you're feeling kinda tired or ill, it will make you better - well it did me so thats 100% success rate so far. It's my favourite music video, for the the classic UK hip hop tune. Only saw it once on TV years ago but just had the thought yesterday that of course it would be on the internet now in the age of youtube. Check:
1 comment:
woah~~~ bunkasai tanoshisou ;)
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