A recommended gem of a film. With so little dialogue it’s almost a silent movie, Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders and starring Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, and Arisa Nakano, finds… Continue reading
A recommended gem of a book. A brief history of Japan’s gift of garb. The Tokyo-based culture writer W. David Marx examines how UNIQLO, Beams, and other iconic… Continue reading
Named after an Arctic Monkeys deep cut. “Eyes,” a math-rock-flecked indie jaunt from the Tokyo five-piece, contains the most delightful guitar riff. Fronted by Kondo Taisai (近藤大彗)… Continue reading
A footwork-broken beat amalgamation from the Tokyo-born, London-based producer. Love those slipping and sliding synth keys over that future-facing beat. Risa T – “Lucky” … Continue reading
Three chords and the truth from Tokyo and beyond. Listen to this selection of the best modern country and alt-folk songs from Japan. Dan Digs… Continue reading
まったり… I’ve never felt so chilled. “Mushi No Uta,” (“A Bug’s Song,” if you will), the latest from Tokyo psychedelic rock band Kikagaku Moyo (“Geometric Patterns” in… Continue reading
Saitama, Japan producer Toru Yaginuma, bettter known as Yagi, is a central fixture in Tokyo’s beat scene. It was in Tokyo that he first met Ta-ku and Repeat Pattern, who… Continue reading
My new favorite musical export from Tokyo is the experimental soul outfit WONK! Shades of Hiatus Kaiyote, Fat Freddy’s, and BBNG abound; in short, all of my favorite things.… Continue reading
So I’m reading this very excellent article in the Fader about Grimes, and at the end of the piece there’s a scene in which she Skypes with Aristophanes, a Taiwanese hip-hop MC.… Continue reading
Deep in the Malaysian jungle, producer Cee and multi instrumentalist-crooner Darren Ashley make organic, vine-riped, and above all, soulful electronic music as Bass Sekolah, which translates as Bass School. And… Continue reading
So inspired to create by watching this. I can’t think of an entity that aligns more with my musical taste than the Red Bull Music Academy. The RBMA is an invitation-only series of music… Continue reading
Fitz Ambro$e originates from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada and currently lives in Tokyo. Here he teams up with Richmond, Virginia’s Ohbliv to produce Zen Vapors: a 14-track musical collage of beats,… Continue reading
Romy, Oliver, and Jamie aka the xx and Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet are all masters of intricacy, mood, and restraint. Hear Four Tet’s dark ‘n’ stormy remix of the band’s single “Angels,”… Continue reading
With a beat and flow that sounds much more Bow than Tokyo, Japanese grime is well and truly gaining some great sinister stringed, heavily bassed-out, walloping beat momentum right now from artists like… Continue reading
