Record collection: week 0

So here's how it works. I've come to Tokyo for at least one year, hopefully 2, and maybe longer. Anyone who's been here can tell you that Tokyo is likely the best place on Earth to establish a record collection. The number of record stores here is simply astonishing. More to the point the range of stock carried, even in the big chains like HMV and Tower, is remarkable. This is particularly pertinent if, like me, you're keen on picking up weirdo/experimental/improv/blah blah/etc music, although there are enough specialist stores around to cater to those particular needs. Perhaps the single most important factor in making Tokyo a record collectors haven is disk union . This is a Japanese chain of record stores whichs sells new and used records, cds and dvds. The used stock that ends up in disc union is utterly amazing. In practically any genre you can find great albums for dirt cheap in the used bins. It's possible to get a excellent collection of great LPs even limiting yourself only the 1000 Yen (~NZ$14) items. Of course disc union stores (at a guess there'd be about 15 dotted around Tokyo, with about 5 of those in Shinjuku alone) are just the tip of the iceberg for recorded music lovers (see my Tokyo record stores page ).

So basically, I've decided to blog my experience of setting up a record collection in Tokyo from scratch. I'm setting aside 15,000 Yen a week which isn't really that much, but is still a bit of a stretch on my budget, and I'm going to document my purchases, comment on the music, get egg on my face when I buy duds, reveal my ocassional apalling taste and ignorance of many seminal artists and also come across like a music wanker at times I guess. Hope it's entertaining!

Officially I wasn't meant to take any music with me to Japan, however I ended up with a few cdrs from friends and received a few trades and made a few small purchases in my first month here before I started setting aside a weekly record allowance. In no particular order, the following are what I started out with:

1) Title: From Tokyo to Naigara; Artist: Tujiko Noriko ; Label: TOM; Format: CDR copy>> From Fuyuko! Thanks Fu. I Have some reservations about Tujiko-chan but this album has provided a great, melancholy tinged Tokyo soundtrack, particularly after I first moved into my apartment. Tujiko's production is pretty delightful, and her songs are particularly wistful on this release. Perhaps, it sounds like Tokyo in the rainy season. Grey buildings, dim sky, seedy noodle joints. No way out...

2) Title: (Need to translate it); Artist: Tujiko Noriko ; Label: Mego; Format: CDR copy>> Again, Fuyuko gave this to me as a going away present. It's a bit brighter than "From Tokyo to Naigara", particularly the sparkly second track which I initially hated, but now kind of love. Initially, I accused her of sounding like Tatu on the 3rd track! So yes, I was skeptical; this album doesn't quite live up to the promise of her best Mego release "Make me hard". But I don't think it's meant to. It's just another nice cup of Tujiko tea and it definitely grew on me. Fu told me that the first track always makes her think of Tokyo. I can understand that now. It's a plodding piece of melancholia, but it has a refined glumness that almost catches in your throat; perhaps it feels like one of those days a few months out from a heart-break when the rain's falling and everyone on the street is walking with grim determination and you're just one of those walkers...

3) Title: Unknown (Okinawan music sampler) ; Artist: Various ; Label: Unknown; Format: CDR copy >> One last CDR from Fu. I listened to this one a lot before I left New Zealand, and it seemed somehow loaded with an unlikely emotional significance. Unlikely because I know nothing about Okinawa; why would the idiosyncratic strains of Okinawa no ongaku resonate with me even though I was off to Japan? Nonetheless, many of the songs sound like leaving songs. The koto twangs, nasaly voices wail in odd scales, warbly woodwind chimes in at times. For the most part these songs are beautiful (but there is some real dreck in there, mostly ruined by the presence of modern digital sequencing technology!) The second track by Cheiko Iha and Four Sisters always makes me feel wistful...

4) Title: Dragon, Tiger and Escargot ; Artist: Calfornia Dolls ; Label: Commune Disc; Format: CDR copy >> Present from Tim just before I went away. Thanks Tim! The marvellously gurgling vocals of Ami Yoshida are mostly left aside for an excercise in trash pop and post-Osaka scene variety show music. That description doesn't even come close to doing this disc justice. Yoshidasan is joined by Wada Chihiro, who I recently discovered is the girlfriend of my pal Takefumi. A good musical pairing to be sure. Anyway, my favourite bits are still when Ami Yoshida brings out her throat fetish vox and ups the weirdo level even higher, which is pretty astonishing for a pop album this fucked up. Pretty much a perfect Japanese screwball pop album.

5) Title: Pinknoise ; Artist: Junko and Mattin ; Label: wmo/r Format: CD >> Got this in a trade with the amiable Mattin who was playing a few shows in Tokyo the first week I got here. Two mononominal artists with a bent for unbearable noise. This worked really well live actually. In particular Junkosan's vocals are the most sublimely irritating sound I have heard in a LONG time. An irate mouse in a blender was the comparison I used after the concert. She's great. The CD is Junko's vocal needles accompanied by computer feedback and interminable yelling by Mattin... oh god make it stop.

6) Title: Tengu et Kitsune ; Artist: Taku Sugimoto/Taku Unami ; Label: wmo/r Format: CD >> Another trade with Mattin. This is lovely, ridiculously spacious (in the most literal sense) guitar minimalism. Unfortunately the cheap DVD/CD player I picked up at Biku Kamera has an audible click which is all too apparent when playing this music this delicate. Saw them live at loop line too where they were tense but meditative. Hope Sugimotosan doesn't mind that I've invaded his favourite bar...

7) Title: 21st Century Field Hollers and Prison Songs ; Artist: Bruce Russel ; Label: wmo/r Format: CD >> Bought this one at Mattin's gig keen to have some New Zealand music during my exile. Having said that, I don't have much time for this release. As ever, Bruce Russel's comments on music (in the liner notes) are formidably erudite. The title is wonderful. But the music just does nothing for me. Could be I'm just an incurable pop tart at the moment. BR's invocation of the great Jamaican Dub producers only confuses me cos I just kind of love the way dub makes me feel. This just makes me feel a bit bored.

8) Title: S3 ; Artist: Dion Workman/Mattin ; Label: Formed Format: CD >> Another trade from Mattin. I think I've listened to it twice but it needs a serious headphone listen and I just haven't had the time (I usually do something when I'm listening to music. I think it often improves the affect of music to associate with some activity or other.) I really love Dion Workman's attention to detail on work like "Ching", so I'm looking forward to listening to this in appropriate circumstances some time. So far all I can say is: quiet; field recordings; digital rustling.

9) Title: Empty Kingdoms ; Artist: Anthony Guerra ; Label: Black Petal: CD >> Trade from Anthony Guerra. This album is really good. I found myself listening to it more than I expected. It's super short, but nonetheless perfect in length. Ultimately restrained, exactly placed "blues" notes ring out their lives unfettered by chords or overplaying. At odd times, AG's whimpering but effective vocal slivers emerge to caress the dying chords. Sad, uneffected music.

10) Title: Guitar has strings ; Artist: Antony Milton ; Label: Black Petal: CDr >> Another trade from Anthony Guerra. Great to have some music by Antony M over here. Typically, the music is warm, seemingly careless, but also unabashedly musical at times, but still revelling in noise and mistakes. Yup, it does sound like home, excuse the sentiment. Apparently Antony hadn't played guitar for a year or something before he grabbed the opshop acoustic he banged out this bunch of tracks on. Great approach to guitar playing!

11) Title: The borders of the garden paths are overgrown ; Artist: Sam Hamilton ; Label: Transient; Format: CDr >> The remarkable Ben Spiers has started patronising the Auckland scene. Don't read that the wrong way, I mean he's really interested in the KRd explosion centered around the Wine Cellar; the explosion which is, in essence Sam Hamilton! Thanks for sending me this Sam. Maybe my fave Sam Ham recording so far. It does sound like Auckland at the moment - Electronically diced guitars (Sam dices in his own peculiar way you understand, no shears of laptopiary involved), post-Pumice mumbling into what was more likely an old sock than a mic, loops that kind of reference our pal Tim Coster maybe even early Rosy Parlane, excellent field recordings of people's reactions at a fireworks display (field recordings of PEOPLE are at their best just found songs right?) Look, Sam is somewhat of a musical freak of nature, understand? Oh yeah: it sounds like K Rd...

12) Title: Piano Piece For a Particular Distance ; Artist: Sam Hamilton ; Label: Tumbling Strain (??); Format: CDr >> Maybe not officially a Tumbling Strain release. So is Tumbling Strain officially a label anyway Sam? Okay, first up, I have to admit I haven't even listened to this one yet. The cover pic of four of Auckland's most endearing miscreants rolling a piano down the road is so redolent of a particular time and place for me that I only need to gaze at it and just HAVE the cdr. Listening is entirely optional. Cool liner notes from SH too.

13) Title: Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds From Iraq ; Artist: Various ; Label: Sublime Frequencies; Format: CD >> Sublime frequencies = pillaged world music lite for indie kids apparently! Definitely some attribution issues surrounding this label. But sheesh, I just can't dislike them, because this is such great pop music they've brought to my ears. One of the first CDs I bought, when I'd just moved into my aparto here in Suginami-ku. I didn't have much else to listen to and every morning I'd chuck this on and eat my cocoa flavoured cornflakes with black soy bean milk. It already feels like another age... listening to this music bursting with life and exotic energy it's impossible to to consider the unholy fucking mess the country of the music's origin is in now and wonder what that means for the musicians. I can't explain what makes this CD such a delight. Foreign pop can be an unmitigated treat; no social context; no cringing at crap vocals ( you imagine your own meanings for the iraqi lyrics). And the scales and instrumentation! The machine gun percussion! This is dance music with real excitement and human power of movement. "Choubi Choubi" itself is one of the best songs here. A real delight of clanging, buzzing madness driven by a tough, sultry female vocal.

14) Title: USE ; Artist: Mikami Kan ; Label: PSF; Format: CD >> I didn't think I could survive in Japan without my favourite Japanese avant "blues" screamer Mikami Kan so I picked this up on an early trip to my local record store modern music. His recent concert (see my review) was phenomenal. This isn't one of his best albums although it in someways sounds just like every other Mikami album. But if you listen a few times the tracks start to grow on you and take the form of unique pieces all separate and important in his ouevre. Apart from the annoying "Miyazakikun" track, the songs are engaging and in no need of translation. Mikami's whisky soaked growls and vocal explosions simply need no explanation. Here is a man exposing the rough beauty, sadness anger and disappointment of human life through a peculiarly Japanese lens.