May 21st is the date of the next installment of BTC, now a bi-monthly all nighter affair held on the third wednesday of the month. And it’s also my last BTC for the foreseeable future, so I’ll borrow from Skepta’s lyrics book and ask ‘Are you dumb?’ No? good cos you’d better get your ass down there, it’s a celebration bishes.
I’ll be doing a back to back set with the man like Ske for the occasion while 100 Mado rocks it back to back with ENA and Goth Trad does his usual ting of murdering the dancefloor. As for the live end of things, we’ve got Skyfish and Chinza Dopeness doing what they do best in fine combination style and Dokkebi Q dropping a live set! And seeing as these guys are living in London and not Tokyo, I’d say this makes the occasion a special one if it wasn’t already.
Full details are below. The venue is Club Asia, ladies are free till 1am, and there shall be bass and funky shit, a lot of it, truss. See you there! Peep the BTC blog for more and all that jazz. Oh yeah and there’s also a BTC Facebook group for the FB massive out there.
Last month’s edition of Back To Chill was special for a few reasons - end of year celebration, another all nighter and live sets by Japanese artists T2R and Quarta330. Quarta’s set was a particular highlight for me, as it was the first time I got the chance to see him do his thing live, which is pretty spectacular not the least because it involves him making some absolutely banging music using 2 Gameboys, some pedals and an interface. It was 30 mins of 8-bit, platform memories inducing, bass driven goodness. T2R’s live set was also nice, a lot darker than I expected it but very interesting.
And I guess even better is that we’ve managed to get audio from the whole night, thanks to man like Hyaku Mado. And so here’s a selection of sets from the night as well as the live from Quarta and T2R.
For more info on the BTC nights peep the blog. For more info on Quarta go to his myspace, and if you haven’t already go and cop his excellent Hyperdub release, which includes the devastating ‘9 Samurai’ refix.
Birthday celebrations are behind us, so it’s time for the next instalment of Back to Chill. Lucky number 13 will take place at the usual venue, Saloon at Unit, on Thursday October 4th.
Goth Trad’ll be back in town from his extended European escapade, alongside regulars and guests Keihin from Honcho Sound and MC Mal from Rub-a-Dub market. I’ll be playing b2b with Goth once more.
If you come down, don’t be a stranger. It’ll be heavy as usual, and I’m sure Goth will be packing a heavy bag of dubs fresh from his European trip.
Full details on the flyer below. Oh yeah and this one starts at 8 not 7 as before.
Damn it’s been 8 months already since I first played at BTC. Time flies as they say. What started as a favour has turned into a monthly ritual and some of my best moments in a city that still feels alien a lot of the time. When Goth Trad came to Europe last year, I arranged a gig for him at the Dragon Bar (where I did a monthly open mic session). The night was great, Goth flipped it as expected and he invited me to play at his newly started BTC monthly session in Tokyo when I moved here. An offer I was only too happy to accept. Fast forward to February this year, and my first gig in Tokyo as the guest at the 6th edition of BTC. And I thought it’d be that, but Goth very kindly kept inviting me back, so much so that I’ve ended up playing pretty much every session bar a couple since then, something I definitely didn’t expect but which has been an amazing experience.
BTC has grown a lot since it started last year. With Goth Trad at the helm, who himself has had a pretty incredible year with his popularity and interest in his music blowing up worldwide, alongside Hyaku Mado, Ske, Kaji Peace and Diagram, BTC has become an amazing little night, showcasing the dubstep and grime sounds that have come (and keep coming) out of London (and in the last year or so the rest of the world) to a growing audience of fans. The parties are held at Saloon, which is basically the downstairs bar/room of Unit nightclub, one of Tokyo’s best clubs. And this venue has also been key to the success of the night, as is always the case, giving it an intimate atmosphere which is definitely reminiscent of FWD>> at Plastic People or the early DMZ parties at Third Base. The vibe and people are what makes the night and while these can be quite different from what I’ve experienced in London or Europe, the audience has started to change over the months I’ve been here and witnessed it, gradually becoming more open and a lot more vocal.
I remember when I played in February and both Ella and I remarked that the crowd reactions were totally different to what you’d expect back home. People seemed a little subdued, and their wasn’t a lot of the usual reactions you’d expect at parties like this. Not that it felt like people weren’t enjoying the music, just that maybe they weren’t showing their enjoyment in the same way as people in Europe would. The only people who reacted as you might have expected were the few foreigners who came down ceremoniously every month (Dan I’m looking at you mate! :smile: ). 6 months later when Kode 9 and The Bug toured and played 2 special parties in Tokyo, the crowd went absolutely bonkers and the vibes were most definitely on par with the best parties I’ve been to in London.
I think I might have mentioned this before when I posted the interview/feature on Goth Trad, but here are the official details. The man like Goth Trad will be returning to Europe in two weeks, for what can only be described as a thorough tour this time. After a few years doing small tours, this time he’ll be taking in 8 countries and playing 11 dates. Which should give everyone plenty of opportunities to catch his amazing live show.
All dates are live shows - not DJ sets. And as I’ve said on numerous occasions before his live shows are truly something to behold so I heavily recommend you check them out if he’s playing near you.
More info on the man and the music on his myspace and site (links on flyer and on the right hand side). Here’s some youtube footage to back up my claims re his live shows:
Oh yeah! Back To Chill first anniversary on the 30th of August at Saloon at Unit. This time it’s an all night extravaganza of beats and bass, with more guests than you can shake a stick at it.
Props to the BTC boys for pulling this one off it should be off the Richter scale :wink: Lots of MCs as well as live shows from Skyfish and Sak Dub I as well as guest appearances from Quarta 330, Mixmas and yours truly.
If you ain’t been before you can check some previous posts in the music section with some reviews and audio from previous nights. If you like your bass though this is an unmissable event!
You don’t wanna miss trust me, and at 2000 yen in it’s a bargain for Tokyo really. More info and details on the BTC blog and brand spanking new BTC site.
Right I best get practicing really :oops: See you there!
It’s been a hectic ten days, but damn has it been enjoyable. Kode 9 landed in Japan on the 12th, and what followed were ten days of non stop sightseeing, shopping, eating, fooling about and music. I also somehow managed to go to work during that time even with lack of sleep and a cold holding me down, I’m still not quite sure how.
It was all worth it though - everyone had an amazing time. Ms Haptic aka Jess aka my ex-tutor at uni came with him, and it was great finally catching up with her after a few years of not seeing each other. Same with mr 9 - we’ve known each other for a long time, but we haven’t had the chance to chill in a few years and so it was nice spending time showing them around Tokyo, doing stupid shit and also practicing my Japanese in restaurants and shops.
This feature appears in the July edition of Japanzine. The full, unedited version of the q&a I did with Goth-Trad is available on this blog, here.
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Mutation Man
The name may conjure up images of black-clad fashion disasters wearing too much eye-liner, but the truth about Goth-Trad is rather different. In the last few years, the bizarrely monikered producer and DJ – known to his mum as Takeaki Maruyama –has emerged as one of the hottest talents on Japan’s electronic music scene. Maruyama “rst discovered dance music at the tender age of 10, kickstarting a passionate affair that’s continued to this day. “I remember hearing Technotronic and loving it,” he reminisces. “I thought ‘Techno? What is Techno?’ The sound was amazing to me.” This early interest would soon grow into a deeper obsession as he discovered Kraftwerk and started listening to the UK charts. Living in Yamaguchi and then Hiroshima, though, satisfying this obsession wasn’t always easy and he had to resort to mail order at first.
‘A one-man army mutating the UK hardcore continuum in Japan’, says Kode 9. A pretty accurate description of what Takeaki Maruyama aka Goth Trad has been up since he started making music about 10 years ago. These mutations are nowhere near more apparent than in his own creation: ‘Mad Rave’, an amalgamation of the musical styles and genres that have influenced him since he first discovered electronic music. From old techno, house and jungle to more recent influences like crunk, grime, drum n bass and 2step, ‘Mad Rave’ is the logical culmination of over 20 years of collecting and listening to records and producing music.
While ‘Mad Rave’ has started to resonate with scenes worldwide in the last few years, from dubstep to drum n bass, breakcore to dub, it’s been a long journey already for Goth Trad. Since first deciding to dabble in production back in the late 90s he’s released 3 albums, appeared on many compilations and remix projects, and released another 3 albums as part of Rebel Familia, a collaboration project with legendary reggae bassist Takeshi ‘Heavy’ Akimoto.
He’s also toured Europe 3 times and has been playing regularly up and down Japan, solo and with Rebel Familia, for the best part of the last 5 years. His live work has only intensified since the release of his last album, and you’ll as easily find him playing at a drum n bass rave as you will a breakcore event, a reggae gig or his own monthly dubstep and grime night in Tokyo, ‘Back To Chill’. The diverse appeal of his music and live shows is reflected in the range of artists he’s played alongside in the last few years: The Mars Volta, Don Letts, The Bug, DJ Krush, Limewax, Toshinori Kondo, Mike Ladd, Bong Ra, Buck 65, Zinc, Doc Scott, Skream, Mala and Iration Steppas.
And so with the increasing interest in his work outside of Japan, following his debut releases on UK labels earlier on this year (including a release on Deep Medi Musik), it’s about time someone got some words from the man down on virtual paper.
What follows is an unedited transcript of an interview I did with Takeaki in May 2007. This interview will appear as a feature in Japanzine (Japan) and Serie B Magazine (Spain) in the summer of 2007. Goth Trad is likely to become a name you’ll hear a lot more of in coming months – he has his first major European tour coming up in September, where he’ll be playing at DMZ in London, a Japan tour with Kode 9 and The Bug, more releases on UK labels and interests for collaborations and releases with artists like Distance amongst many others. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. As things continue to get bigger and better for the man, it seems the summer of 2007 could well prove to be the summer of Mad Rave. Continue reading »
Last month was the 8th installment of Back To Chill, Tokyo’s only dubstep event fronted by the one and only Goth Trad and held at Unit in Daikanyama. Residents Ske, Hyaku Mado, Skinny K aka Kaji Peace and VJ Diagram were joined by MC Cardz and D2 for the occasion, as well as my good self.
It was a fun night once more, with a lot of drinking, laughing and people enjoying themselves. Though it was a little quieter than the last few events, it was still a success.
Hyaku Mado recorded all the sets on the night and I thought I’d spread a little love: so here are all 5 sets for you to grab in mp3 format. Click on the link below and you’ll be taken to a folder where you can download each set separately. Alternatively you can also stream them below to check before downloading.
Big ups to Hyaku Mado for the recording and to all the BTC crew for having me down once more. Next one is a special all nighter at Club Asia next week, 3rd of May. Bang in the middle of the Golden Week Holidays too, nice :mrgreen:
And if you like what you hear don’t forget to check out Goth-Trad’s first releases on two UK labels out this month. The first one is the long awaited release of ‘Back To Chill’, as an EP and out now on Skud Beats. The second one is his Deep Medi Musik debut, Cut End b/w Flags, out in May. Go to Goth Trad’s Blog for direct links and audio.
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