For the last 8 to 10 months I’ve been thinking about a feature I want to write looking at what I’ve come to think of as a ‘new wave of hip hop boom bap.’ Music and producers that have got me excited about stuff again like I haven’t been in a long time, starting somewhere with Madlib and Dilla and culminating in the last few years with the likes of Dabrye, edIT, Prefuse 73 and more recently a whole slew of new producers and collectives.

Like most things in the last 8 to 10 months though, I’ve sat on my arse and never got round to it. That is until about a month ago when I submitted a rough draft of the feature to Serie B who I’d pitched it to. They liked it and want to run it alongside a bunch of interviews with some of the artists mentioned in the feature. Bonus.

And around the same time I finally got off my back and did all this I started seeing other people talking about the same thing, but with slightly different angles. Which not only makes me feel good because I know I’m not the only one feeling like this, but also because it only makes me more inspired and gives me more food for thought over the whole thing.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: bass, dubstep, hip hop, lazer bass, Music, wonky, writing

Despite dubstep’s rise in popularity and consequent rise in numbers, from artists to DJs and labels, there is still only a core number of labels which are of real, regular interest to me. DMZ and Hyperdub are two, and Paul Rose’s Hotflush is another. And even though Hotflush has been one of the busiest labels release-wise, it still regularly comes up with surprisingly refreshing music.

And so, it was a pleasure to be able to catch up with Paul Rose, aka Scuba, recently after I’d first interviewed him (briefly) for my dubstep piece in Serie B back in 2006. And it was Serie B who asked for a round two, this time concentrating on the man and his forthcoming album. The article appears in Serie B issue 21, out now and available in Spain, South America and most good European importers.

For the non-Spanish speaking massive though, the good people at Spannered are running a slightly longer version of the piece, in English. You can check it here.

I’ll be posting up the Serie B version to the portfolio archive later. In the meantime get reading if you haven’t and don’t forget to check Scuba’s new album and the excellent new series of free mixes from Hotflush.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: dubstep, Music, portfolio, writing

Came across this article on Japan whilst looking for something the other day. Aside from being an interesting read for anyone who’s lived here for a while or is thinking of living here, the author makes a very interesting point that I can relate to, even though I’ve only been for a very short time compared to his 20 odd years.

And yet beneath all the motion and excitement, something had caught inside me in Japan, and it was perhaps (I see now) all that I couldn’t explain, everything that I couldn’t put into tidy boxes and pinwheeling sentences. I had walked around a temple near the airport at Narita, during a morning layover, waiting for my flight back to New York, and something in the mild October sunshine, the gathered quiet, the shelteredness of the scene, took me back, unanswerably, to boyhood and England: Japan made me feel more at home than I’d been in a life of traveling the globe.

This sense of home he talks about is something I’ve felt on multiple occasions in the last year, and everytime I’ve struggled to fully understand it. I think the main thing I struggle with is that while Tokyo, and Japan, has this ability to make you feel at home, more than even home can, it’s also undeniably alien and very much an environment in which a foreigner stands out, regardless of linguistic skills or social integration.

Yet despite this, Tokyo can very much make you feel at home, make you feel like belong in a sense, or if not belong that you’re in a place where it’s ok to just be. This contradiction between being regularly estranged and feeling embraced at times is funnily enough another contradiction to add to a long list I’ve discovered since being here. Maybe it’s just because of the way the Japanese are, how the society functions and operates that lets you be able to feel that just being is ok, that you are, as strange as it may seem in such a, at times, foreign land, at home.

It’s definitely one of the things I’m going to miss the most once I’m gone, especially when I walk around Tokyo and just take it in: sights, sounds and smells. It’s also a reason I would recommend anyone try it out here once if they feel they got it in them and want to experience something different. It’s a mindset too, you have to be in the right headspace I guess, it’s not as simple as just turning up and waiting for it to happen. But for anyone who has any experience of living in a different culture, or wants to really try it out, then I think Japan in a weird way definitely holds something nowhere else really does.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, Random, society, travelling, writing

Animosity between neighbouring countries isn’t really anything new. Growing up and living in Europe I’ve become accustomed to plenty of it, from funny stereotypes to nonsense bordering on xenophobia. One thing I’ve realised since working at a newspaper here though is how deep the animosity between Japan and China sometimes runs, and how far and low some people will seemingly act on it.

Like all good rivalries, it runs deep and both ways, but my knowledge of the issue isn’t that thorough if I’m honest. I know the Chinese hold a grudge, well one of the most recent ones anyways, against the Japanese for Japan’s WWII aggressions and past attempts at imperial expansion in Asia (google the rape of Nanking as a good starting point). As for the Japanese, I’m not actually quite sure where their grudge comes from, anyone with any enlightening knowledge please drop a comment. One thing I do know is that I’ve met my share of Japanese who have been vocal about their distrust of the Chinese and seeming belief that China and its people are up to no good (broadely speaking of course).

What’s been really enlightening and entertaining though is the Japanese media’s practice of jibing at the Chinese for anything they possibly can. The most obvious examples I see everyday are those at the newspaper I work at, which is the country’s second biggest, and also on TV. At the newspaper the Chinese jibes are literally everywhere it seems. I’ll be editing a story, and all of a sudden there will be a totally unrelated sentence making a remark, generally negative, about China. If it wasn’t so funny in the way it’s done, it would be scary.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, newspaper, Random, society, writing

Spannered is a year old this month, and for the occasion the guys at the helm of one of the nicest music sites around have decided to re-design the whole ting. As anyone who’s ever attempted such a thing on a site with a substantial amount of content will know, it ain’t easy. The guys have pulled it off nicely though, and the whole thing is a lot easier to navigate and still looks funky fresh.

If you don’t know about Spannered yet I can only recommend you head over and find out more. Not only do they have a nice archive of interviews, features and reviews covering a wide range of music, subjects and artists, they also do it in your earhole with a podcast series and a hefty archive of live, recorded and exclusive mixes from featured artists and others - all streamable and downloadable.

For me it’s definitely one of the nicest music sites around thanks to its content and variety, and no I’m not saying that because they’ve featured my interview with Goth Trad on there a few months back  :lol: .

A new addition to the site is an mp3 blog, which will be taking shape over the coming month as the contributors get digging and uploading. The list of contributors is pretty sweet too, including the likes of DJ C, Kid Chameleon, Kone R and various other people dotted around London and the world. So I was pretty chuffed when they kindly asked me to take part as well. I’ll be contributing various bits once a month or so, with a look at exposing some of the weird vinyl I’ve come across in Japan as well as some rarer and more exclusive material from the Turntable Radio archive and artists I know. My first contribution should be up in a week or so, featuring a few bits from the TTR archive and some random Japanese records I picked up over the summer.

In the meantime, the guys have started it off with some wicked Brasilian gems and it’s only gonna get better so you know what you gotta do  :smile: .

Big up Ali and the Spannered crew for this!

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Music, Random, writing

As of this week I officially start in my new job. Even though I’ve been working there once a week for the last month, this week is the proper beginning of my new job life in Japan. I’m leaving the ‘comfort’ of full-time teaching employment for the relative uncertainty of two part-time contracts which can be both be renewed or cancelled every three months. Thing is the ‘job security’ is actually not the biggest concern if I’m honest. What I’m more worried about, though putting it like that makes it sound worse than it is, is my new position as a copy-editor (aka sub-editor in the UK) at the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s biggest English daily newspapers.

Why worried? Well cause it’s all turned out to be a bit of a blag. I applied for the job more as a ‘whatever’ moment than anything serious, considering I didn’t have the required qualification - that magical ‘previous newspaper experience’ requirement which you can never get until you find a job that will give you the job without the pre-requisite ‘experience’. A lovely catch-22 situation most university graduates only know too well about. Looks like I’ve managed to break it this time. Ok I’m not totally blagging it, considering I do have over 4 years of subbing experience, just not in a paper and while I guessed it would be a lot more different, I didn’t know how much.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, motivation, office life, Teaching, writing

It’s something we’re all accustomed to in this day and age and which we probably rarely give much thought about, unless it annoys us or grabs our attention. Advertising, and its evil twin sister/brother/father/whatever you want to call it marketing, is most definitely here to stay as capitalism continues its voracious global expansion. And while I tend to agree with theories and opinions that marketing and advertising are incredible wastes of money when you consider the sums poured into them in the last 20 odd years, fact is they serve a purpose in the world we live in. Whether or not you agree/like the purpose they serve is an entirely different barrel of fish.

When I lived in Europe I remember TV adverts were the things that irritated me the most - something I’m pretty much free of here, what with the fact that I don’t really watch TV anymore. The other thing that soon started to make me cringe and or despair was the increasing appearance of adverts on every available surface of everyday life. In London this took the form of adverts printed on the back of travelcards, bus tickets, people in the streets etc… Having studied marketing and advertising at uni, in one way I was interested by it, because it’s such a testament to the relentless push to shove consumerism in any way you can into every possible hook and crany of someone’s life, and in another I was also pretty pissed off - just because it’s annoying. I don’t need to be advertised to everywhere I look. I’m pretty selective in my consumerism, I knows what I wants and I goes and gets it, advertising rarely comes into it unless it’s talking to my inner geek/fan. It’s becoming difficult enough to browser the webanet with all the crap in it, I don’t need it in the real world as well.

Earlier on today I stumbled upon a really interesting article on the adbusters site, which details the plan of Sao Paulo’s current mayor to rid the town of all its outdoor advertising. Which when you take the time to think about it is pretty crazy/impressive/insert adjective here. As the article points out, this is the first non communist city to do so and while it might not be a bastion of capitalism, this move does have some interesting implications. Which got me thinking about Tokyo.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: advertising, Japan, musings, noise, society, thoughts, writing

Goth-Trad feature - Published in Japanzine, 2007

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.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: goth trad, Japan, portfolio, writing

‘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.
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written by Laurent \\ tags: goth trad, Japan, portfolio, writing

I’ve just had my second travel related piece published - this time it’s in the excellent weekly free magazine/paper One Week To Live which you can get in London (and in some other big UK towns too). Last I remember you can grab it in most places, shops, clubs, etc… The piece is called Yabai! (Japanese slang for bad, as in meaning good) and is about Tokyo: the cool, the eccentric and the funny. It’s in the fashion section, which is kinda funny seeing as fashion and me don’t really get on that well :lol: .

Anyways if you’re in London check it - oneweektolive.com for more info on where to find it. Enjoy! I’ll post up a pdf of it later on this week.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: portfolio, writing

Finally updated the portfolio part of the site with a selection of my writing from the last four or so years. After all this isn’t just a nombrilistic blog, it’s also an online portfolio of my writing, so it’s even more about me then a blog would be :lol: .

God knows why, but probably because I love music and writing, I decided to become a freelance music journalist and writer after leaving university, and with a little perseverance and lots of hard work I guess I managed to become one of sorts, having written for a variety of magazines and websites worldwide over the last 4 years - primarily about DJs and turntablists but also about other music scenes and music in general. Writing about music, and writing in general, is incredibly fun and I love it - shame it don’t pay the bills though.

I continue to write regularly (for ATM and Serie B) though these days I’m trying to diversify my writing a little bit more (one of the primary reasons for this blog). Travel pieces are my new thing - they’re fun and I’ve done two in the last month. I also still run/edit/do everything over at Spin Science, the only site of its kind in the world baby, and present Turntable Radio as well as maintain the blog over there. I used to be a frequent contributor to ukhh.com too, but I’ve given that up since moving here as it’s too much of a demand on my time - you can find a stack of reviews and features in their archive too.

Anyways I’ve added a whole bunch of the printed features, interviews and event reviews I’ve done since 2003, which were published by such fine magazines as ATM (UK, Australia, New Zealand), Undercover (UK), Serie B (Spain), Scratch Magazine (US) and Japanzine (Japan). This is a selection of what I think are some of my nicest or at least most interesting pieces. Maybe you’ll agree or you’ll think it’s a lot of toss. Whichever way at least you’ve had a look.

These include interviews with and features on the likes of DJ Supreme from Hijack, Third Sight, Kode 9, Skream, dubstep, Mr Lif, Spinbad, Baku, Tatsuki, Kentaro, 2tall, DMC, Mix Master Mike, Roni Size & Bryan Gee, Jonny L, A Trak and more.

I’ll be finishing the portfolio section at some point soon by adding a selection of the hundreds of music reviews I’ve written over the last few years for various magazines and websites. There’s a lot more selecting to be done there cos god knows I’ve written some fraff reviews at times (what can I say we all have our bad moments).

Seriously though anyone reading this who wants to give me a job writing then please get in touch - if it’s a job based in Tokyo, even better. If not the internet is a wonderful tool for allowing people to work anywhere in the world :wink: . Right I better go to bed before I totally put anyone off reading any of this or giving me a job.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Music, portfolio, writing