Tokyo Blog

Van Man’s Song from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

This is a recording of the song the driver of this small van sings as he slowly crawls around my neighbourhood. I think he’s selling hot Japanese potatoes, but I’m not sure. I can’t understand the lyrics.

5 O’clock Chimes of Kotobuki from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

Since I previously showed you the 5 o’clock chimes of Takanawa in all their ambient glory, I thought I’d show you the more oriental, and slightly spiritual sounds of the 5 o’clock chimes of Kotobuki, my new area in Tokyo. I think this will be a recurring feature: whenever I move to a new neighbourhood, I’ll upload a recording of the 5 o’clock chimes every time. Tokyo is pretty musical like that. Did you know that the JR line stations in Tokyo each have their own distinctive jingle to subliminally inform their passengers when it’s time to wake up / get off?

The 5 O’clock Chimes of Takanawa from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

I shot this footage from the balcony of my apartment so I could capture the strange music I’ve been hearing every evening at 5 o’clock. When I’ve been walking in my neighbourhood, I’ve been looking up under the eaves of public buildings and at the pylons and powerlines, trying to work out where it comes from, but I can’t find the source. So everyday at the same time, you get this haunting melody drifting through the cold night air. Today it chimes out my last evening in the neighbourhood of Takanawa, Shinagawa before I move on to Kuramae near Asakusa tomorrow.

Japanese Salaryman - Virtuoso Performance in the Key of Awesome from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

A Japanese Salaryman, wound up and overworked, unleashes a fireball of musical self-expression on a Friday night in Tokyo. I came to the conclusion that he is by far the coolest salaryman I’ve ever seen: he fell asleep on his keyboard during the interlude.

Cinematic Orchestra with DJ Food. I HAVE to go to this event.

While we’re dealing with videos, I want to share this one too. It’s one of the tracks by Kiiiiiii I’ve been listening to a bit latley. I thought this was the remix, but I don’t suppose it really matters. It’s the version I like, and it’s pretty crazy.

Karaoke is better than I expected having done it twice now. Both times were after a night out and lasted until daybreak. You drink beer and sing a few songs with your friends. I did ‘I Want to be Adored’ by the Stone Roses, ‘The Way You Make me Feel’ by Michael Jackson (very difficult and a bad idea), ‘It’s so Easy’ by Guns n’ Roses, ‘Burning Down the House’ by Talking Heads, and ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by the Clash amongst others. So you take one hangover and add stressed vocal cords into the mix for good measure.

Recently, a few tracks have been perfect to listen to walking around Tokyo, or for riding around the underground train network. The tracks that best fit Tokyo life for me, now, are Spying Glass by Massive Attack, Parks by Four Tet, She Moves She also by Four Tet, Journey by Gentle People remixed by Aphex Twin, My Angel Rocks back and Forth again by Four Tet, Untangle by Lusine and a few tracks by Boards of Canada also. I’m pretty sure Four Tet is a bit of a Japanophile judging by the influence present in his tracks. All of these are getting a lot of listens on my MP3 player right now.

Last Sunday, and the Sunday before that, I went to Yoyogi Park with a couple of friends. We were going to come from Harajuku and check out the Harajuku girls, the Gothic Lolitas, the Punks, the Rockabillys, and other sights at the entrance to the park. After that we skirted the park in the direction of Shibuya, staying on the pavement that circumnavigates the boundry. Along the way we were checking out J-Pop bands, solo singers and street sellers who gather there every week.

It wasn’t until further on that we started to hear loud bass lines from up ahead. We carried on a bit further, rounded a corner, and then came to a wide area on the pavement where there was an entrance leading into the park. In the entrance there was literally, a wall of sound. Cabinet speakers piled up into a stack. The turntables were facing this about 10 metres away. This, apparently, was the free outdoor party at Yoyogi put on by the DJ’s from Champion Bass.

They were playing all English music, from London and Bristol’s dub and reggae influenced Jungle music scene of the mid 90’s. On rotation was Congo Natty recordings from the Rebel MC, and many classic older pieces featuring vocals and samples from Jamaican music, with stuff from Top Cat, Tenor Fly, Barrington Levy and Supercat (all London based with Jamaican heritage).

There were people there who, you could tell, this kind of music wasn’t usually their thing, but the atmosphere was so good, the weather was so nice, and the music was so infectious that everone got into it. We quickly shot over to Shibuya to the Family Mart, picked up some Yebisu and some Asahi and went back to join in, and danced until they turned off the PA.