Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it’s not for the weather. If there’s one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and ...

How does Fuji Rock compare with other festivals around the world? Megan James (vocals): It’s huge! Everything’s really tight and relaxed. Corin Roddick (instrumentals): It’s so streamlined. Like they have people taking care of everything. As soon as we stopped playing like 25 people ...

Great gig! Yasunori Takada (drums): We feel great. We’re thankful to everyone who put the show together and to the people that came to watch us. And of course, the orchestra. What made you decide to add the orchestra to your recordings and performances? ...

Two gigs in one day, you must be busy balancing your schedule right now. No, not really. I’m here and c’est la vie. I’m so bodily topsy-turvy that I don’t even know what time it is. I’m just happy to be here. But I’m ...

Tokyo-based DJ and producer Hiroshi Watanabe, who has also worked under the monikers Quadra, Tread and more recently Kaito, recently released the mix compilation “Contact To The Spirits 2.” Watanabe is now on the final leg of a tour to promote it and stopped ...

Only a handful of artists can say they’ve reached the top of their trade, but Kentaro Okamoto is one of them. As DJ Kentaro, his record-scratching skills got him noticed by beat heads worldwide back in 2002, when he won the DMC World DJ ...

Around 200 people gathered on the dancefloor of Kyoto’s Club World on Sunday — but they weren’t dancing. In fact, that’s exactly what they were there to protest: a 1984 addition to the 1948 Fuzoku Eigyo Torishimariho (Entertainment Business Control Law) that prohibits late-night ...

David Dicembre has been in Tokyo for the past nine years, and has been spinning records for just as long. He’s the manager of the Japanese version of online music magazine Resident Advisor and on top of that he organizes a regular chill-out party ...

Pioneers in their own respective musical fields, Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) and Ryuichi Sakamoto began their exploration of sound and visual arts, evocatively titled the Virus Series, in 2002. Nine years on and the fifth and final installment of the collection, “Summvs,” reaches ...

In Japan, New Year’s Eve is traditionally celebrated at home with the family. For many it is a somber — if not sober — experience. Yet over the years Japan has firmly placed itself on the world map as a major stop-off point for ...

Tucked away in a cozy corner of Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, million-selling singer and rapper Soulja twirls an unsmoked cigarillo in his fingers while nodding his head to a hip-hop beat. “Yeah, that’s good. I like that,” he says to the man beside him, who ...

DJ P.O.L. Style (Paul Beveridge) moved to Tokyo from Glasgow in 2003. He created the Numbers Tokyo party series and produces his own beats under the T&A Records, Tiger Bass and Nightshifters imprints. Ahead of this week’s Yume Fest, The Japan Times looks in ...