Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 19, 2008

The Album Leaf at Metamorphose

by Jeff Hammond

Although The Album Leaf started in 1998 as a side project to Jimmy LaValle’s work in another band (San Diego’s Tristeza), his postrock power-pop solo venture has since evolved into his main gig. The band’s lineup often changes — multi-instrumentalist LaValle even performed as ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 19, 2008

Egberto Gismonti at Tokyo Summer Festival

by Philip Brasor

The theme of the 24th annual Tokyo Summer Festival, which runs from July 3 to 31 at venues throughout the city, is Forest Echoes/Desert Voices. Representing the former is pianist and guitarist Egberto Gismonti, who studied classical music in Paris only to return to ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 19, 2008

Perfume at Rock in Japan

by Daniel Robson

Pop trio Perfume will appear at Rock in Japan in what is likely to be the most thrilling spectacle of the weekend — while making the festival’s name seem utterly inappropriate. Expect idiosyncratic dance routines, are-they-aren’t-they miming debates, and a whole parkful of tech-tastic ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 19, 2008

Kiyoshiro Imawano at Fuji Rock Festival

by Simon Bartz

Legendary rip-roaring rocker Kiyoshiro Imawano — who bears the soul of Otis Redding and the flamboyance of Marc Bolan — hasn’t had the best of times over the last few years. The keen cyclist first had his bicycle stolen, which seemed a threat to ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Mar 27, 2008

Maki Rinka at SXSW: My music goes well with alcohol

by Daniel Robson

Far from the glorious cacophony blasted out by the majority of the Japanese acts at South by Southwest, Osaka’s Maki Rinka plays a coquettish, kitsch pastiche of 1950s and ’60s jazz and good old Hollywood glamour. At the first of her two SXSW shows, ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Mar 27, 2008

Ketchup Mania: Austin's f**king crazy!

by Daniel Robson

With their Green Day-esque stoopid-punk sensibility, Ketchup Mania might be the most American-sounding band on the Japan Nite bill at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, were it not for the clear streak of Judy & Mary- tinged pop that marks them out as ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Mar 27, 2008

Detroit 7: Playing at SXSW is killer!

by Daniel Robson

Detroit 7 are one of Tokyo’s most explosive bands, a tight trio blasting out raw, Iggy Pop-inspired garage punk and dripping with showmanship. At their performance at South by Southwest’s Japan Nite on March 14, singer Tomomi Nabana drawled her lyrics in a deep ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Nov 8, 2007

Dub and dope: Weatherall's weird science

by James Hadfield

He’s been a key mover in every dance genre from acid house to techno and indie disco. But if you really want to know what gets DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall out of bed in the morning, it’s a rather different type of music. ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Aug 30, 2007

Hiromi Uehara's piano keys 'burn red'

by Yung-hsiang Kao

It is easy to tell that Hiromi Uehara is a hypersensitive pianist, aware of everything around her as she performs. During one concert, a cell phone rang, and she quickly played a chord based on the ring tone to smooth over the interruption — ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Seiji Ozawa

by Benjamin Woodward

Under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, some of Japan’s top classical musicians gather each year for roughly a month of opera and orchestral concerts. The Saito Kinen Festival showcases an opera, usually something a little offbeat, and this year it’s Tchaikovsky’s “Pikovaya Dama” (“The ...

Music | RE:VIEW MUSIC Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Pet Shop Boys

by Philip Brasor

Neil Tennant’s genteel vocals were once the perfect ironic comment on the stylistic assertiveness of commercial pop, but as he’s entered middle age and his themes have become more wistful (but only a little less ironic) he’s turned into the Noel Coward of English ...