Suzannah Tartan - The Japan Times

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Suzannah Tartan

For Suzannah Tartan's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Jan 26, 2003

A rare chance to tap into Cat Power

Chan Marshall sits in her record company's office toying with a partially eaten apple. It is a fitting symbol. In Tokyo to promote her new album under the Cat Power moniker, "You Are Free," Marshall (first name pronounced Shawn) is dealing with her own peculiar fall from grace: the publicity tour.

CULTURE / Music

Jan 1, 2003

Heard, but not scene

Only a few years ago, Japanese music was the hype. At South by Southwest, the tony annual music confab, consecutive years saw Cornelius, Number Girl and Ex-Girl wow audiences. Rolling Stone ran a feature on upcoming Japanese bands like The Zoobombs, Takako Minekawa and Buffalo Daughter that heralded the burgeoning Japanese music scene as the next big thing.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Dec 22, 2002

Exploring musical compositions' demarcation lines

What is the difference between a track and a song? To the average listener, nothing -- the terms are often used interchangeably.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Nov 24, 2002

Pulsating with rock, reality

To describe the dizzy thrill of Sleater-Kinney, one has to reach back to the bristling energy of early rock 'n' roll. Think of Chuck Berry cackling the words to "Maybelline." Think of Wanda Jackson's redemptive howl. Think of Muddy Waters' deliberate spelling of "M-A-N," each letter promising transgressive pleasure and social upheaval.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Nov 13, 2002

Little Creatures

Little Creatures' 12-year career is a catalog of restless musical curiosity. Though their first moody releases were vaguely trip hop, their subsequent work defies categorization. Recent releases have touched on drum 'n' bass and jazzy Tortoise-like turns. ,fusing traditional instruments and electronics into heartfelt, lyrical songs. Their style might be in constant flux, but their approach is not. Little Creatures' sophisticated musical collages are fueled by a self-conscious awareness of themselves as artists. Guitarist and lyricist Takuji Aoyagi, under his pseudonym Kama Aina, has even gone so far as to style himself as a "musical activist." It screams pretense, except that he lives up to his aspirations. His compilation of traditional Hawaiian music rescued that genre from cliche, and he and partner Tamie Hirokawa have been strong supporters of charities for victims of the Chernobyl disaster.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Oct 27, 2002

Sound in all the right places

Quality control is something few recording artists manage gracefully. What back catalog doesn't contain its share of half-realized (or half-baked) ideas or downright duds?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 2, 2002

Arto Lindsay: He bangs

Arto Lindsay steps onto the stage. In his late 40s, he still retains the gawkiness of an adolescent boy, all long arms and legs. The image of a geek is completed by large horn-rimmed glasses and a pale complexion.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Sep 25, 2002

DJs tend to fall into two irreconcilable categories: those who garner glowing accolades from faux intellectuals who don't dance -- and those who pack dance floors with throbbing, heated bodies.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Sep 22, 2002

The building blocks of a good scene

As the torpor of summer dissipates into autumn's more tolerable temperatures, the music scene moves from the beaches of Shonan and the foothills of Fuji back into its dark and dank urban recesses.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Aug 25, 2002

Mad Max: Beyond the laptop

Postmodern hijinks have become such a staple of contemporary pop music that genre bending and blending are hardly news anymore. What artist hasn't ransacked the back catalog of some long-lost funk or soul label, or lifted grooves from obscure jazz hepcats or, for the even more adventurous, modern classical composers?

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 14, 2002

The Matthew Herbert Big Band

The last time Matthew Herbert performed in Tokyo, among his instruments were a bag of Big Macs, a pair of Gap jeans and a television set.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Jul 28, 2002

Getting their message across

Hip-hop commentators talk a lot about roots: about old school roots and neighborhood roots and ultimately roots in Africa. Though hip-hop has flourished in Japan, much of it is distinctly rootless, imitating the goofy antics of The Beastie Boys or the street-savvy poses of gangsta rappers.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 7, 2002

You don't know us, but . . .

The new live album from psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi recalls a bygone era. One can almost imagine them sharing a double bill with the Baez sisters in a smoky Greenwich Village coffee house: he hunched over his guitar, she dwarfed by her bass, her dark hair and white complexion looking naturally mod. In an era when irony rules, their music is poetic without pretense, arty without artifice. It is also, outside of indie music circles, almost unknown.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Jun 23, 2002

Ancient didgeridoo adopted by the digital generation

In 1992, Aphex Twin released "Didgeridoo." It was a strange name for an electronica-driven track designed, according to its creator, to be too frenetic for dancing.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jun 19, 2002

Asa-Chang and Junray

If melodic instruments are conduits of Venusian emotion, then percussion is their direct Martian counterpart. While a sax can wail and cry its way through a performance, an equally impassioned drum solo is usually described in terms of brute force: ferocious, cataclysmic, tumultuous.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

May 26, 2002

Phew: There and back again

Hiromi Moritani looks like a typical, well-heeled matron. Her chic black ensemble is a touch artier than the average mother's wardrobe, but sitting in her record label's office, her conversation dwells on the perils and pitfalls of being a mom. Hearing her fret over her young son and the evening's dinner menu, it is difficult to reconcile the suburban mother with the wailing siren of the punk rock band Most.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Apr 28, 2002

A familiar story but with a sincerely new spin

Sometimes hard times can turn out to be the best of luck. There is nothing like a little parental abuse -- or substance abuse -- to burnish an artist's street credibility. Everyone from Eminem to Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor to, more locally, DJ Krush has a rough past.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 17, 2002

Czukay ages well, but who's counting?

The first time Can bassist Holger Czukay came to Japan in 1982, his passport received extra scrutiny. This wasn't so unusual for slightly shaggy looking, middle-aged hippies. Czukay, however, wasn't an undesirable element.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 17, 2002

Musical works in progress

In the world of contemporary rock and dance music, everything old ultimately becomes new again. The plucky three-chord anthems of Green Day are fresh for youngsters exploring safety pins and green hair as fashion statements for the first time, but for many over the age of 30, they are all too familiar.

CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON

Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

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