Daniel Robson - The Japan Times

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Daniel Robson

Daniel Robson, a British journalist based in Tokyo since 2006, is a features editor and writer at The Japan Times. He also writes freelance about music, videogames and Japanese pop culture for other publications around the world.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 18, 2008

Pop Levi goes slightly wrong

"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...

CULTURE / Music

Jun 27, 2008

Teenage pop stars know how to operate

"It's kind of embarrassing," says Taylor Henderson, violinist with teen sensations Operator Please, as she recalls the Australian release of the Queensland band's breakthrough single, "Just a Song About Ping Pong."

CULTURE / Music

Jun 20, 2008

Ketchup Mania "F.L.A.G"

Ketchup Mania's hardest album to date takes the punk-pop template handed down from Green Day or Blink 182, fusing it with the darker, metal-brushed sound of U.K. band The Wildhearts and poppy female vocals that recall 1990s J-pop giants Judy & Mary. The result is a multicultural paean to rock 'n'...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 19, 2008

Perfume at Rock in Japan

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 tunes as...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 23, 2008

Is this America's most dangerous band?

Nashville punk four-piece Be Your Own Pet are dangerous. That's the official line of their own label in the United States, Universal, where faceless suits chopped three songs from the band's new album, "Get Awkward," for being "too violent." Yes, the same label that releases albums by chain saw-wielding...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 9, 2008

The Breeders: 'What took you so long?'

Despite being the indie buff's band of choice for the best part of two decades, you wouldn't call The Breeders prolific. "Mountain Battles," released this month, will be only the band's fourth album since it formed in Dayton, Ohio, in 1988, and its first since 2002's "Title TK." With a history dogged...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 17, 2008

The 50 Kaitenz put their own spin on the classic 'Kitaro' theme tune

While "GeGeGe no Kitaro" has held immeasurable influence over the animation industry, its theme tune is a treasure unto itself. With lyrics written by "Kitaro" creator Shigeru Mizuki, it might have been recorded by various anime soundtrackers, but it's always retained its original melody, chalking up...

CULTURE / Music

Apr 4, 2008

Utada Hikaru "Heart Station"

Here's a question: If more than 8 million people have already bought Utada Hikaru's "Flavor of Life" as a physical or download single, do they really need it on an album too?

Japan Times

Events / Events Outside Tokyo

Mar 28, 2008

Kings of eccentric theater spoof late-'70s 'Gorenja'

Saru Kingu (Monkey King), a theater group comprising members of Japanese comedy group Super Eccentric Theater along with various special guests, offers up its latest production this week in Tokyo.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 27, 2008

Music's greatest theme park

In mid-March, as spring began uncoiling anew, the world's music industry once again turned its eyes to Austin, Texas, the self-styled "live-music capital of the world," for the annual South by Southwest industry conference and festival. Planes disgorged thousands of band members, record-label bigwigs,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 27, 2008

Maki Rinka at SXSW: My music goes well with alcohol

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, at The Rio on March 12, she took the stage dressed...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 27, 2008

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

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 Japanese. Ketchup Mania — Hiro (vocals),...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 27, 2008

Detroit 7: Playing at SXSW is killer!

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 husk, thrashing her left-handed guitar...

CULTURE / Music

Mar 21, 2008

Whatever you think about the quality of solo output by artsy pop diva Yuki, one-time vocalist with groundbreaking 1990s J-pop act Judy & Mary, you can't deny that she's unique. The singles from her fourth solo album, "Wave" (2006), and those that have followed may seem a bit samey, treading the...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 29, 2008

YMCK takes 'chiptune' revolution major

'The music in video games is less memorable now than it was in the old days," says Midori Kurihara, vocalist with YMCK, and she should know: Her Tokyo three-piece band emulates the sound of classic scores to games on the 8-bit Nintendo Famicom console (known in the West as the Nintendo Entertainment...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 8, 2008

Adding some spice to this month's Wild Wacky Party event, held to mark the 18th anniversary of Japanese punk ladies Lolita No. 18, South Korea's Shorty Cat are bound to cause a few cold sweats.

Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink / HOME COMFORTS

Jan 25, 2008

Catering to the English taste bud abroad

The best thing about being English is that no matter where you go in the world, the food is always better than the rubbish you put up with at home; and conversely, as one of the finest cuisines in the world, Japanese food sure gives no cause for complaint.

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Dec 19, 2007

Five crackers for your seasonal techno-stocking

With Christmas just around the corner, most Japan Times readers will doubtless have their shopping lists all but completed, with bountiful stockings prepared for all their kith and kin.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 30, 2007

Kiyoshiro Imawano

OK, so the lineup's almost identical every year, the festivities kick off at lunchtime and are (mostly) all over in time for dinner and it's held in a hall that's more akin to an aircraft hanger than a music venue. But Countdown Japan is the only way for die-hard fans of Japanese music to ring in the...

CULTURE / Music

Nov 23, 2007

Kylie Minogue — "X"
Britney Spears — "Blackout"

As 2007 dribbles to a close, we are treated to long-awaited comeback albums by two renowned lady stars.

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

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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