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April 30, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 25, 2001
Where the twains meet and swing
By Suzannah Tartan
Certain musical phrases, combinations of notes, chord changes and rhythms appear consistently in the folk music of Hungary, Turkey and China.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 21, 2001
Electraglide 2001
By Simon Bartz
Electraglide attracts big names, and that's why it has quickly become Japan's most eagerly anticipated annual dance event. Last year's inaugural event boasted Underworld and Orbital. This time around, Fatboy Slim headlines the DJ stage and Aphex Twin the live stage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 21, 2001
Dagmar Krause
By Suzannah Tartan
Dagmar Krause has the thin, consumptive look of a cabaret singer, as if she is about to expire at any moment from want of a man, money or the simple pleasures of a hot meal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 21, 2001
Tori Amos: 'Strange Little Girls'
By Philip Brasor
Tori Amos, whose most famous song, "Me and a Gun," is an a cappella description of her own real-life rape at gunpoint, wanted to do an album of rock songs originally written and performed by men, so she asked male acquaintances for the names of songs that made an impression on them. Cover albums are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 21, 2001
The David Murray Quartet
By Michael Pronko
David Murray has led a topsy-turvy career. Rather than starting out in acceptable, marketable music and evolving toward free jazz, he broke out in the 1970s playing the genre's wildest styles of avant-garde, then floated back toward a more palatable approach.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Nov 18, 2001
The rich legacy of the biwa
By Christopher Y. Blasdel
The pear-shaped biwa lute has enchanted listeners in Japan for centuries. Played with a large wooden plectrum, the instrument has four or five strings of twisted silk stretched over four or more deep frets positioned on the neck. Along with the rich, percussive sounds of the wood striking these silk...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 14, 2001
Mercury Rev: 'All Is Dream'
By Simon Bartz
On Sept. 11, Mercury Rev released the presciently titled album "All Is Dream." It was perfect timing because, although Mercury Rev will never be fashionable, the terrorist attacks on the U.S. must have upped the sales of their albums significantly. Who in America wanted to listen to the abrasive Limp...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Nov 14, 2001
Like Sheena, only happier
By Steve McClure
Like many people, when I first heard Hitomi Yaida's music, I immediately thought: Aha, Ringo Sheena Lite. With her high-pitched, keening voice and energetic, guitar-based pop-rock style, Yaida certainly has a lot in common with Sheena, that twisted pixie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 14, 2001
Dismemberment Plan: 'Change'
By Philip Brasor
Travis Morrison sings as if words are pouring into his mouth faster than he can spit them out. On the first three albums from his band Dismemberment Plan, the lyrics shifted between self-deprecating irony and plain old self-deprecation. What Morrison was saying was honest and unsentimental, but there...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 14, 2001
Jim O'Rourke: 'Insignificance'
By Jason Jenkins
Jim O'Rourke has been around the block. A seminal postclassical composer, he can boast more than just the occasional side project. Indeed, if you add together the number of his solo albums and his collaborations and guest recordings with other bands, his output goes into the triple digits. He has placed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2001
Where do we go from here?
By Philip Brasor
Almost 20 minutes into my interview with Aidan and David, two members of the Montreal-based band Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Aidan said that he didn't think my questions were very good and that the interview was a waste of time. He expressed himself not angrily but with genuine frustration at my transparently...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 14, 2001
Tom Pierson: 'Left, Right'
By Michael Pronko
Tom Pierson has played and recorded elegant piano jazz in Tokyo for the last 10 years. His most recent CD, "Left, Right," is a collection of originals, plus a handful of covers, that occupy a deeply lyrical and highly expressive territory.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
China seizes disputed reef near key Philippine military outpost
China Coast Guard officers unfurl a national flag on Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in disputed waters of the South China Sea this month in this screen shot taken from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
U.S. secretary of the navy weighs ‘dual-use’ shipbuilding with Japan
John Phelan at a Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. secretary of the navy in Washington in February

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
By Alex K.T. Martin

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