Dustin Wong is open to opinion on his latest album with Takako Minekawa
Musician Dustin Wong returned to Japan five years ago and, despite having grown up here, he encountered a few cultural differences after coming back. Sipping on a strawberry milkshake at a cafe near Shibuya Station, the composer and guitarist speaks carefully, but candidly, about those ...
Rock, J-pop and dance: Albums we liked in 2014
The year-end album charts in Japan have a tendency to prop up the same acts year after year: Exile, anything that ends in a "48," and almost every group from the Johnny & Associates stable of boy bands. Writers at The Japan Times, however, ...
Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa let their imaginations run wild on new album
Guitarist Dustin Wong is upfront about not having the cleanest apartment. "There are so many plastic water bottles in the kitchen, equipment sprawled all over the place. Pieces of aluminum foil on the floor." This was where he and singer Takako Minekawa recorded their ...
Dustin Wong's loops reach an 'Ecstatic' finale
Using just his six-string and a set of effect pedals, Tokyo-based guitarist Dustin Wong creates blissful symphonies of chirps and cascading arpeggios, shot through with searing leads and throbbing bass pulses. At times they recall the exuberant psychedelia of Animal Collective or the heady ...
A year of tough choices at Fuji
Wandering around on the opening day of this year's Fuji Rock, I got the impression that numbers were down on previous years. Of course, anyone who has ever been stuck in the event's seemingly never-ending lines for the portable toilets — or who's been ...
Guitarist Dustin Wong brings singer Takako Minekawa out on a 'Toropical' journey
Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It's a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in ...
