Tag - records

 
 

RECORDS

Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 21, 2013
Globe made of ostrich eggs may be oldest to show New World
An Austrian collector has found what may be the oldest globe, dated 1504, to depict the New World, engraved with immaculate detail on two conjoined halves of ostrich eggs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2013
Smany "komoriuta"
Netlabel culture in Japan — referring to Web-only music labels that distribute tunes online, usually for free — has been around long enough to develop its own set of minor celebrities and "star" imprints. Bunkai-Kei has become one of the most popular of these Internet institutions, and its latest release from the artist Smany finds the group acting more like a traditional label than ever before. In advance of her debut album, "komoriuta" (which translates as "songs for bats"), Bunkai-Kei released its first-ever video trailer. It also nabbed some respected names in the netlabel community to provide remixes of Smany's songs. The result is one of the netlabel's strongest offerings yet, and one of 2013's finest only-a-click-away collections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2013
Silence is a virtue for Tokyo's Flau
Back when he still worked as a speech therapist and audiologist, Yasuhiko Fukuzono used to observe an interesting phenomenon. When deaf patients were fitted out with hearing aids for the first time, they complained that everything was just noise. "Even when they were at home, not doing anything, it was still noisy," he says. "You know what it was? It was the sound of the fridge. We don't even notice it, right? When you don't recognize a sound, you hear it as noise, but once you know what it is you're okay: your noise threshold changes."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2013
C86 sound jangles on in the Japanese indie scene
If pop culture is primarily about escapism, one of the enduring mysteries of the music world must surely be how the sounds of cold, wet afternoons in mid-1980s Manchester came to capture the imaginations of artists around the world. From the sunny shores of California to the icy hillsides of Finland, there remain to this day little pockets of musicians where it is forever 1986.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 22, 2013
Tower Records defiant in face of CD slump
Declining sales of CDs over the past decade may indicate a grim future for music shops, but Ikuo Minewaki believes there is still a place for brick and mortar retail outlets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 13, 2013
Kanazawa artists play with genres
It's 11 p.m. and Kanazawa venue Puddle is packed. The space is a two-room, wood-furnished cafe/bar in the city's Katamachi neighborhood. There's a mediocre jam band playing later that night, but the DJ set by Yasuhiro Tsukamoto is what catches my attention. With little regard to what's on the charts, he delves into spiritual jazz, house, ambient field recordings and African polyrhythms. He smiles, takes off his shoes and sways around the decks — the joy he radiates is as contagious and honest as the music he's playing.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2013
World's oldest living person turns 116
The Kyoto Prefecture man recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person turns 116, receiving congratulations from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and others.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013
Playwright imprint focuses on newer jazz acts
At a time when stories about declining music sales are frequent and major labels aren't investing in new talent, hearing about an indie label like Playwright is music to the ears.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2013
Store's 222-meter pearl necklace a record, unpriced
A 222-meter-long pearl necklace, certified by Guinness World Records as the world's longest, is on display at a Hanshin department store in the city of Osaka.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2013
Osaka resident world's oldest woman
A 114-year-old resident of the city of Osaka is expected to be recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest woman, according to people close to her.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2013
Concierge-style customer service experts work shop floors
As competition to attract customers grows fierce among retailers, some have begun hiring a new breed of customer-service experts — consumer “concierges.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013
Shortcake Collage Tape "Spirited Summer"
Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too cynically — as the Internet-born microgenre "vaporwave" does by perverting old commercials and corporate sounds — and it starts to sound like a joke. Tokyo's Shortcake Collage Tape, the solo project of Azusa Suga (who also fronts indie-pop trio For Tracy Hyde,) takes an alternate route on the new album "Spirited Summer." Suga splices samples from various time periods to create original songs that radiate warmth and good times but also conceal a melancholy for lost moments.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WEEK 3
Sep 21, 2008
Rail feat rained off
When the driver of a bullet train momentarily applies the brakes, passengers greet the reduction in speed with a slight, G-force-induced nod of the head, and not much else.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 14, 2007
Illustrating Japan's top cover star
For more than 30 years, Masamichi Oikawa has drawn the cover art for Pia magazine, reports staff writer Edan Corkill

Longform

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