tokyo drifter : volume two

April 15, 2008

The original Tokyo Drifter was a mixtape for some friends in London, putting together some of the records I had bought while out in Japan.  (Follow the link above, you can still check it out.)

It was never really meant to be anything special, as I thought the Japanese voices would get in the way for some listeners.  But I was glad to get the feedback that, as hoped, a good tune is a good tune, whatever language the words are in…

So having just come back from Tokyo again, I thought I’d put together another version.  Part two if you like…

But as with the first mix, this is not just Japanese music, this is any record I bought while in Japan.  And as the last week’s posts have highlighted, there is a lot of stuff out there I’ve never seen in the UK.   So be prepared for a little samba, or gospel boogie - it’s not all camp Japanese disco…though there is a fair bit of that as well…

It was a tough selection process and some of the more housier tracks had to stay on the bench.  UA, too, a surprise hit from the first mix, is on the sidelnes.  I bought two of her albums, a couple of singles and a live recording, but none of it really fit with the flow.  I might blog it later.

I didn’t mess around with pitch control or try and beat match, this is not a conventional mix, this is just a selection of music.  Actually a lot less varied than the first one.  No jazz in this one, I don’t think.  I was pretty much fixated on getting music from ‘74-’76 or ‘79-’83…I’m geek like that.  So be prepared for variances in tempo, genre or language, get some nice headphones on, turn it up and sit back with an open mind…

Some of the highlights came from this shop:

It’s not even a record shop.  More a chain of second hand stores that sell everything from Nintendo games to saxophones.  There are four dotted about the area where I was staying and I did the full tour in one day.  They have a small section of records that people sell in with their hi-fis.  And then they have another section called Junk Corner.  It was pretty heavy on the Duran-Duran / Culture Club tip.  But I did find some Japanese bits in there for next to nothing…

if you’re ever in suburban Japan and happen to see one of these stores…take a look…

The great thing about it was that I could afford to experiment.  Something I couldn’t do with the heavily priced Tokyo (or London) shops.  So some of my favourite new music was less than the price of a good bowl of noodles, and will last me much longer…

The other problem I faced with small Tokyo indie shops is the opening hours…often 2pm-10pm, which is great if you stroll up at 3, not so good if you’re there at 11 in the morning.

I met one guy who opened at 5pm…I had been to his shop at lunch time and found it closed.  I happened to pass it, by accident, later and asked about the strange opening hours.  He DJs at night and most of his sales are by internet so he never really put much thought into the opening hours…

The record store in the picture above was somewhere I had heard about and spent a couple of hours looking for - in the rain.  I found it eventually in a block of apartments.  This was stuck in the window, the only proof that I had found the right place.  But it was closed on Wednesdays…and guess what day I was there??

Enough chat, I know you’re all here for the music.  So like I said, sit back, give yourself time, the whole thing is nearly 1 hour 30 minutes.  A couple of ‘Brubekk’ edits in there, but not many, quite a few with future edit potential though.  Open your ears and your mind will follow…

 (as ever, right click and save to download)

Jez Proctor - Tokyo Drifter [Volume Two]

Filed under: das mix |