Blue Mineday (WN0042)

At D1 Radio on The Thursday Night Show, I like to go for an eclectic blend of tunes in the playlist. The means oldies, new songs, mash-ups, remixes, tracks from all sorts of different countries...and a few choice covers thrown for good measure. This one might not get a look in on the show (until I figure out how to blend the audio from a YouTube video into the audio stream), but is a gem all the same - the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir with a version of New Order's 'Blue Monday' (watch original video on YouTube), specially-commissioned for this weekend's Festival Number 6 in Portmeirion. New Order are one of the headliners, thus the cover.

More eclectica on The Thursday Night Show this week between 8-9, UK time.

Introducing The Thursday Night Show...

 

I've been rebuilding my DJ chops a little over the past couple of months with a slot on a new Internet radio venture called The Thursday Night Show. It's been great fun to sit and home and have my own radio studio whilst broadcasting over the 'Net. We've gone legit too being now fully licensed (better hang up my pirate flag then)!

The show runs from 7-12 UK time and there's plenty of great tunes going on to keep many different tastes accounted for. I'll be playing an eclectic set of old, new, stuff from around the world and in the commons, plus a few mash-ups, remixes or covers, and am on between 8-9 (D1 Radio). There's drum and bass plus old school house to follow from D2 Radio, HarviB and Digit3, and an equally eclectic set before mine from the newest DJ in the lineup - Ol' Father Shine.

Not only is there a broad selection of tunes, but we have resident photographers featured every week on the art canvas VJ'ed by Whispers and a live chatroom where listeners can chat with the DJs and other artists - all available through the website. There's also a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (though the latter's a little slow to get off the ground at the moment).

Some of the sets do end up online after the event (as with the below) for catchup purposes, but why not drop by when it's all live and say hi? Come and hang out online with The Thursday Night Show while this thing's still a small seed...

D1 Radio > Live on TheThursdayNightShow.com > 23-08-12 by D1 Radio on Mixcloud

Punk in China and Africa

On a visit to China back in 2004, as Beijing was demolishing its past in preparation for the then-pending Olympics, I was invited out one night to a punk gig. Ever open to things I've never done before, I jumped at the chance.

The gig was held in a small, sweaty club near the foreboding walls of the Forbidden City, not far from Tiananmen Square. Musically, it could have been the Kings Road, London, 1976 (not that I was actually there, mind you). What was more interesting, however, was the lyrical content. My host leant in and informed me that the vocalist was singing about the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Raised on my Westernised perceptions of China as I was, this came as a bit of a surprise to me. Whether this was a genuine act of punk-style rebellion or evidence of a loosening up of constraints on artistic expression I'll probably never know. Nevertheless, I was intrigued to note that this form of musical expression, with its rebellious shtick and politicised undertones, had spread this far. 

I knew that the likes of The Beatles had spread in influence way beyond just the West (banned in the Soviet Union, I believe), that Wham! had been the first Western band to play China in 1985, and that these days, all sorts of musical borders no longer stand tall as they once would have done. Still, Chinese punk rock, played in China, by Chinese musicians - this was a bit of a new one on me. Broadband certainly wasn't ubiquitous in 2004 (particularly in China) and although I'd started noticing more Chinese travelling abroad, I didn't think that the country had opened up to so many outside influences that much.

Wrong, obviously.

I was reminded of this moment when I recently came across the new film 'Punk in Africa'. In a very readable review, Okayafrica.com describes the film thus:

Punk in Africa examines the punk scene in Southern Africa from the 70s onward, an era in which apartheid was being challenged in South Africa with violent repercussions, civil war burned across Mozambique and Robert Mugabe began his massacres in Zimbabwe. At this time, a combination of musical catholicity, the urge to break out of the stifling patterns of the past, and an influx of (white) U.K. citizens lit the slow fuse that transformed Southern African music. It wasn’t an explosion, it was an uninhibited musical miscegenation, in which punk and native musical traditions met – and screwed in the bathroom at the youth club.

I've been very interested in African music for years and started getting into African psychedelia a few years ago. That young Nigerians would hear Jimi Hendrix and James Brown and be inspired to pick up electric guitars could only have led to some seriously cool tunes. That young Zimbaweans would do the same ten years later based on three chords and pogoing...well, music is music and a strong idea will spread to all sorts of unexpected places once it is out of the box. It can take on more intriguing turns though when fused with other local sounds, rhythms and musical customs.

Where the young punks of Southern Africa would have stood out from their British peers is probably the greater sense of urgency in their expressions. British and American punks might have been putting two fingers up to the old guard, but the Mozambicans were rocking out in the middle of a civil war.

Check out the official trailer below:

Once you've done that, here's 75 minutes of African punk, garage rock and ska tunes to keep you busy.

From the film's SoundCloud page:

This mix includes exclusive mashups and re-edits, and goes from Punk to heavily Africanized Rebel Rock to Post-Punk, Dance-Punk, Political Dub, Punk Step, 60s Afro-Garage Techno, Bass Music and beyond, features remixes of Congotronics and a couple of tunes not from the motherland, but surely in keeping with the Afro-Punk spirit.

If that wasn't enough for you, here's a mix of some of the roots of Southern African punk, with a little more vintage underground rock and township funk (also from SoundCloud):

Enjoy!

'Winter In America' - a tribute

I first became aware of Gil Scott-Heron around the early to mid-nineties, while I was at university, although it was a while till I actually got where he was coming from. He was often listed on posters around town as playing at something like that year's Jazz Bop or some festival or other. Regrettably, I never did see him live. 

His recorded music, however, became something very special indeed. A combination of deeply soulful and funky tunes, with a killer voice and a unique ability to tell the truth in song - in ways that few others ever came close to matching. His final album came out last year (listen to it in full here) and although he was clearly sounding more frayed than in his earlier years, it was glorious to hear him producing something new and equally up to standard as the rest of his work. Turned out to be his swansong.

I now never will get the chance to see him live, but when I heard that he had died, I immediately wanted to pay some form of tribute to the man. The above video is the result. The audio track is taken from an audience recording of an NYC show from '88, shoved out into the public domain and left on archive.org. The images are largely a combination of Creative Commons images sourced from Flickr and scraps of cutting-room-floor footage from the BBC's 'Digital Revolution' doc, plus a few other bits to pad it out.

The video is probably a little scrappy, both in audio quality and in the state of the editing (both feel free to diss it in the comments), but I hope that it can make for a slight contribution to the range of other content on YouTube that serves to give those that never listened to the man a chance to do so. I also hope that for those that know him or his work well, they'll feel that this humble clip is a worthy tribute, however slight.

RIP Gil.

Remix Libya

  Libya Bloody Libya by dimitristuer

Being an aficionado of the protest song, I was recently wondering whether there had been any tracks produced about the current conflict in Libya, particularly from remix culture. 

I turned to SoundCloud - rapidly becoming my audio search engine of choice - and discovered two such tracks. The one above is by Dimitri Stuer from Belgium and the one below is from the British Dave McKeown (not his first musical comment on conflict, it seems).

  I wouldn't kiss that Camel for all the Oil in LIbya by Dave McKeown 

Have a listen and let me know your thoughts on the two tracks.

Free music for Japan ('The Sun Will Rise')

Many people around the world were quick to react to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami and reach out to those affected, through donations of cash, goods or time. The immediacy of the needs combined with the platform of the internet also led to some innovative approaches to fundraising.

One such example is the crowd-sourced book '2:46 - Aftershocks' (previously written about here). Another project, which has received far less publicity than the book, is the new album release 'The Sun Will Rise'. I've got a track on it too, so have another reason to want to spread the word. Started by ambient musician Kevin Stephens from Portland Oregon a few days after the first quake, the 'double disc' collection was released online on April 17th. With contributions, musical and otherwise, flooding in via tweets, blog posts and Facebook status updates, the entire project went from idea to realisation in a little over a month. The compilation has its roots in the netlabel scene. Netlabels are online record labels that distribute music entirely over the internet via digital audio formats and typically give away the music for free under 'free to share' licences. With no physical product to contend with, the running costs of such a label are considerably lower than those of a traditional record label (if not non-existent). The element of curation that comes with a label means that there is also a level of quality control over the music. Although many netlabels deal mostly with electronic music, there are other genres of music also released in this way, as the tracks in the player on this page should show.

Despite this music generally being made available for free, 'The Sun Will Rise' is intended as a charity project with 100% of proceeds raised going directly to the Japanese Red Cross. This is why downloads are completely free and donations are requested via a separate page at globalgiving.org. The album itself is available from profiles at both Bandcamp and the Internet Archive. I must admit that the first 'disc', an entirely ambient collection, isn't completely to my tastes. The tracks are glacially slow, somewhat meditative, and almost uniformly rather dark sounding. This is perhaps inevitable for music inspired by the worst natural disaster ever to hit the benefiting country and perhaps likely for a collection that has emerged from the ambient community, but it doesn't seem a natural candidate for taking the project to a wider audience. I'm a fan of ambient music myself in some cases, but I do prefer a slight sense of narrative to what I listen to. However, it will undoubtedly have an audience with the right set of ears. The second collection is the more accessible one. It opens with Kristopher Fisher's 'Tsunami', an building orchestral swell with a sense of large pending waves. The punky 'Another way of living' leads on to the gorgeously spacious 'Essex' by Mark Preston.

'Going My Way' is a fairly jaunty acoustic romp, followed by 'My Heart Bleeps Noisy Beeps', a high school electro jaunt that in parts conjures up early 80's New Wave. Liam Stewart's 'German Army Coat' is up next, a thoughtful guitar-based piece reminiscent of an upbeat Joy Division after a bit of a lie down. The next piece is the one that I was involved with. Now I am back in Brighton, I have started working again with an old band mate from The Zamora. The first fruits of this project (dubbed NASA Technical Station) is titled 'Stenographic Records' and was essentially put together in a night - specifically for this album. I sequenced the beats and other samples, Steve played guitar over the top plus added a bass line, then I topped it off with a vocal (a reading of a speech given by someone from Japan's 1960's space programme). We were a little surprised yet rather thrilled to have been selected to appear on the album - an encouraging sign for such a new project. If you like the track, you can comment on it over at SoundCloud. Aeroshell's 'Lighthugger' comes after us, delivering up more ambience, but beaty enough to be a distant relative to the likes of Air. The pace drops a little with Dao Audio, then gets dramatically Wagnerian with the orchestral swells of 'Heaven's Gate'. The slightly paranoid beeps and swirls of IR's 'electric dragonfly' (great title) precede the thoughtful and spacious textural synthscapes of 'Light Splash Dream', which is the followed by 'Million Eyes Of Dew', the most 'Asian' sounding track on the collection. The album concludes with Cascadian's 'The Corinthian Sea', a track of pending darkness. The player at the top of this post contains all the tracks on the second collection. This post also contains a badge to donate directly to the fund (go on - they're aiming to raise $1,000) and a mini player for the first collection. Click through onto the album profile pages, download 'em all or track by track and please drop some cash in the collection box on your way out. Spread the word too, while you're at it. Thanks.

Black Water

Artistic communities around the world have been moved into action to help those in Japan affected by the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami on March 11th. This touching song with its well-put together video was written and recorded by fatblueman, at the request of ourmaninabiko (the founder of Quakebook - another fundraising effort).

I've also co-written/recorded a piece which has been selected for inclusion on the double compilation CD 'The Sun Will Rise'. The CD is released on Friday, so more to follow soon.

All monies raised from Quakebook sales go directly to the Japanese Red Cross.

Japan + psychedelic folk

It's been a while since I popped anything up here and as usual, the backlog is building up. With that in mind, I thought I'd add a little late night music for you all. The above album is mellow and dreamy, contains some beautiful playing, and like much of what I put up here, is another window into Japan that is somewhat off the well beaten track of cherry blossom and skyscrapers.

'My Turntable Is Slow' is Hiiragi Fukuda's second album and it was released on cassette by a Belgian label called Sloow Tapes, who described the songs as 'like dancing shadows reflected in opium clouded jade'. The vocals are understated and delivered in an echo-laden, monotone, spoken-word style, wit a little French thrown into the mix for good measure. The sound of the crows that are ubiquitous in Tokyo's suburbs and back streets are woven in amongst hypnotic grooves, while elsewhere marimbas blend with baby chatter.

Frantic in parts, languorously catatonic in others yet all undercut with the pickings of a very gifted guitarist, the album is available as to download above or from the Free Music Archive. Served up to complement the album is a video of another one of his songs, which was shot in Kichijoji (one of my favourite parts of Western Tokyo).

Listen while lying down.

Hiiragi Fukuda / Oya wa Touhoku, Oto Kumori.

Hiiragi Fukuda | Myspace Music Videos

Shelf Life shot, at Rubber Soul

Some great pictures were taken at the Shelf Life show earlier this month by Björn Neumann, a regular at Rubber Soul as well as a very talented photographer.

Either click on the above slideshow or here to view the full set. Video footage to come later on this year.

A summer mix to treat your ears (WN0031)

Ambassadeurs - HIPHOPsoulAFROBEATdubstepD&BreggaeBREAKSmix by Ambassadeurs

I stumbled across SoundCloud ages ago and stored it away as 'one of those things to get back to'. It seemed like a great way for sharing music, with an attractive interface and a winning combination of hosting space, embeddable code for players in webpages, and easy sharing of tracks. This made it a real step up from the obligatory MySpace page that all musicians on the Web must have (I've got two profiles there, and spend very little time on them these days) - a service that was already suffering from bloat well before Murdoch got his mitts on it.

Being one of those things stored away, I didn't quite get round to investigating SoundCloud any further until a couple of days ago an email from a Brighton artist dropped into my inbox inviting me to check out some of his tracks. Not an invitation I tend to take up that much these days, but I was glad to follow the trail this time around.

Without wanting to bang on about code and tech too much in this post, I invite visitors to check out the fine mix posted above. It's a full-flavoured blend of Afrobeat, hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, soul, dub and much more, and although the lad posting as Ambassadeurs has got a knack for putting great sounds together, he also seems to have a real talent for his own stuff too.

Check it out and drop him a comment if you like what you hear. Seems I've got myself yet another profile to set up and start socialising my tunes more!

Africa + music + open source

Sorting out my bookmarks, an activity which has taken me close to nine months to complete having had too many other things to do, had thrown up a few treats on the web that I'd previously stumbled across, saved and forgotten about. The sort will eventually manifest itself in a revamped Delicious profile, so that I can easily find the stuff I use on the web wherever I am and without having to be logged in to anything.

One such hidden gem that I'm delighted to have rediscovered is the Free Music Archive (FMA). The service describes itself as 'an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads' and it certainly is that. There is a dearth of sites that offer free music downloads and they are of varying quality (both the sites and the music that they offer), but the FMA seems to be a cut above the rest. It has a good clean layout, is very easy to use and navigate, and has very straightforward features like one-click downloading and code available for embedding players (of tracks or whole albums) in web pages. So far, the quality of music on the site seems pretty good too. All the tracks are made available through Creative Commons licenses, which makes download and discovery dead easy.

Browsing through the site, I came across the collection of songs available in the player above. Essentially a series of remixes of a Youssou N'Dour track - 'Wake Up - It's Africa Calling' - and released to mark the 30th anniversary of the charity Intrahealth, the tracks together comprise a pretty divine set of tunes. N'Dour's refrains, both in English and French, echo through the mixes and after a while become one of those earworms that you can't get out of your head. There are also several guest appearances, including the likes of Nas and Neneh Cherry, who keeps up her partnership with the Senegalese superstar as a kind of post-hip-hop Ella and Louis. The music has gentle Afro rhythms, mellow electronica and more soulful stronger undertones too.

Looks like the FMA is going to be one to revisit. I'll post up some of the tastier morsels I come across here too. In the meantime, enjoy the following formula: Africa + music + open source.

Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'With Or Without You'

Getting back on track with the trawl through the archives for publishable content, I finally managed to get this one up over the weekend - Shelf Life's cover of 'With Or Without You'. The clip comes from 2005, and it's quite hard to believe that that's now five years ago. As it was shot with a small camera from the audience, the quality of the video is a little shaky.

We often used to end a show with this track. It was always a fun one to end on as the audience got into the ballad at the beginning, then it really sped up towards the end. Despite not being a major fan of U2 by any shot, I did always like this particular song and it was great fun to play.

I'm also pleased to say that when I return to Tokyo at the end of the summer, Shelf Life will once again be playing together at Rubber Soul (Sunday September 5th). Tokyoites - if you're in town that night, come on down. You heard it here first folks!

Oh, and I hope that regular readers like the new design for this blog. Still much more to do on it, but the look seems much more in keeping with the Web of now than the one of four years ago, when this blog began.

'Spring Love 2010': free festival in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo (April 3-4)

Building on last year's gathering, next weekend sees the 2010 'Spring Love' event ('Harukaze', in Japanese) in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.

Last year saw around 40,000 people gathered together for music, dance, talks and discussions about peace, plus healthy food stalls and a market of eco- and organic goods, at this event co-organised by PNWJ. This year sees the festival's return, with more performances, film screenings and talk sessions centred around peace. The event is free and happens surrounded by the beautiful backdrop of this season's cherry blossoms in bloom.

For the full programme, see below (note - many of the talks are likely to be in Japanese):


Date/Time: Sat. April 3rd (1 - 8 PM) / Sun. 
April 4th (12 - 7:30 PM)


Venue: Yoyogi Park Outdoor Stage


Admission: Free

Event will feature:


• Performances from numerous musicians and dancers representing a variety of artistic genres

• Peace-related talk sessions, films, and exhibitions

• Events on two separate stages (Spring Stage and Love Stage)

• Booths with literature from peace-related NPOs/NGOs

• Spring Love Market with sales of various eco-friendly goods 

• Spring Love Kitchen featuring stalls with organic/ethnic foods

• Live painting

• Kids’ activities

Peace program (please note that changes may occur):

Saturday, April 3rd

14:30 - 15:25: Military bases and the role of the media



Panelists: Kobayashi Atsushi (documentary filmmaker), 
Shiva Rei (freelance journalist)


Navigator: Inada Hideaki (Solar Inc.)


16:35 - 16:50: Hints for carving out natural, sustainable 
lifestyles in today's unnatural, unsustainable modern 
societies



Speaker: Ikue Masudo, formerly known as Takagi Saya 
(TV/film actor, free diver, owner of Furyu organic cafe/gallery)


Navigator: Fukui Hiroshi (Peace Not War Japan music director, 
DJ)


16:50 - 17:50: Why should Japan's Constitutional Article 9 (the 
peace clause) be protected?



Panelists: Matsumari Masumi (Peace Boat), Shiva Rei 
(freelance journalist), Kamebuchi Yuka (gospel singer)


20:30 〜: Documentary film screenings

• 'We don’t need bases anywhere!'
• 'ANPO' promotional clip
• 
'Message from Yanbaru: A Documentary of Takae, Higashi 
Village in Okinawa'
• 'Alternative Lifestyles: Learning from the 
European Squatting Movement'
• 'Kukuru' (featuring a live 
performance from singer UA in Takae village, Okinawa)

Sunday, April 4th

14:00 - 14:45: Listen to citizens' voices: No more wasteful, 
destructive construction!

Hear from activists working to stop 
the following projects in environmentally rich areas: a tunnel 
through Mt. Takao; a nuclear power plant in Kaminoseki; and a 
U.S. military base in Takae Village, Okinawa.

Panelists: Sakata Masako (Kenju no kai), Higa 'Marty' Masato 
(documentary filmmaker), Yamato Taka (organic loquat farmer), 
Yamada Sei (peace/environmental activist and author)


15:30 - 16:25: Building sustainable, non-militarized economies:
 examples of organic, small-scale, community-based alternatives 
to a military-dependent economy

Panelists: Kikuchi Yumi (Harmonics Life Center director, Tokyo 
Peace Film Festival producer, Japan United for a Ministry of 
Peace committee member), Tanaka Yu (Mirai Bank Director, 
Japan International Volunteer Center board member, ap bank 
member), Kosaka Masaru (organic restaurant/bar owner, writer, rice/soybean farmer)


17:10 - 17:25: Kikuchi Yumi, a well-known peace/environmental 
activist, writer, translator, and international speaker, shares the
 latest information on 9/11-related issues, the Tokyo Peace Film 
Festival, and more.

Navigator: Kimberly Hughes, Peace Not War
 Japan co-coordinator.


Musical performers:

Ikue Asazaki (traditional Amami Shimauta folk songs) 


Sayoko meets YA MAN RIDDIM (funky reggae + djembe)



Blues the Butcher-590213 + Leyona (rock/soul/reggae/blues)

Rakita (acoustic groove)


Yuppi & Tane (elementary school aged singer/songwriter!)




Rabirabi (percussion/voice duo)


Ailie (roots reggae)




nam



GOCOO ＋ GoRo
 11-piece wadaiko (Japanese drum) ensemble



Kamebuchi Yuka and Voices of Japan (VOJA) (gospel)


Mika Arisaka (jazz)




SandiiBunbun with Earth Conscious and Hula All Stars (Hawaiian)


The Tchiky's (Acoustic/Afrobeat/Dub)

Fukugawa Baron Club (Indonesian gamelan)



YOSHIE (belly dancing) 




Uranagel (folk)



Jintaramuta (fusion unit blending Japanese travelling street 
protest music together with elements of modern jazz)


Abdallah




Mon Kumagai (shamisen)

And more!



Additional Information:

• Please note that there may be changes in the list of 
performers and guests.



• Please refrain from smoking within the venue area, 
as well as from taking photographs of the performers.



• A portion of the sales of food and goods, as well as 
all donations placed in our donation boxes, will be given 
to several grassroots organizations in order to support 
their ongoing work for nonviolent peace action.

• Spring Love has a 'gomi-zero' ('no garbage') policy. 
Please leave the venue as clean as you found it by separating 
your trash at one of the provided garbage stations. Garbage 
cleanup is an extremely expensive undertaking, and if this 
policy is not respected, we may not be able to offer this free 
festival in the future. Show some spring love by following the 'gomi-zero' rule!

• Volunteers needed before and during the event!! (setup,
 translation/interpretation, cleanup, various administrative tasks,
 etc.) If you are able to help, please contact us at kim[a]pnwj.org

Supporting organizations: A SEED JAPAN, Solar, Peace Not 
War Japan, TEAM

Official event website (Japanese only)

Zebra finches and a Les Paul (WN0029)

Came across this gem of an artistic idea today via The Guardian - an art installation with zebra finches alighting on the fretboard of a pugged-in, switched-on Les Paul. Delicately natural grunge. The installation was assembled by French sonic artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. It's currently being shown at London's Barbican.

As the gallery says:

As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a random and captivating soundscape.

I'm unlikely to be able to make it along there myself, but the above video gives a delightful flavour of the experience. And yes, The Guardian has already used the 'rock chick' gag...

Listen to the new Gil Scott-Heron album 'I'm New Here'

This is kind of blogging on the fly, but I stumbled across this gem earlier on today and although I've not heard it yet, was so excited to hear that there's a new Gil Scott-Heron album coming out and finding that it was possible to embed a preview of the album in blogs that I thought I'd throw this one up before I left the house today. Not sure how long the widget will stay active, but while it's here, it's got to be a good chance to hear what's likely to be an amazing piece of work.

I'll listen to it later, but if anyone catches this before me and likes it, do feel free to drop a comment and let me know what's good. Any particular favourite tracks? (came via The Guardian).

Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'All The Young Dudes'

I'm not really able to get my teeth into any major creative projects for much of this year, as I've got my head down while I focus on my studies (as best I can anyway). However, I still can't resist doing the odd thing every now and then, plus I've still got a backlog of ideas for doing and making stuff that has been clogging up my brain for several years. One such activity is digging through the archives every now and then, and throwing out the odd piece of content that hasn't yet seen the light of day.

Although unfortunately much of the Shelf Life live footage from our gigs at Rubber Soul is of fairly limited video quality, I still feel that the above clip manages to capture a little of what we were about. Our version of the old Mott The Hoople song (written by Bowie in 1972) was used to close a show from 2005. We had a guest guitarist join the line-up at the time, and only played the song that one time.

Hope you enjoy it - there's more from the Shelf Life archives on the way throughout the year.

Robot plays guitar (WN0022)

Been a little too busy to post much of late, but it's always worth throwing an arbitrary something up from time to time - just to keep the blog ticking over.

I came across this rather fine video on YouTube recently of a robot playing guitar. Not an android unfortunately, but a rather fine piece of music all the same. Guitarbot comes courtesy of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, who also have a pretty dandy array of other musical machines on display at their website.

Last day of being 37, with a birthday coming up tomorrow. Edging ever closer to 40, and still alive!

'Spring Love': free festival in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park (April 4-5)

In 2004, I founded Peace Not War Japan (PNWJ) in Tokyo, a non-profit organisation that focused on using the arts to raise awareness about peace and conflict issues around the world and to raise funding for grassroots Japanese peace groups. The first CD release, titled 'Peace Not War Japan' was a collection of pro-peace/anti-war songs by contemporary Japanese artists - a very rare thing in Japan's music scene.

Before I left Tokyo, early last year, I set up a Steering Committee to keep the work of the group going. Although I was no longer involved on a day-to-day basis, I was thrilled to see that they carried on the work I'd begun. Since I left, they have hosted a workshop and performance at a major international conference in support of the threatened Article 9 clause of Japan's constitution and held a week of live music at a venue in the west of Tokyo.

The seed that was planted has now become a small forest. Next weekend (April 4-5), having joined forces with the organisers of Japan's annual Earth Day festival, PNWJ will be hosting a large free festival in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park. Full event details are given below.

If any Tokyo readers of this blog are in town next weekend and would like to go to a fully fun-packed event with music, dance, talks, exhibitions, peace group booths, a market, organic kitchen and much more, please head down to the park and show some spring love. And if you do happen to make it, please drop a comment on this page and let me know how it went - I'll be on the other side of the planet instead!

*********************************

Spring Love: The hottest urban party of the season!!

The folks who bring you the yearly Earth Day festival are pleased to announce Spring Love (Harukaze), a two-day extravaganza of musical and dance performances to be held in Yoyogi Park on April 4th and 5th. Organized in conjunction with Peace Not War Japan, the event will also feature a series of talk sessions on peace and nonviolent social action, as well as booths with NPO/NGO literature, sales of eco- and organic goods, healthy food stalls, and much more.

Come out and enjoy the cherry blossoms while feeding your mind and soul with some Spring Love!!

Date/Time: Saturday, April 4th (1-8 PM) and Sunday, April 5th (12-7:30 PM)

Venue: Yoyogi Park Outdoor Stage

Admission: Free!!

Event will feature:

• Performances from numerous musicians and dancers representing a variety of artistic genres
• Peace-related talk sessions, photography, and exhibitions
• Events on two separate stages (Spring Stage and Love Stage)
• Booths with literature from peace-related NPOs/NGOs
• Spring Love Market with sales of various eco-friendly goods on offer
• Spring Love Kitchen featuring stalls with organic and ethnic foods
• Live painting
• Kids’ activities
  

Performers:

OKI DUB AINU BAND * Keyco & Kokyo * poodles * maccafat * Sayoko Meets Planet Sounds * Tateiwa Junzo * Blues the Butcher (Takashi 'Hotoke' Nagai, Numazawa Takashi, Nakajo Takashi, KOTEZ) * Ca-zoku * Hana & Phenomenon * Ailie * Percussion du MATAI * ANICHE * Rankin Taxi & Tokyo Revolutionaries * Kamebuchi Yuka & VOJA * Likkle Mai & The K * Ichiryusai Harumi * Salsa Gum Tape * Inushiki (aka Dogggystyle) * YOSHIE * ARTMAN * DJ Gerry Ong & DJ Chiaki * HIYOSHI * DJ YOGURT * Kudo 'Big H' Haruyasu * Seino Eiichi * MASA * REE.K * SINN & MORE!

Peace-Themed Talk Session Participants:

〜Come explore perspectives you won’t get from the mainstream media!〜

Kamanaka Hitomi（director) * Toyoda Naomi (photojournalist) * Ishida Masataka (photojournalist) * Kubota Hironobu (photojournalist) * Hatakeyama Sumiko （staff of NGO Peace Boat) * Aizawa Yasuyuki（NPO Peace On) * Kikuchi Yumi (writer, translator, founder/organizer of Harmonics Life Center, Tokyo Peace Film Festival, and Japan United for Ministry of Peace) * hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) from Hiroshima and Nagasaki * Shigenobu May (journalist) * DJ Gerry (psychedelic trance DJ, founder of Dance for Peace) & MORE!

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For more information including links to featured artists' home pages, the official event webpage is here in English and here in Japanese.

UK live promoter wanted

My band are coming over here in August for our first ever live dates outside of Japan. I've put a video ad together to try and get us a promoter in order to organise some shows (don't quite have enough spare time on my hands to do it myself).

We are planning to play shows in and near London (such as in Brighton) on August 20th, 21st and 22nd. Support slots, festival dates, all gigs considered. It's only a couple of months away now, so I'm hoping to find someone soon.

If you or someone you know are up for doing some live dates this summer with an energetic Anglo-Japanese rock 'n' roll band with a well-honed live act, drop us a comment on the video, get in touch through our MySpace page or send us an email to shelflifemusic(a)gmail.com.

Promo CDs available on request.

Thanks!