Weekly: Tokyo Follow-Up

escalator records
I have to admit that arriving back in Takamatsu was a bit of a let-down last night. While I was able to eat a delicious Japanese-style dinner again, I was a little turned-off by the fact that Takamatsu is definitely nothing like Tokyo. I had started to forget that, having not been there for about a half year.
I won't get into the details of my day-to-day activities, since they're probably not too interesting to anyone else. So I'll just stick to the musical-side of my trip. It was friggin' awesome.
Well, I picked up the new Buffalo Daughter LP, Euphorica. I mentioned this record earlier, but I'm mentioning it again because I would like to share full-length mp3s with all of you! I definitely enjoy this CD a lot ... everything I said about it before still applies ...
When I went to Shimokitazawa -- mostly to check out Jet Set Records, but also just to explore the incredibly dense and uber-cool little neighborhood -- I came across a store selling a series of CDs in The Sound of Shimokitazawa series. The one that I ended up buying was a Hi-Posi single, which features the song Chacha & Chibi. For some reason I thought the band broke up ... whatever -- it's a cool song, and I'm glad to have found it.
At Jet Set Records, I bought the soundtrack for a new Japanese movie, Summer Timemachine Blues. I usually don't pick up soundtracks, but this one was interesting as it was created by Halfby! It's pretty good, although it definitely sounds like a soundtrack, so it's got it's fair share of short, filler type songs ... but everything has a theme of some sort to it. I forgot the CD at my other house, so I'll just have to provide a sample of the CD from the Jet Set Records homepage ...
On Friday I went back to the Organ Bar to check out Konishi Yasuharu's set. I got to chat with him for a while again, but the coolest thing about the evening was meeting Akiko, a jazz-focused singer who's recent albums have been produced by Konishi. She wasn't singing that night, so I just talked to her for quite some time ... very cool.
And then on Saturday night I went to Web, a club at which the Escalator Records guys curate many, many DJ parties. I went to the cafe/shop on Wednesday and Friday, met Chabe (Cubismo Graffico), Masashi Naka (president and Losfeld), Miniflex (Yukari Fresh's husband), and one of the guys from Harvard. I felt obliged to go to this DJ party. But it was a good call ... great set those guys selected ... very eclectic, and totally unexpected on my part.
So -- here's the music ...
Buffalo Daughter - Elephante Marinos
Buffalo Daughter - Mutating
Hi-Posi - Chacha & Chibi
Summer Timemachine Blues sample (.ram)
Yucca's MySpace page

Yucca, by the way, is like, this weird trancey, indie-rocky, light pop sort of group from Tokyo. I really dig this stuff. Really interesting rhythm, eerie keyboards, and spooky, though only occasional vocals.