I'm going to get self-indulgent on it and post some photos I took in Japan, listening to exactly the right album at the right time. I was digging this new Richard Youngs record for quite some time before getting to Japan but for it to reach it's full strength it took a listen on the chilly, windy Autumn side streets of a business suburb in Tokyo. It was called Aoyama, late afternoon, near Harajuku. It's always nice (and weird) to stumble upon a large cemetary in the middle of the city (which is what was to my back when I took the photo). The album is actually called
Autumn Response so it's entirely unsurprising that these red leafed streets were so well suited to Youngs' strange ghostly vocals and guitars.
Richard Youngs - Low Bay Of The Sky
Elsewhere in Japan, I took the obvious
Lost In Translation path of shoegazing on the Shinkansen and subway. There was also a not-so-amazing karaoke performance of Roxy Music's 'More Than This' for good measure . Burial's new record was amazing at the top of Osaka Sky Tower (so Bladerunner!) but I've a few more photo + mp3s to put up later in the week. Also, a lot of music to catch up on, it seems. This year hasn't slowed down for amazing releases! It's hard to get through them, though, when it's impossible to stop putting the new Burial record on.
4 comments:
how good is listening to music on overseas trains! for me germany was homelife's "flying wonders", japan was cornelius "sensuous"... now i just need to put either of these albums on and be instantly transported back. music = memory = teleportation. WOAH
welcome back
woah japan... nice one!
the new burial album... i was really disappointed at first cause it sort of focuses on everything i don't like so much about the first one and is way lighter on the atmosphere. and yet, it's growing on me every time i listen to it... it's still ear-candy sounddesign wise. you can't really beat 'pirates' from the s/t record though!
nice to see 'sensuous' get a mention above me as well... great record. something very japanesely sterile, but organic at the same time about that one. he just gets more streamlined each album.
hah. its funny how much 'senuous' sounds like a lot of japan looks...not the busy parts but the organised, clean areas. but yes, strangely organic.
i think the best part of the trip was headphones + shinkansen + autumn countryside. mmmm
right, it's that strange japanese dichotomy i guess. a lot of it is very technological and urban now, but there's still that nature-based shinto/buddhist past floating about.
and i wholeheartedly agree about headphones + scenery. sometimes picking the 'right' sort of scenery helps as well. i wasn't so much into the first burial album either when it first came out, but once listening to it walking home at midnight through an industrial district (well for chch - it's no east london obviously!) it just 'clicked' with me. it's sort of like picking the right frame for a painting or something i guess.
will check back for more photos!
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