Tag: edm

From the Archives: Memories of Fuji Rock 2018

My first time to Fuji Rock at Naeba Ski Resort in 2018 was quite the experience.

Though Japan has an abundant amount of quality music events, Fuji Rock is widely accepted as the best outdoor music festival. Not only does it have rock music, but it also has techno, electronic, and retro music that plays homage to the past. Fuji Rock is held every August at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture. In 2018 I attended the festival for the first time and was blown away by how organized it was. Not only that, but people respected the rules and kept the outdoor area clean. Unlike festivals in America and the party islands of Thailand, there was no trash or wrappers left on the ground. Not to mention the forest and all of the stages were decorated so beautifully!

In this article I will be recounting my experience of Fuji Rock so that others can take my advice on how to prepare. Fuji Rock will be held on Aug 20 – 22nd this year but unfortunately I will be unable to attend. I look back to my experience with fond memories, however, and may decide to go in the future!

Getting to Fuji Rock & Accommodations

From Tokyo Station you can take the Josetsu shinkansen directly to Echigo Yuzawa Station and then take a 500 yen shuttle ride to Fuji Rock or a taxi. The trip is less than two hours and the shinkansen ticket costs 7,000 yen one way which is quite cheaper than traveling to other cities in Japan.

Since the festival lasts for 3 days, you have the choice of buying individual tickets for the day you want to go or a 3 day ticket. Since this was my first time going, I only went for one day and stayed at a net cafe near Niigata Station. The majority of my Japanese friends went for multiple days and chose to camp at the festival though. A one day ticket costs around 19,000 which may seem expensive, but it is worth it for the lineup and overall experience. The ticket to camp at the festival is 3,000 yen for the whole duration of the fest which will save you a lot of money on hotels. There are some accommodations near the ski resort but they are extremely expensive and sell out fast.

If you are unsure of what you want to do, I would recommend buying a one day ticket in advance and seeing how you feel. Though the early bird tickets always sell out on the Fuji Rock website, there is a chance you can still buy one during the time of the festival.

Pregaming at Echigo Yuzawa Station

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Echigo Yuzawa Station is famous for its Ponshukan, which is a facility with walls of mini sake vending machines you can sample and actually get pretty buzzed on. The way it works is you are given 5 tokens for 500 yen and can go around and try 5 flavors of sake. I did this twice so I could get a little tipsy and save money on drinks at the festival. There are almost 100 brands that are all produced in Niigata so sampling them will bring you closer to being a true sake connoisseur. People called this “sake heaven” and I can see exactly why because you can taste everything from sweet to strong. However, if sake is not your thing you can buy other alcohol from surrounding souvenir shops or stop at a convenience store too.

I honestly packed pretty light with my purse, a backpack with a change of clothes, and a water bottle. Obviously if you are camping you will have a heavier load but this festival is convenient enough so you can pick up anything you forgot at the station. After I felt prepared enough I waited for the free shuttle to make its rounds. Since I arrived around 2pm because the artist I wanted to see the most was closing the festival, it was very easy to get a seat.

Experiencing the Fuji Rock

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Once you get off the bus the entrance to Fuji Rock is pretty much straight ahead. There are seven main stages and tons of small performance areas scattered throughout the woods. Since I was here mainly to see Skrillex and Maximum the Hormone who were playing at the end of the festival, I had a lot of time to kill so I wandered around to every stage that I could find. The woods were absolutely beautiful and although the festival was huge I never felt over-crowded. I passed by Avicii’s fan-made memorial site and paid my respects. I also made some friends at the bar while looking for Dragondola, which is the longest gondola ride in the world that you can use to reach certain stages but I ended up having too much fun with them and stayed by the main stages. If I go back to Fuji Rock again in the future, I’ll be sure to ride it and take pictures! But for the most part, Fuji Rock is extremely laid back and it’s really easy to make friends and enjoy yourself.

In 2018 Skrillex closed the Green Stage which holds up to nearly 50,000 people. I still remember how hilarious his performance was because he opened it with a meme. The music brought back a ton of memories to back when I was in college and first started listening to EDM. I have never seen him in America, but the Japan crowd was extremely lit and respectful at the same time. I sadly missed the chance to see him perform at WOMB in 2017 but I am so happy I had the chance to see him here at Fuji Rock in 2018. It really meant a lot to me.

Here is an old video I took from my IG:

After this amazing performance ended, it started pouring rain so I decided to take a taxi back to the station but damn was this amazing! I really wished that I could have stayed for another day, but I had plans to go to Sadoshima the next day so in the end this was the best itinerary for me.

Best Food

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I would say Fuji Rock has the best food vendors out of all fests in Japan due to the sheer variety of stalls and also because the fried tofu topped with avocado I tried was out of this world. I’ve never been able to find it at any other music event I’ve been too and really miss it. There’s also a ton of fried food, sandwiches, and ice cream you can try as well. Cocktails were only around 700 yen making them about the same as price what you’d pay at clubs. Although you are not allowed to bring in your own food or cooking equipment, everything here is fairly priced and there are vegetarian and organic options too.

The weirdest ice cream I’ve ever tried in Japan was salty shrimp ice cream at a souvenir shop outside of the festival called Uonuma. The saltiness balanced out the sweetness and I was impressed with how delicious it was. If you’re looking to kill time on your way back to Tokyo then this is a great place to stop!

Final Impressions

Like every music event I’ve been to in Japan, Fuji Rock left me with a great impression. I loved the openness of the forest, friendliness of the people, and diversity of the music. Not to mention how good the food was. Depending on what future artists they bring out in the future, I think I will consider going again, especially since the shinkansen ticket is so cheap. Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic are definitely my favorite music fests that are unique to Japan and I can’t wait to experience more!

The Future Legacy of Super Dance Tools: Carpainter at Planet Cafe, Hamamatsu

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Carpainter plays a 90 minute set at EFEKT’s 7th Anniversary at Planet Cafe, Shizuoka.

During my backpacking trip to the Capybara Zoo of Japan, I spent an entire night dancing at Carpainter’s Future Legacy Tour held at Planet Cafe in Hamamatsu.  I had previously attended the album’s original release party at Contact Tokyo in December, but I wanted to travel here so I could experience the music scene in Shizuoka in addition to seeing him perform at a rare venue.  This particular event was not only a release party, but it was also combined with EFEKT’s 7th Anniversary.  In this article I will be reporting my experience at Planet Cafe and also talking about Carpainter’s latest releases: Future Legacy and Super Dance Tools Vol. 1.

Planet Cafe & EFEKT

Planet Cafe is one of the most famous music venues of Shizuoka located in the populous city of Hamamatsu.  Unlike its name implies, it has the atmosphere of an underground club instead of a cafe.  It’s divided into two rooms with one bar and one DJ booth, making it easy to listen to music and socialize with people.  I found it to be much more laidback than the typical clubs in the Tokyo scene.  The entrance fee was only 2500 yen and well worth the price for the quality of music.  The party lasted from 9pm – 5am so it was quite a long time—almost the duration of a music festival!  There was never a dull moment in the club because the music selection of all the artists was carefully chosen.

EFEKT is an “all style bass sound music” party routinely held by a group of Shizuoka-based DJs at Planet Cafe.  In addition to bass music, you can except to hear a lot of nonstop dance tracks with techno and disco influences here.  At this party in particular, I heard a lot of fire UK Garage tracks which really made me happy.  In addition to Carpainter, they have featured artists such as Licaxxx, submerse, and Chimpo at their previous events at Planet Cafe making the lineup more diverse each time.

Resident DJs: MASKAT, SADA, SUGURU, SINYA (see the EFEKT Twitter for more information).

You can hear a sample mix by MASKAT here:

Address

Planet Cafe
223-1 Motoshirocho, Naka Ward, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 430-0946

Future Legacy Release Party in Hamamatsu

Future Legacy

Future Legacy is Carpainter’s 3rd official album defined as “The Japanese Techno Revival”.  Its 14 tracks are reminiscent to old school techno and breakbeat music with a bit of house music effects as well.  A recent DOMMUNE article mentions that Carpainter used rich and melodious synthetic sounds in the album’s production influenced by Detroit techno similar to his Orient EP.  Future Legacy also features the usage of female vocals for the first time in the track O.V.E.R. ft. Utae.  The album fuses old techno sounds with Carpainter’s own unique style making it one of the best nonstop dance releases I’ve heard in quite a long time.  I’ve enjoyed keeping up with the album’s production and would rate it quite high in terms of originality.

The album’s first track Re Genesis starts with a slow and simple build that immediately draws you in.  He used this track to open his set at Planet Cafe and it instantly got the crowd excited.  My personal favorites from this album are “Tiger & Dragon”, “Chaos or Order”, and “Declare Victory”.  A big theme of this album is the balance between looping sounds and inserting cuts and breaks to keep the dance spirit alive.  Each song has a unique way of doing this so it’s something you’ll want to keep on repeat for a while! The album ends with the previously mentioned uplifting dance track O.V.E.R. that was originally premiered at Trekkie Trax’s 7th Anniversary.  It truly is a treasure of Japan and is available worldwide:

Planet Cafe

I arrived to Planet Cafe around 11pm which gave me the perfect amount of time to drink and socialize before seeing the special guest performers.  The club attendees were a mostly a mix of Shizuoka locals and people who had traveled from Tokyo to see the event (like myself).  Though I was the only foreigner, I found it very easy to talk to people here.  The number of people that attended this was similar to the Carpainter event at Outer Kochi last year, so overall it was a good crowd and there was lots of room to dance.

Carpainter played a 90 minute set that consisted of a wide range of music including records with songs he grew up hearing in the Netherlands with his brother Seimei.  In addition to tracks from Future Legacy, he also played his previous bangers like PAM!!! and mixed it into an old style of techno music.  It was really fun to watch the crowd’s reaction because no one knew what song was coming next.  My personal favorite was this creative slip-in of “Mr. Roboto” towards the end:

In addition to Carpainter, isagen, a Shizuoka-based DJ and producer was also featured as a special guest in the lineup.  I have previously written about isagen in my LARGE SIZE article last year, but he has really grown as a skilled DJ since my last article.  In his set at Planet Cafe he played songs from his cgab release on Trekkie Trax as well as tracks I didn’t recognize (which I assume will be part of a future release).

Recently isagen has been featured on THREE THE HARDWARE, which is a unique video project started by tofubeats that demonstrates the production of DTM (desktop music) made with second hand equipment.  A recent video called THIS IS UK STUDIO explores some of the sound effects that isagen and other featured artists have made through experimentation.  This project is inspirational because it shows that you can make virtually any sound on your hardware with the right technique:

My clubbing experience in Hamamatsu was unforgettable and I hope to come back here in the future to listen to new types of music!

Super Dance Tools Vol. 1

Super Dance Tools (Vol. 1) is the latest release by Carpainter which contains 17 tracks over 5 minutes designed to be used as “tools” for DJs.  The loops with the combination of acid techno and hard techno sounds make it an addictive dance album by itself, but it sounds even better when the songs are skillfully transitioned into other songs during sets.  The album has gained international praise by artists such as Anna Lunoe, and the songs have been featured on London radio shows such as NTS.

You can listen to a preview of the album below:

A great example of Super Dance Tools being utilized is in this video of Addison Groove’s Getterfunk Takeover set where “B-Reverse” is played:

My top picks on this album are “Supernova” and “Drifting” because they have a nice build that makes me want to loop them on repeat for hours, but “1994” comes as an unexpected surprise because it ends the album on a mellow note.  I hope to see more artists use these tools to create unique sounds, and anticipate the possibility of more volumes in the future.

Final Remarks

Carpainter will always be one of my favorite artists in Japan because he has introduced me to so many styles of music through his DJ sets.  Despite being from Michigan, I had no idea what Detroit Techno sounded like until I heard him describe it in his interviews as a major influence of songs he produced for Orient and Declare Victory.  The people that I’ve met through his events continually inspire me to listen to new music and travel around Japan to experience it in different places.  I am excited to see what direction his music takes him in the future and hope that someday he fulfills his dream of debuting in the UK.  If that happens, I will definitely be looking more into the UK music scene as well!

For more information, please see:

LARGE SIZE at Kyoto Metro

Last weekend, I traveled all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto to attend a thrilling electronic music event called LARGE SIZE at the underground music club Kyoto Metro.  LARGE SIZE not only featured Japanese indie artists from the Kansai region (Kyoto and Osaka), but also Trekkie Trax Crew from Tokyo, and isagen (the event organizer) from Shizuoka, Japan, along with a selection of other talented music producers from around the area.

Located in the basement Jingu-Marutamachi Station of Kyoto City, this was a highly-anticipated event that united many music fans from all over Japan because it showcased talent from some of the most well-known independent record labels and underground artists that are currently trackmaking and producing music.  In this article, I aim to introduce the artists I saw and write recommendations of their music in English.

The original timetable for this event was listed below (note that “Carpainter” is actually the correct spelling of the artist listed at 17:30).  The event lasted for approximately 5 hours, and tickets were originally sold at 2800 yen (purchasable online, and for extra money at the door):

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Arriving at close to the start of the event, I was luckily able to see the majority of isagen’s 50 minute set.  isagen produces his own desktop music, DJs at events, and also is the trackmaker for his band unit called POLPTOM.  In 2018, isagen released an EP on Trekkie Trax called c.b.a.g, which you can listen to on his Soundcloud below:

Though this EP is tagged as dance and EDM, you can tell from the very beginning that it is not the typical kind of dance music you expect!  isagen’s music really has a unique vibe sounding both progressive and abstract at the same time.  As the event organizer, he did an amazing job of making the crowd excited and earning the respect of other artists, even though he was the opener!  I was surprised to see the club was already crowded at opening time, and the majority of people there had their full attention directed at his performance.  Though I have seen isagen perform in Tokyo before, I could tell that he put a lot of work into ensuring that this was one of his best performances yet!

The next artist was one of my personal favorites, in the blue shirt from Kyoto City.  Having previously announced the release of his new album in April via Twitter, everyone was surprised to see him open with his own banger remix of “If I ain’t got you” by Alicia Keys and then mix his newly produced music into it:

in the blue shirt will always be one of my top artists because he puts so much of himself into his music, and each time her performs he plays exclusive and unreleased songs that you can only hear during his performances.  His music will make you feel nostalgic, energized, moved, and inspired at the same time.  Using a complex range of samples and chords, below is one of my favorite mixes he has uploaded to his Soundcloud:

Another reason I love in the blue shirt is because he designs a lot of his own merchandise. His sticker is an adorable digital drawn mascot that resembles Parappa the Rapper, and his clothes feature a blue shirt logo he created himself with Adobe Illustrator:

Since his performances are relatively rare, I always pick up his merchandise whenever I get the chance!  Not only is it fashionable, but it is also comfortable and a truly magnificent display of aesthetic art.  I was extremely grateful to see this set before the official promotion of his new album!

Next up was Pasocon Music Club (パソコン音楽クラブ) who played an absolutely amazing acid techno set.  They are a duo that write a lot of desktop music resembling nostalgic game music, but recently they have been trying out a variety of styles.  People around me went really hard during their set and I enjoyed seeing them for the 2nd time!  Previously I saw them at an event called STRUCT in Osaka, and it was amazing because people remembered me (as one of the few foreigners) that attended!  Here is one of my favorite releases Pasocon Music Club has had on Maltine Records:

Though I was already mindblown from the high quality of music I had already witnessed, this was still just the very beginning of the fantastic sets I was about to hear.  Carpainter‘s live set featuring songs from his recently released Declare Victory EP (which was officially on-sale the day before LARGE SIZE), was absolutely earth-shattering!  I will write a separate review for Declare Victory at a later time, but for now here is the featured track which I recorded below:

Though this EP was just recently released, Carpainter has had this music produced for a while now.  During Trekkie Trax’s 6th Anniversary on the weekend of Halloween, he played a set that was entirely breakbeat, techno, and old school rave-styled with a bunch of tracks that he would later release February of 2019.  What’s even more amazing is that Virtual Self dropped Carpainter’s “Sylenth Warrior” along with Otira’s remix of “Mission Accepted” at their set in the US just less than a week before they came out:

Watching this all unfold at an underground club outside of Tokyo was an amazing experience!  I enjoyed the change of scenery and also meeting new friends that shared similar tastes and feelings about these artists.  I connect to Japanese people best by listening to music and sharing these exciting experiences with them!

After Carpainter, batsu, an artist from Osaka, began his set with Carpainter’s “EXCITE” and immediately set the crowd into a unanimous cheer:

Batsu is a producer that is really good at mixing and engaging the audience.  I have seen him perform various times in both Tokyo and Kansai, and his mixes are always upbeat and easy to dance to while paying homage to various artists.  Just recently he posted his own WIP of “Face my Fears” from Kingdom Hearts, and also did a mix for Trekkie Trax Radio featuring a ton of artists from this event.  He was overall an essential artist in making this event a huge success!

After Batsu’s energized set, everyone’s favorite crew, Trekkie Trax, made their appearance onstage (consisting of andrew, Carpainter, Seimei, and futatsuki):

In this set, Trekkie Trax played a lot of music from their own artists including Carpainter Qrion, Cola Splash, and also premiered part of their label’s upcoming release of “Trip” by Native Rapper.  My personal favorite part of their set was when andrew mixed a KiNK song into “Quick Turn” by Qrion.  By this time, everyone was jumping up and down and cheering, because this was the first time that Trekkie Trax has ever played at Kyoto Metro, and it was an extremely memorable set!

The last artist that performed was metome, an original music producer from Osaka.  This was my very first time listening to them so it is difficult for me to write a proper review, but similar to isagen, they seem to produce a lot of abstract music with unique sampling that bends your mind.  It was neat because the event ended with a similar vibe to how it started.  This is my favorite song from their Soundcloud:

Overall, I really enjoyed this event because it was very organized, all of the artists played with their maximum effort, and it was easy to talk to people and make friends.  I love to go to events outside of Tokyo as much as I can so I can be exposed to different types of music and learn more about the world around me.  I will definitely come back to Metro and travel to other underground clubs in Japan in the near future.  Please stay tuned for more music news and adventures!