OTOTABI with Ogaway :

Through the magic of record hunting and looking for music on vinyl that other people enjoy I found Yoshies channel OTOTABI with Ogaway DJ Ogaway the channel has these great videos of Tokyo set to music from new interesting artists and also Yoshie reviews new and old music with such enthusiam.

Yoshie, posted a photo on instagram of a really great japanese dub record by Dry and Heavy – Full Contact, this isnt a very well known record and so I reached out to her to talk about the album as think its a modern classic in dub, we started talking about record hunting and I told her the story about how where I found it in Teuchtler Schallplattenhandlung which is located at Windmühlgasse 10, 1060 Vienna. This is the shop in the beautiful movie Before Sunrise, its an essential destination for any music lover, Vienna is a bit like Paris lots of moody moochers mooching about but full of wonderful people and places to see, I lived there for nearly a decade and put on events club nights there and Teuchtler was where I found some great music.

The band Dry and Heavy should be better known, They created their own Japanese dubfest, Echomaniacs. This has featured Adrian Sherwood, Andrew Weatherall, Dennis Bovell and 3 Head, and Dry & Heavy have played in concert with Lee Perry, Horace Andy, Jah Shaka and Mad Professor. The world of japanese dub is a rich and beautiful kingdom and Dry and Heavy made really heavy dusty beautiful dub up there with Mad Professor and King Tubby level echo and depth BAMMMM !

But I digress, Yoshie and I started to message each other about music, record shops we love including Teuchtler Schallplattenhandlung where I bought Dry and Heavy. The shop has been there for over 70 years and has every type of music imaginable and the staff are incredible and also keen supporters of the music scene of Vienna from experimental noise artists to afro groups and classical music of course.

we talked particulary about Boards of Canada and Aphex twin and other music which has that rare quality and comforting melancholy feel, after about a year I finally got round to sending her Haram Tapes first album. She very kindly and expertly interviewed Pete and I about our music and made a brilliant interview which is edited and translated into japanese. It is a real honour to have someone take that time and interest in our music. What I love about her channel is the indepth personal reviews of the music like this one of Autechre 「SIGN」

I wanted to know more about her background as a music fan and “digger” as her channel on youtube is full of great albums and new artists like Metropolitan Project whos Late night demos will be featured in a new mix with other ambient / electronic music artists Cruel Diagonals Ivy Barkakati and Sumatran Black

please watch our interview it was a lot of fun making it and it must have have taken ages to edit down as we talked a lot !!

I asked Yoshie a few questions over email as to her background and the artists she loves and record shopping ,shes so supportive of new underground artists (links below) and I really hope you will subscribe to her channel !

Hi Yoshie ! Please can you write a little background about yourself

>>> I live in Tokyo and I’m from Kyoto, the ancient capital.I work in video production as freelancer, TV director, making videos for companies, for events…I used to work for a music show and I did many interview with artists ; but this was very commercial music which earnt good money ( used for buying Vinyl !!) Or I make documentary videos for TV, so I like to interview people and get to know them. About music I’ve never made music and I’m just doing a little DJing . There were times when I didn’t listen to music at all ! Anyway I’m just a musc fan! I was in France in 2001 for 2 years, so I can imagine Europe a little bit.

Well I hope you get a chance to come back to Europe and would be great to dj together thats one of my favourite things to do is to do a dj set b2b with other djs and play records for like 4- 8 hours, in fact its probably the thing i miss most because of corona so many music fans cant do this and sharing vinyl / djing , the mix is not as important, its the choice and selection !

do you have any dj mixes online we can share  ?  
>>> I don’t have any mixes. Sorry. There are some people whove asked me about my mixies, so one day I will try to make one . I’m not good DJ I just select my favorite music.

I think thats the key thing for DJs selecting their favorite music , thats a DJ someone with passion, with a lot of business techno / instagramer djs these days everything is about image and thats so ugh yuck ! Plus the music a lot of the big DJS and even some underground djs seems to have just become lo grade tech house / buisness techno, anyway i dont want to bang on about this but your channel / attitude and enthusiams is so needed today !

What are your favourite clubs to go to in Tokyo ?
and how often do you go record hunting ?>>> Womb, Contact, VisionWomb was a cool club. I liked it before. Many famous techno djs came there from overseas, like Derrick May, Jeff Mils, Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Joris Voorn… but now it’s becoming more EDM than techno –

Oh no ! EDM is the worst I’m sorry to hear that !
What has been your most amazing find in a record shop ? >>> LFO’s vinyls, EP “Tied Up” and Album “Advanced” 

I rarely see LFO records Or Kraftwerk’s EP “Tour de France”, red label (I think it’s rare)I’m not a proper collector so I’m not sure which is rare or not. Just I wanted LFO’s vinyl, and when I found it, I was so excited! 

Are there any shops you want to give a special mention to ? >>> I don’t have any in Tokyo. but I wanna introduce record shops in Kyoto on my channel. I don’t know very much about them yet but one day! Because I’m from Kyoto.  I was Born and raised in Kyoto, its a beautiful city.

Brilliant, I think its great youre making these videos especially sharing the records you find,your enthusiam is something wonderful !
Any artists you want to mention here ? 
>>> Haram Tapes,( thanks! ) Metropolitan Project, Timo Carlier, ATN soul & NoamleAll of them are the artists who cooperated with the interview on my channel. I like them very much! As a well-known artists I like, Four Tet, Carl Craig, Moritz Von Oswold, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Orb, Isolee… and many warp’s artists like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Two lone Swordsmen, Clark, Plaid, Flying Lotus, GAIKA… Japanese artists; Ken Ishii, Takkyu Ishino, DJ Krush, Boom Boom Satellites, U.F.O.
You love Warp artists a lot I noticed, I really like that you have an affection to this classic label , are there any other record labels you want to mention that have the same ethos of outstanding quality ? For me 4Ad is a label similar to Warp in that every release will be something special >>> I don’t know 4AD. I’ll check it out! I like Skam records, Ninja Tune, R&S…Off course Warp Records! Only famous labels, actually.

Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions Yoshie!

Sumatran Black – This Loving presence

Of course i’m going to write about Peter as I know him, to know him is to love him,

let me count the ways

The soft pads, the subtle beats, the use of samples from tv and Film ( his Rohmer influenced side project Camomile Dawn is a lofi 120 house techno melancholic project that demands you process now and add to your mixes )

This new Sumatran Black Album was written in the hours of darkness and in the wee small hours with abnormal sleep patterns, and at these hours the best work is often made, and what work it is

Deep sensations and images flood the mind. Nighthawks who work with zoom all day and barely see anyone. These are the strange days and emotions are fraught and we are RAW. Permit me to dream but I think we will see a huge return to clubs and live music and a third summer of Love. (this has been talked about a lot in the excellent faith fanzine, which as you know is the continuation of the BOYS OWN fanzine a HOUSE magazine Hopefully an end to business techno TM and with a real grassroots movement of collective conscientious party promoters with a sense of History regarding club culture and redressing that the origins are black, gay, inclusive and respectful of cultures. Peter is well aware of the origins of club culture as a fanatic and lover of all types of music he’s part of the second wave of acid house babies that were raised in the 80s and 90s we were both lucky to come from inclusive backgrounds and were lucky to experience mass gatherings and concerts, I’m going off on a tangent here but this album is about dislocation and drifting away from the self. I worry for the youth of today who are missing out on essential identity building and memory making experiences. I feel as though sometimes the only thing that keeps me going now is nostalgia and I feel that there will be a generation who feel lost. Amongst manifold loss

Loss of self and loss of Life, as Louis Theroux recently put it in his excellent podcast with FKA twigs we are in a mental Health crisis Peter is dealing with emotions like we all are in Lockdown, in some ways we are both lucky in that we are both not burdened by children but at the same time we feel apart from society in that we are not convential breeders, if you will,

I read something really scary /interesting about a group called the voluntary human extinction movement..and another friend Angelo pointed out to me that if we as a species were not so reliant on Flesh none of this shit would be happening, Our lust to devour and have whatever we want and unsafe practices have brought us slaughter, I’m not going to use Morrissey here but I will because he has made intellignet points (though he has shown to be on the brink of madness as well.. re facism) well… Meat Is Murder

to conclude … Your Loving Presence is needed, however it is, be it a digital reproduction ( JOI Blade runner 2 ) zoom love story telling and reaching out to your family ( both Pete and I are away from our close families )

please buy his music it is from the heart and heartwrenching as I have said before his melodies are heart renderingly beautiful.

Bandcamp Help out Artists with no fees

So its Bandcamp day !  Bandcamp for it is they who created a service so good you can ,with a small team , dedication and graft  make your music your job and be free of needless soul destroying penury 

Bandcamp are waiving their ( small fee) so that us shut in musicians can make some Paper in these dark times …. So  who should you choose to give your quarantine saved monies to ?

Here are some suggestions

Valencia based dark electronic labels also run a great online magazine supporting artists like Zarkoff

 

zarkoff genius producer and producer who has created his own dark image, strong punk diy ethics, complete control and uses his studio to help bands and musicians realise their self actualization , strong links to the Hague

 

fogschool – dark moody electronic music with husky vocals and huge bass

 

Le Chocolat Noir – Dark brooding energetic EBM , Cold Wave and sweet enveloping music, an artist to get hooked on

 

Kranke Jugend! Sick Youth ! sparse electronic pop with synth pleasure – deutsch 2nd new wave, total artist package , operating on a higher level than us mere mortals , lots of myths to investigate

 

Richard Chartier – Pioneer of Minimalism, beautiful ambient sounds LA based artist supporting tons of other artists

 

Textbeak , industrial technoid fantasies from a musician who is tirelessly creating , dark visions, whilst living in the nightmare that is the USA 2020, support his ongoing missions into soul retrieval

 

and of course Haram Tapes