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!

State Of Bass – Velocity Press

State Of Bass – Martin James, Published by Velocity Press

Velocity Press is a new publisher  started by the same people behind Knowledge magazine

Of great interest are the recent Join The Future by Matt Annis writer for Juno , dj and many publications and DJ under the guise Sell By Dave, a stalwart dj and promoter based in Bristol, personally I remember and respect to him as both a writer and DJ  as he was very active with his Bedmo Disco series ( bedminster the area of Bristol)

Matt’s book charts the development of British dance music and its first truly original sound of Bleep Techno from the warehouses of the north spearheaded by the legendary Sheffield power house that is Warp Records, Ill be looking to read this as soon as I have finished State of Bass, with recent events it has thrown a focus on the legacy of the raves and music that sprang up from this strange island.

Back to the future.. State Of Bass The reason for this updated reprint are manifold, the two main reasons are scarcity. The original was selling for crazy money up to £200 on Ebay and for the second reason to include events that happened after its first initial press such as Roni Size winning the Mercury prize for his Reprazent project. A lot has changed since the 90s and Drum and Bass is a global culture not just a music ‘scene’ its become a movement, music scenes come and go ( dubstep and Grime case in point two scenes that didn’t translate globally or last  )

 

but Drum and Bass is definitely permanent and has refused to water down, there are many new forms ( excuse the Reprazent pun ) new expressions and art works related and involved in the scene, it remains multicultural and independent weathering the ( music ) industries use and abuse.

 

The book delves deep into its stories, its infighting, its scenes stalwarts and the development into this huge ever-evolving culture.

 

To use a quote from Roni and Krust on Mask – released on dope dragon Bristol Sound

 

It’s a dictation and it’s a definition on how we livin’

 

 

What this book illustrates with numerous interviews and analysis is that this musical movement bears multiple facets more than other music and youth culture from the last 40 years , Punk begat independent music and a means to self record and release, hardcore and jungle did this with no use of the mainstream media or very little and it must be mentioned John Peel was up to his death still playing Jump Up, Tech Step and even Gabba representing the offshoots and DNA splices and Mutations that sprang from Rave … He never lost his hardcore…. and with his son Thomas Ravenscroft that lineage and important representation has not been forgotten.

 

 

 

 

I digress, the UK Hardcore sound grew to be what drum and bass is today as one of the most far reaching musical exports, with so many scenes heard across the globe, from Poland to Vietnam from Southampton to Graz, Chicago to San Francisco where there is a an urban environment and sometimes even a rural setting there is a crew making beats and creating parties, releasing records both physically and digitally on labels big and small.

 

Living an independent existence based around celebration and coming together regardless of ethnicity bear that in mind that it is the culture that sprang out of the raves and parties it is this fusion of cultures that developed here, in the UK under the hot house conditions of a country in recession and a society that was opening up. If you’re from Britain you can say this is the thing we should be most proud of, a whole culture and means of production AND industry owned independently see Jeremy Deller’s excellent film Everybody In The Place for more on the theme of owning the means of production.

 

Drum and Bass / bass culture/ rave culture offers an identity, career possibilities and a focal point for communities, it is the whole and referencing the legendary Hardcore party documented in the book it is AWOL A Way Of Life

 

a whole chapter could be written on Desert Storm sound systems & DIY , Circus Irritant , WDA, Spiral Tribe and other free party systems and this is a theme I want to return to as a fall out and departure from society.   I must mention the excellent Photo Book No System here by Vinca Petersen https://vincapetersen.com/no-system-product/

 

 

 

But lets focus on the book and Drum and Bass

 

It’s a standard device now but the suggested listening section at the end of each chapter throws up some classics and lesser known examples for instance In the chapter Valley Of The Shadows where we learn of the development and evolution of the hardcore / dark sound and time stretching techniques and the economic situation that developed in 92

 

a fine example is DJ Crystyl Warpdrive , a still futuristic blast of chopped and stretched breaks and floating ambience and the sound of the warp drive – RUSH 4 U

 

 

 

Compare with the 2004 remix, it keeps to the same theme of total drum chaos evolving flexing, going backwards, chopping multiple breaks

 

And it came out on Photek Productions label an artist covered in the book and figure head the somewhat tricky / divisive genre label of Intelligent

 

 

https://www.discogs.com/artist/417-Photek

 

 

For a great example of the development and experimentation and ever darkening skies around hardcore there is the classic compilation/ mix by Kemistry and Storm ( Kemistry who tragically died in a car crash coming back to London from a gig in Southampton April 25^th 1999 as I would learn from friends who attended the gig )

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/04/kemistry-storm-the-tragic-story-of-the-drumnbass-originals

 

Enforcers: Above The law

 

https://youtu.be/tv1L0aDSsus

 

 

Featuring Refige Kru (Goldie and Rob Playford – Metalheadz and Moving shadow respectively two of the biggest labels) https://youtu.be/-DblfFRL4ek it set the standard of the fall out from the day glo rave scene as the ecstacy became weak and the europhia was replaced by a creeping paranoid atmosphere assisted by Sci Fi and horror samples to match the worsening mood as recession bit hard in 92

(side note …where were you in 92 an honorary mention must go to Zomby for this album Where were you in 92 that uses Bizarre Incs Playing with Knives piano riff over a whole album )

 

Bizarre Inc Playing with Knives https://youtu.be/TLlvYaCZ8Vc

Zomby – Float https://youtu.be/9FriS8EVVJg

 

And of course Special Request for bringing the hardcore back,

 

 

 

Darkcore was a reaction to the helium vocals and over use of pianos the division of hardcore into the white toy town infantilism and the more roughneck darker sound which would eventually evolve into manifold styles … to read more about the DNA and theories, splits, alliances and allegiances you really should buy this book along with Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds https://g.co/kgs/BK5WLT

 

and Altered States by Mathew Collin https://g.co/kgs/798hQE