Here are our recommendations for the big countdown in Tokyo.
New Years’ is just a week away. From Shibuya, where many of the venues holding events are clustered, to other clubs that are closing their doors to private events, there are plenty of unique events and artists from overseas.
First of all there’s eleven with a host of artists who set the bar for the scene overseas, including DJ Koze from Germany, and Lawrence from Dial and Smallville, who has got tongues wagging this year. Womb, which is celebrating its 15th birthday this year, has Josh Wink from Ovum, and Ruby Room, which is holding its first countdown for seven years, has Cesare vs Disorder, who have had releases on Dumb Unit and Resopal.
A few parties have special concepts; slightly away from the capital is Differ Ariake, Freak’s Fes all-night outdoor party, where DJ Harvey will be making an appearance and playing an all night long set. You’ll also get a free mix CD from him when you buy a ticket. Then there’s the “All live” event at Shibuya’s WWW, with the UK’s Gold Panda on the line-up.
Then there’s a big party at Ebisu’s The Garden Hall/Room, hosted by Electronic Tribe, with Francois K, then RSD a.k.a. Rob Smith representing Bristol, as well as Goth-Trad artists and the laptop duo ATAK Dance Hall, and ten more genre and boundary-crossing acts.
Tokyo’s most famous and longest running party is at Liquid Room, which is packed with Japan’s best techno DJs as always: Takkyu Ishino, Fumiya Tanaka, DJ Nobu, and goes on til the evening on the 1st. At Daikanyama’s Unit, where you can get in for just 2000 yen with a flyer, there’s an all-Japanese line-up. There’s DJ Krush with his quintessential abstract noise, Eye from the Boredoms, Kenji Takimi the 20-year-old disco and leftfield pioneer label Crue-L, AOKI takamasa, who’s had releases on op.disc and raster-noton, DJ Kensei… a massive 30 acts in all.
At Air is DJ Emma, Kaoru Inoue, Shinichi Osawa and Ken Ishii at Ageha, Mayuri from Metamorphose and A.Mochi, who’s released on Figure at Rockwest.
On top of that there’s also several parties on the 1st: Nick the Record and Force of Nature from 6 in the morning at Seco, a host of second-generation underground artists at Warehouse 702, where the countdown afterhours look set to be pretty exciting.
DJ Harvey