I have to say, this is working out to be one of the best Summers in years. I’ve spent the weekends mostly out of the city, traveling to music events like Solstice and Fuji or heading off to the beach. This weekend I joined a group of friends for a night of drumming and dancing in Shonan at a great, isolated beach bar/club/cafe situated some fifty meters from the surf. Sputnik has events scheduled on most days throughout the Summer, and this evening we were happy to find Kaoru Inoue and Kentaro Iwaki spinning tunes for their Floatrive event. It was a great mix of house, seventies funk and assorted beach grooves.
When not dancing we screwed around on the beach under a glittering panorama of stars, playing the assorted djembes we had brought, drinking wine, chilling out and cutting up. A hundred or more people were scattered about the beach around us, playing different instruments and chatting in the cool night air. One fellow nearby was sitting with his girlfriend and producing some amazing sounds with a mysterious instrument. We tried to figure out what he was playing there, but he was cloaked as he was in darkness and we remained puzzled. His music was a continuous stream of high-pitched beats so perfectly-timed that I guessed it was a small electronic synthesizer or something, while the others imagined it must be a hammered dulcimer.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I went over to have a look. The guy (Takashi) was more than happy to show me, and before long was teaching me the basics of the steel triangle. After a few minutes my friends came over with our drums in hand, and we joined him for some impromptu jammimg. This sort of thing is fairly new to me, but there’s nothing like the pure fun of getting into an unrehearsed, rhythmic groove with a group of friends. The music shifts and evolves and takes on a life of its own. Some time later the music trails off into a reluctant conclusion, and we whoop and laugh and cheer, joyful and strangley satisfied. Call it the perfect night, or the wine, or the smoke, I don’t know, but for me it was pure magic.
We left when the sky grew light and make the long trip back to Tokyo, tired after a long night of no sleep yet somehow invigorated. We slept long into the afternoon, getting up in to time to catch the last rays of the sun on the balcony and then heading off to Ebisu for some musical irritainment courtesy of the Asian Power Trio.
The APT is an “art band” that specializes in emptying rooms of unsuspecting, well-intentioned bar patrons and party-goers with a cacophonic blend of aural abuse, multilingual “lyrics” and, occassionally, a bullhorn. APT’s music sounds like The Cramps, only with all of the instruments and mics plugged into the wrong holes. It’s music for people who can’t spell the word music. It’s music to grind me by. It’s music to keep the crows away. It’s music that makes you think permanent deafness might be a good thing. It’s music to inflict on your enemies. In short, it’s music that sucks ass, and baby I just can’ t get enough!
But be warned! The APT moves around a lot because they never get permission to play the same venue twice. The shows are infrequent due to the huge physical and psychological toll each performance takes on the each of the members. They don’t advertise, and they damn sure don’t post flyers. What I’m trying to say is that, in addition to being painfully hard to listen to, they’re also fucking hard to see. But keep your eyes open. Listen to that whispered conversation at the table next to you. Look for subtle signs. The APT will be playing nearby sometime soon. Experience it once for yourself.