The Japanese are coming
I remember once reading one of those 'hilarious' emails that always does the rounds.
This one was called something like 'You know you've been in Japan too long
when.....'. One of the side-splitters read something like this; '.....when you start
thinking Japanese music sounds good'. The author even felt the need to drive this
point home by exclaiming that the situation must have got really bad if it had got
to this stage. I must admit, I've sometimes made the mistake of going along with
this kind of cultural bigotry that makes adults misty eyed about TV and canned
foods. It's lazy, narrow-minded and, as a group of musicians, DJs and promoters
showed us on Sunday, wrong.
4.14 was the venue for a night I rank up there with the time a lank haired WC saw
Nirvana, a luved up WC heard Chime by Orbital and a gurning WC danced to Andy
Wetherall. What I'm trying to say is, there are some events, performances, nights,
whatever that stay with you, and this, for me, was one of them.
I'm gushing aren't I? Get to the point man...
Take three of Hiroshima's most talented musicians in their respective fields and put
them together and you have the Spins. Koba's Bom (Keys, bass, perc.), Kiyo (drums)
and Shimomura (turntable/fx) are funky, tight and quite easily the best band in the
area. No tired cover versions we've all heard a 1000 times here. On Sunday night
they seemed to have developed a slightly grittier edge to their sound and Bom
whipped out a bass at one point, not content with simply playing keys, percussion,
running a bar etc. etc. The only negative really was that the band were shoved into
what little space they could find around all the equipment of the nights main acts
Tucker and Hifana.
DJs manfully bridged the gaps but it was all about the live acts tonight. Cometh the
hour, cometh the nutter. I give you Tucker. A one man band bearing as little
resemblance to those old men with bass drums strapped to their backs as is possible.
From decks to keyboards to bass, to drums, to guitar and back again (occasionally
setting them alight). He does one thing that I particularly like where he plays a
riff on one instrument, samples and loops it, moves on to another, does the same
until he's drumming along to the whole thing. One very talented, very mad bastard.
Don't try what Tucker does at home kids.
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So there we were, a bit more DJing, and then finally, Hifana. What are Hifana? The
simplest thing to do if you don't know who Keizo Machine and Juicy are is to watch
the funky little GH video clip of the night (right). While you do watch it though, bear in
mind that there is no sequencing going on there. Hifana are no Chemical Brothers
tweaking a bit of EQ (although, ahem, there's nothing wrong with that), nor are they
your average beat matching DJ. Everything is being played.I remember the first time
I watched Hifana on DVD and being amazed at Keizo Machine punching out a beat on his
MPC. I still am, and I think no matter what kind of music
you are into, it would be pretty difficult to not at least admit 'that's pretty
good'. Why the hell these guys aren't world famous I have no idea. Maybe it goes
back to that snobbery...
They are also funny. Yep, humour. Something that doesn't sit so well with the
posturing of a lot of western bands, and granted, it's hard to pull off. Hifana
however have you laughing with their visuals, sound effects and by that old media
favourite, talking....then it's back with another of those sock rocking beats, beats
which, the 4.14 sound system really really delivered.
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 Watch the video
Hifana in action
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Towards the end of the set,
Tucker jumped on stage to hit some things and jam a bit, and then, if I remember
rightly (I probably don't), Hifana finished with one of their many, but my
favourite, party tricks, where the two of them repeatedly switch from turntable to
MPC without dropping a beat. Soon after they
were gone, leaving behind a very happy, very very sweaty crowd who looked as blown
away as I was.
As it is, I'm running out of superlatives to describe one of the most inspirational
nights out I've had in years. If you complain that Hiroshima doesn't have a lot
going on, why weren't you here?
If you are gutted you missed out on this show then why not get yourself a copy of
Zamurai TV (watch a clip here)
which not only showcases
the talents of Hifana and Tucker but also includes more brilliance from the likes of
DJ Kentaro and human beatboxing from Afra. It's original, inventive, funny, looks
great.....I'll shut up now shall I? One more thing though, human beatboxing with
tap-dancing never sounded so good
WC
January 2006
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