Blog - Weekly revue: 2019 week #29 (July 13 to 19)

Weekly revue: 2019 week #29 (July 13 to 19)

Last weekend I did some helping out at Tokyo Art Book Fair at the Nieves booth (Switzerland)! That was fun!! :)

Food: - Fish biriyani at Nandhini, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
- Bacon burger at Brozers, Shintomichō
- Lamb burger at The Great Burger, Shibuya Stream

Music events: - On Wednesday I dropped by Soleil Lollipop Shop, a temporary shop-in-shop at Onkyo Base in mAAch ecute, Akihabara. It was opening day! The shop is actually also a small exhibition of some stage outfits and props, including the cardboard Mellotron seen in the "Mellotron Girl" music video, as well as drawings by singer Soleil. The music video and also some rare footage is also shown there. Tour goods and CDs are now being sold at the shop until August 18. Drop by and see if you have a chance!

The new album "Lollipop Sixteen" was released on July 17, also the shop's opening day. I got it the day before at Tower Records in Shinjuku (as CDs are usually sold a day early) where there was a large display.

- On Friday, at Tower Records Shinjuku, there as an in-store live by Coastlines, the chill out unit of Ikeda Masanori (ex-Mansfield) and keyboardist Kaneko Takumi (of cro-magnon). I've been listening to their first album "Coastlines" a lot since its release last month, so I was looking forward to seeing them. Ikeda mixed beats and also wave sounds on his computer, on which Kaneko added live keyboards and solos. That was a very nice set! I was happy to have the chance to get their autograph, and also shake hands with Ikeda-san who I've been a fan of since his Mansfield days. Nevermind that his music style has changed a lot since then, I can always relate and enjoy the great new music he makes. Coastlines announced that they will play at the lobby of Hotel Koé on Friday August 9. Check out the video below.

Set list: Sunset Reflection / Easy Dry River / Half Moon Shadow / Maracas Bay / Down Town
(Hopefully I got these instrumentals right..!)

- Right after seeing Coastlines, I went down to the 7th floor to catch another in-store event, although completely different stuff. I had seen xiangyu twice at Batica in Ebisu: the first time at Nakatsuka Takeshi's "Delica Lab", and then again at Kenmochi Hidefumi's release party. Her music is produced by Wednesday Campanella's Kenmochi, and it takes elements from a techno genre called Gqom (originated from South Africa). Her first mini-album "The First ○○ Picture Book" was released just about half a year since she started performing, with lyrics speak mostly about daily life such as different food (poo pad pong curry, gyōza, Baskin Robbins' "Popping Shower" ice cream) or missing the garbage truck.

I had listened to her songs on YouTube and digital streaming but I got the CD anyway, and turns out that it has a very nicely designed package like a mini-encyclopedia of the various things that appear in the lyrics. Despite being in-store, she finished her set like the ones I saw before crowd-surfing in a pool with the help of some devoted fans. At the autograph session that followed there was a rock-paper-scissors game with her, and I got a demo CD-R of "Hamaege" and a poster of label Kujaku Club. Cool! :)

Set list: Hamaege / Human Evolution / Go Mistake / Poo Pad Pong Curry / mycorrhizal fungi / I went to sleep without taking a bath