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By Dan Grunebaum
Fantastic Plastic
Machine
Tomoyuki Tanaka explores the thematic
possibilities of a DJ mix compilation in his Sound Concierge
series
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| Courtesy of Air |
Ever since the rise of the DJ as superstar
a decade or so ago, record companies have been shoveling an
endless stream of mix compilation albums at consumers. Mix
comps not only allow labels to capitalize quickly on a DJ’s
fame without funding time-consuming new productions, they’re
an easy way for labels to squeeze a bit of extra revenue out
of back catalogs. Most of them, sadly, are forgettable.
Tomoyuki Tanaka, the burly, bearded artist behind the Fantastic
Plastic Machine moniker, leans forward in a retro-modern chair
at his studio in trendy Daikanyama to explain how he went
about doing something that would stand out among the stream
of DJ mix comps.
“I wanted to put together a different kind of mix, and
just so happened to arrive at the Sound Concierge concept,”
he explains about his new series’ germination last year.
“As you know, a concierge is someone who assists patrons
at a hotel.” Tanaka says he approaches DJing as a service
industry: Listeners are customers, and the customer is king.
“I wanted to do something that would conjure a certain
situation,” he continues. “Rather than compiling
my own favorites, I wanted to do something thematic. It may
seem like a natural idea, but I don’t think anyone had
done it yet in Japan. Themes create their own logic. For example,
a mix based on the theme of sex immediately creates various
possibilities.”
Launched last year with Sound Concierge #401 “Do Not
Disturb” and followed by three more releases in 2004,
the series picks up where it left off with Sound Concierge
#501 “Blanket,” and the associated Sound Concierge
Annex “Contemporary Love Songs,” both out this week
on major Japanese label Avex.
As its name implies, “Blanket” establishes a cozy,
comfortable atmosphere. The selection is indicative of Tanaka’s
vast record collection, which lines the walls of his studio
lounge. Artists included among the 20 tracks range from obscure
’60s soft-rock act Bunky and Jake to French heartthrob
Benjamin Biolay to Brazilian guitarist Sebastiao Tapajos to
mellower tracks by more familiar names like Todd Rundgren
and Ryuichi Sakamoto. “Just about any guy will at some
point in his life have put together a tape of his favorite
songs for a favorite girl,” Tanaka explains. “I
put together “Blanket” with this sort of idea in
mind.”
“Contemporary Love Songs,” meanwhile, is a bit of
a vanity project. Consisting exclusively of FPM remix work,
the album adopts more of a dance music approach, including
remixes of James Brown’s “Sex Machine” and
Chic’s “Le Freak.” “When you remix something
you make it your own,” says Tanaka. “When I remix
tracks I tend to give them a romantic vibe, and I put ‘Contemporary
Love Songs’ together with this in mind. They’re
almost all love songs. I tend to be a romantic myself and
I think it shows in the album.”
Sales figures in the 2,000-3,000 range constitute a respectable
showing for a Japanese DJ mix compilation. Each of FPM’s
Sound Concierge discs has sold over 20,000, making them bona-fide
hits and testifying to the appeal of his thematic approach.
While many DJs here eagerly await the latest vinyl pressings
from New York or London, Tanaka approaches his craft more
like a historian of pop music’s near-history. He first
got into DJing in the early ’90s in his hometown of Kyoto
by launching a club event, Sound Impossible, devoted to kitschy
soundtrack music from the ’60s.
“At that time, rare groove was happening in London, and
there were DJs playing exclusively old stuff, but there wasn’t
anyone doing soundtracks,” Tanaka recalls. “From
there one thing led to another. I got to know artists from
Tokyo, and they encouraged me to record. That’s why I
started Fantastic Plastic Machine. I wanted to do something
that couldn’t be heard in clubs or wasn’t available
in mainstream record stores at the time.”
As it turns out, the taste of Tanaka’s mixes and recordings
coincided with the burgeoning Shibuya kei scene’s stylistic
collage of acid jazz, lounge, bossa nova, French pop and soft
rock, and soon found a ready audience. “Now there’s
a whole section devoted to lounge music,” he notes. “At
that time there wasn’t anything, but I hoped there would
at least be a few people who shared my tastes.”
Tanaka’s vision, however, wasn’t rooted exclusively
in the past. “I wanted to create something that would
pull together not only soundtracks, but also bossa nova, and
contemporary styles like house and hip-hop. Since no one was
doing it, I decided to do it myself, and luckily it turned
out there were people around the world who felt the same.”
As FPM began to take off, Tanaka issued a steady stream of
both original artist production albums and DJ compilations.
Initially signed to the like-minded Pizzicato Five’s
Readymade Records label, Tanaka has been with Avex since 2000.
His music has also found overseas distribution via independent
Emperor Norton records.
In addition to holding down a regular residency for five years
at Tokyo’s legendary Yellow that regularly draws over
1,000, the DJ has been venturing further abroad to Europe,
America, and increasingly, Asia. On New Year’s Eve he
played for a crowd of 4,000 in South Korea. “Recently
I’ve been getting a lot of invitations from Asia,”
he says. “China is still into techno, but like South
Korea, which began with techno and moved on to different styles,
I think it will evolve. In Japan, European and American DJs
are tops, but in Korea, Japanese DJs are most in demand. They
treat us really nicely.”
Would
you like to comment on this article? Send a letter to the
editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp.
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