Metamorphose

The outdoor rave now encompasses more than electronica

Manuel Gottsching Courtesy of Metamorphose

With ID checks now the norm at Tokyo clubs, outdoor parties are the only outlet for under-agers to get their dance-music fix. Summer music festivals have been the beneficiaries, with veteran DJ and promoter Mayuri’s Metamorphose event now well-established as one of the season’s highlights.

Launched on the slopes of Mt. Fuji at the vintage Nippon How amusement park, Metamorphose moved to the same Naeba venue as the Fuji Rock Festival before relocating to Japan Cycle Sports Center, where it not only has a view of Fuji but also is closer to the urban centers of the Pacific coast.

Regularly drawing more than 10,000 party-goers, the event builds on Mayuri’s decades of dance-music experience with bills that have included formative producers from electro’s Afrika Bambaataa to drum’n’bass superstar Goldie. This year is no exception, with Chicago house luminary Mark Farina and UK warp disco duo the Idjut Boys on the bill in addition to Japanese stalwarts like Eye from the Boredoms.

But in recent years, Mayuri has begun to book more live bands, adding an element of dynamism to the static tableau of a DJ hunched over his decks. Among those was a key player of the Afrobeat explosion, Tony Allen, the drummer with Nigerian legend Fela Kuti’s band for many years, who joined the bill in 2004.

This year also features a recently influential African band in the form of Konono No. 1. Lost in the obscurity of the region near Congo’s border with Angola, the group made a necessity of invention, creating amplifiers and microphones from car parts in order to add oomph to the sound of their traditional thumb pianos.

On a jazz tip, 66-year-old sax legend Pharoah Sanders will be joining Japanese jazz quartet Sleep Walker to play tracks off their new album The Voyage, on which he guested and contributed the title track.

This year’s Metamorphose also boasts several collaborations that blur the lines between rock and electronica. As a founder of Krautrock group Ash Ra Temple in the ’70s, Manuel Gottsching was one of the pioneers of the music that would later become electronica. His solo work was even more influential, setting the template for dance music with treated guitar lines and sequenced beats. Gottsching is slated to give the first-ever live performance of E2-E4 at Metamorphose.
The Bays, meanwhile, are a live electronic supergroup consisting of drumming phenomenon Andy Gangadeen, keyboardist Jimpster, bassist Chris Taylor and effects hound Simon Richmond. Running the gamut from ambient to drum’n’bass, the Bays can only be experienced live, blowing away the audience in their most recent Japan appearance at Ebisu Liquidroom.

Although Metamorphose doesn’t come cheap, there should be more than enough to keep fans of dance music interested. Mayuri then returns with another festival that moves even farther afield from electronica. Slated for the last weekend in September, Mt. Fuji Calling has on the bill African acts Femi Kuti and Tony Allen as well as UK dub great Jah Shaka.

Japan Cycle Sports Center, Aug 26. See concert listings (popular) for details.

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