XLarge The 15th Anniversary
The street clothes brand celebrates its success in Japan
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Haul & Mason
Courtesy of Unit |
When the Beastie Boys’ Mike D, one of the original investors and still a shareholder, put his cash into the first XLarge store in Los Angeles in 1991, it’s unlikely he had any idea of the brand’s potential in Japan. But just 13 months after the Vermont Avenue outlet opened, XLarge went international by opening a store in Tokyo, and by the late ’90s, it had become majority-owned by a Japanese company.
With its baggy jeans and utilitarian chic, XLarge found ready customers in the hip-hop, skateboarding, and rave culture communities—especially among trendy young Japanese urbanites. Since its launch in Tokyo, it has gone on to open a dozen shops across Japan, also spawning
the ever-popular x-girl women’s line. To celebrate that success, the brand is hosting what promises to be an explosive night of audiovisual scratch.
Making the trip from LA will be the hip-hop DJ/production duo of Haul & Mason. Usually found behind the decks at clubs across Southern California, the duo have shared the stage with artists ranging from Common to Japan’s DJ Krush. They bring a unique approach to four turntable performances, incorporating hip-hop scratching and house beat-matching techniques into a sound that samples from a broad palette of dance music styles.
A recent mix that won Urb magazine’s annual mixtape contest, for instance, found them layering tracks by Beck, Roots Manuva and No Doubt over beats by Michael Jackson and Pearl Jam. Both Haul and Mason also work in bands, separately, and together in LA’s noted 60-piece Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra.
Also in the DJ booth will be Japan’s inimitable Fantastic Plastic Machine, aka Tomoyuki Tanaka, a living encyclopedia of pop music who will touch on anything from Motown to French pop in a given set. His Sound Concierge mix compilation series provides a good jumping off point into his DJing style, while his latest original, more house-oriented album was this spring’s Imaginations on Cutting Edge.
Providing the visuals will be UK audiovisual mash-up unit Eclectic Method. A trio formed by three young producers
and sometime journalists after a chance meeting in Bosnia, Eclectic Method have been dubbed “the future of nightclub entertainment.” With props from the likes of Fatboy Slim and Gilles Peterson, they mix music video and film snippets in the way that DJs mix records.
Any given track could, for instance, mix a Britney Spears sample with a rock riff, or a dance music anthem with a clip from an action film. MTV was quick to recognize Eclectic Method’s talents, basing the show MTV Mash on their video mashing demo tapes. They’ve also created a recent mash-up of Fatboy Slim’s greatest music videos for a Skint label DVD, and a breaks remix of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill...
For those out in the Shonan beach area south of Tokyo, a new event organized by a Brazilian DJ and web developer will be offering an alternative for revelers who want to continue the party after a day in the sun.
Agency Xvibe celebrates the creation of Marcelo Maeda’s new dance music website and DJ agency. Maeda has been a lover of electronic music since his teens, and initiated Xvibe to enliven interchange between dance music communities in Brazil, Japan and the rest of the world. The event will feature a mix of sounds ranging from the Brazilian vibes of DJ Bad Alex to the epic trance of Rogerio Factor and tech-house of DJ Hari.
XLarge The 15th Anniversary@Unit, Sep 8; Agency Xvibe@Club AZ, Sep 9. See club listings for details.
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