Snowbombing
The snow may be melting, but snowboarding culture’s looking chill

Tommy Guerrero

Courtesy of Ageha

Dubbed the world’s biggest winter music festival,
Snowbombing is the below-freezing equivalent of the summer Ibiza circuit. For the last seven years, hoards of mainly British raver/snowboarders have descended on a ski resort in Austria for five days of slip-sliding by day and beat-driven decadence by night.

Now the festival tests the waters of Japan’s exploding snowboarding market with a one-night, one-off at bayside superclub Ageha. Tons of snow are to be trucked in, and pro boarders will be demonstrating their tricks while a pack of live acts and DJs set the floor alight. The Tokyo version of Snowbombing is meant to whet tastebuds for next year’s full-fledged ski resort event.

Heading up the list of imported musical talent is veteran skateboarder-slash-rocker-slash-DJ Tommy Guerrero. A member of the seminal skateboarding crew the Bones Brigade, Guerrero has reinvented himself with albums like last year’s From the Soil to the Soul, documenting his eclectic mix of rock, rap, soul and jazz.

Also from abroad, representing the Berlin electro scene are Bincliq and Tama Sumo, a resident at the city’s Panoramabar who spins what she calls “dry, deep and funky minimal techno and disco.” Fronting for the domestic scene are the formidable beat box crew Afra & Incredible Beatbox Band, and Tucker, the multi-talented deconstructionist musician/performance artist...

Yellow also has two events to brighten up your week. On Wednesday, Gilles Peterson, the veteran acid jazz DJ whose Talkin Loud imprint broke acts like the Brand New Heavies and Roni Size, drops into town to celebrate the establishment of his new label, Brownswood Recordings.
Brownswood, which Peterson calls a “labor of love,” includes on its roster acts such as Japan’s crazed Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, as well as Bristol soul artist Ben Westbeech. Along with Peterson, Westbeech will be making the trip to Tokyo to perform tracks off his debut Welcome To The Best Years Of Your Life. Liner notes describe the album as “a Polaroid portrait of today’s young inner city Britain… inspired by the beautiful wreckage of messy nights out followed by fragile afternoons drinking tea and smoking joints in bed…”

On Friday, Tomoyuki Tanaka, a.k.a. Fantastic Plastic Machine, celebrates six years of kitschy house releases for Avex with the double CD set FPMB. The album documents FPM’s transition from plunderer of the rarities bins to full-fledged producer, with airy, thumping tracks featuring a slew of guests from Incognito to Tahiti 80 to Kahimi Karie to M-flo. J-pop celebrity band the Anonymous (members from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Mad Capsule Markets) will be on hand to enliven FPM’s traditional Grand Tourisme residency.

Snowbombing @ Ageha, Apr 6. Brownswood Lift-Off @ Yellow, Apr 4. Grand Tourisme @ Yellow, Apr 6. See club listings for details.

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