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Air 6th Anniversary
An all-star domestic lineup helps the Daikanyama club celebrate its birthday
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| Jazztronik |
Air pulls out the stops for its sixth anniversary with a weekend of events featuring all the club’s resident DJs packed into two nights of beats.
Tonight kicks off on an organic note, with the focus on house, club jazz and hip-hop. Heading things up is hip-hop unit m-flo’s Taku Takahashi, resident of Tachytelic Night, followed by club jazz keyboard and production wiz Ryota Nozaki, aka Jazztronik, who hosts Love Tribe. Kaoru Inoue, the resident of Groundrhythm, follows with his warm, earthy yet esoteric beats, while UK rave-influenced Sugiurumn
(House Beat) and Yoku (A Hundred Birds) bring up the rear.
Things turn toward techno on Saturday, with the venerable minimalist Ken Ishii (Air Countdown) headlining an evening that will also include sets by the more melodic-oriented Shin Nishimura (Plus Tokyo) and harder-edged Q’Hey (Reboot)…
French DJ Cam makes his first visit to Unit’s Club Museum events, chaired by veteran techno scenester Naoki Kihira. Sampling jazz tracks and remixing them with an abstract hip-hop groove, DJ Cam (Laurent Daumail) made his first mark with Underground Vibes in 1994. The success of the project led to numerous collaborations, including The Beat Assassinated (1998) with underground rappers and Soulshine (2003) featuring Gang Starr’s Guru.
Guesting with Cam is DJ Kensei, a master of abstract hip-hop textures, and along with DJ Krush perhaps the most influential of the old guard downtempo turntablists in Japan…
Rounding up this week’s column is news of the expansion of the Jewelz black-music events to Nishi-Azabu club Alife. The host of Jewelz
is Broderick Morris, the head of Positive Productions, promoter of Japan tours by the likes of Missy E and Kanye West, and most recently the Michael Jackson meet-and-greet. Jewelz goes off twice monthly at Yokohama Bay Hall, and also once a month at Midas in Roppongi. Morris says the new Thursday evening Jewelz is aimed at networking, and that he will be on hand to discuss new business ventures and ideas. Behind the decks are InterFM DJ O-men (“Joint One Radio”), who’s also warmed up audiences for Outkast and other big touring artists, DJs K-Taro and Kaiya, and American MC J-Deuce.
Air 6th Anniversary, Sep 28-29. Club Museum@Unit, Oct 6. Jewelz@Alife, every Thu. See club listings for details.
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