Tokyo 1969 by Toshi Ichiyanagi

Hats off to Yoko Ono who was absolutely stunning at the Oakland Fox Theater earlier this week, performing with Deerhoof, Cornelius, along with other special guests (Pikachu of Afrirampo, who, IMO is cooler than Satomi of dh, and Harper Simon - aka son of Paul Simon, and a guy named Jarod who "plays 1800 instruments" according to Sean Lennon).

Not to be gossipy or anything, but equally as mind-bending is an electronic music piece by her ex-husband (no, not John, the other one--Toshi).

Tokyo 1969 is an amazing piece that captures the energy and neurosis of that year, using field recordings, voices from radio, enka, and wailing rock guitar. Post-Cage, pre-Otomo, it's somewhere between Charles Ives (with a tape recorder), Jimi Hendrix and Taj Mahal Travellers. No wonder the coolest woman in 1969 was married to him. Hear a sample of it here. At 15:30 minutes and 30 seconds long, it's pretty long for an electroacoustic piece, but hardly boring. According to the liner notes in the album, Oto no Hajime wo motomete 4 Shigeru Sato Work, the piece uses chance operations inspired by John Cage (who was briefly Ichiyanagi's teacher in nyc). These operations are used in two basic ways: 1) by manipulating and connecting the machines in the NHK radio electronic music studio in random ways. 2) Asking students to manipulate these arbitrarily connected machines in any way they wish. But without sound. Huh? Not quite sure what that means. In any case, the piece is quite awe-inspiring. Far preceding the onkyo movement, Ichiyanagi conceived his work as a piece of kankyo ongaku, which translates to "environmental music." Importantly, the chance operations, though inspired by Cage take it the concept to the next level. What I mean by that is that the operation that Cage dreamed up seems to have finally caught up with the appropriate medium. The raw material of Tokyo 1969 ask to be treated in terms of chance operations - what's the use of trying to order found sounds in some logical way? To serve its function as "environmental music" chance operations provided the piece with the perfect method to achieve its purpose.

And a small bonus for all you Virilio fans, there's this video of Shinjuku since 1969... in 10 seconds. Speed or intensity?

Records of Last Week: Lady Sovereign and Filastine

Lady Sovereign – "Jigsaw" [Midget]

Hilarious electro "midget" rap album by a *just slightly* grown up Lady Sov. Plenty of catchy tunes and fuzzy bass on tracks like “I got you dancing” and the Britpop-ish "Student Union". "Food Fight" serves up some Kool Keith/MF Doom -caliber foodie sleaze (kinda yucky but funny). Hear Sov sing on “Jigsaw." She's now on her own label after leaving Jay-Z's Def Jam. Skeptics may say that she's taken on an MIA sound. It's true, maybe, but Lady SOV still raps like no other little person's business, and I'm pretty into it.

Micropop Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5 *s)


Filastine “Dirty Bomb” [Soot/Post World Industries]

Percussionist/producer/mixologist Grey Filastine (Barcelona) loves to sample. Not afraid to experiment, Filistine juxtaposes bits of Bollywood, dubstep, hip hop, Middle Eastern electronica, Balkan Brass, flamenco guitar, old radio broadcasts and more to make a mean polyrhythmic universe. Tracks like “Marxa” and “Bitrate Sneers” call for insurrection from the dancehall. Filastine is politcal, but he doesn't preach to you, and he uses musical appropriation to bring listeners and dancers together like a good commrade.

Micropop Rating: *** (out of 5*s)

Plørk, Slörk, and Ikea

The quietly active Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) invades the West Coast! What we didn't hear about the not-so-remarkable Macworld this year was that the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) made its public debut. Using salad bowls from ikea (oh wait, this reminds me of a Michael Zbyszynski of Berkeley's CNMAT mentioned in the nytimes in 2007) they crafted ambisonic-ish speakers. SLork made it onto the apple website, even though Brad Stone didn't feel like mentioning them on his Macworld live blog for the nytimes.

Director/composer Ge Wong has some good and innovative ideas about using the body of the laptop like an instrument (ex. using the trackpad to "bow", tilting the computer to trigger acoustic reactions)... But the whole experience kind of leaves me hanging. What's up with this bizarre (academic) phenomenon? The new "orchestra" revived through Macbooks? Interactivity and democracy through really expensive computers? Are BLOrk (Berkeley Laptop Orchestra) and MiLOrk (MIT Laptop Orchestra) next?

Computers can make music. So what? Sonically and musically, frankly, it's not that exciting. The ensemble employs sounds that were cool in the 60s and 70s sci-fi movies that used tape instead of Max MSP, but wtf, still the same sounds? It's 2009, come on. In fact, Ge Wong himself announces that SLOrk in many ways is a traditional ensemble. Personally, I would find it more interesting if these institutionally cemented laptop orchestras could finally move beyond the "traditional" (in the sense of 19th-century notions of public high culture--the zenith of the large orchestra), and come up with new sounds to fit current uses and meanings of technology and ideas about the public.


Above: Stanford composers disguised as Apple store "Geniuses"? There's a reason apple loves them.

Watch a video of SLOrk in action here!

Rabbit Deer?

To make up for my not so micro absence (or not), micropop will post a found image off the interweb for you. It's called "large rabbit deer?" Which is it? You tell me.

Rock 'n' roll vines

Just when we thought manga cool was a tacky thing for academics and government agencies propagating the expansion of Japanese soft power as a subversive means towards hello kitty-faced world domination, a suburban sister and brother who draw for a living blend guitar amps, Freddie Mercury, and old dusty vinyl, a handsome hero, and le beau vin, reinvigorating the manga world through its courtship with the deep dank world of wines. To honor Yuko and Shin Kobayashi, creators of a comic, "Drops of the Gods," micropop has inaugurated the Micropop Taste Awards. First ever taste awards go to Yuko and Shin, purveyors of grapetastic taste.

See the nytimes for a more comprehensive review of their art in "Next Week, our Hero chooses a Médoc" by Onishi Norimitsu.

Cheers.

Pure Purr Genius

Frick the cat has muy bueno style, and he knows it.
Released in 2006 by the label 45 rpm, the undying popularity of this curious piece of artistry among cult followers evidenced by its entry into the annual top 100s at independent radio stations such as KALX (UC Berkeley) attests to its pure ingenuity. Frick, pictured in all his hazy glory on the sleeve above, seduces with his lulling purrs accompanied by flamenco guitar on "El Gato" (side A), and Frick rocks you with some nasty garage rock on "Fuzzy wuz She," side B.
A micropop recommendation for the friekyest record of the decade.

Micropop's Chanteuse of the Week

Brigitte Fontaine and Art Ensemble!?

WTF?

This unlikely combo, which, I guess isn't that weird if you think about it calmly since I guess the Art Ensemble of Chicago is so cool they're everywhere (especially Paris in les 60 années), and well-connected hip Parisians comme Brigitte get to rock out with cool people.

She sounds like she looks–the OG oldschool originatress of wispy whispering intimate close-mic singing, along with that other muse of Serge called Jane Birkin.

And then there's Art Ensemble.

Pourquois?

If I had my way, the Art Ensemble would go more all out on the recording. But the album has her face on it, so I guess they had to be the back-up band.

Album: Comme à la radio
Song: Comme à la radio
Year: 1969
micropop rating: ????? out of five stars

Check it out, and let me know what you think, because mmm is totally confused.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfVir1_Edc