Kansai Eclectro - Feb 2010 Club Guide

By Matt Lyne

Recommended event of the month:

dj koze japan tour @ clapper

Friday February 26th, 23:00-05:00

Door: ¥3,000 w/ one drink

With flyer: ¥2,500 w/ one drink

Advance: ¥2,000 w/ one drink

Special guest: DJ Koze (Kompakt/Hoobert)

Guests: Ko-Jax (Picasso), Yukke (Newtone Records)

Food: Abetica

www.clapper.jp | www.djkoze.de

One of the best compilations of 2009 was DJ Koze's Reincarnations remix collection on Get Physical. The Hamburg DJ/producer gave his signature treatment to tracks from artists as disparate as Chilean house god Matías Aguayo and 1960s German torch singer Hildegard Knef. Everything Koze touched - Matthew Dear, Wechsel Garland, Nôze - turned to gold, leaving the electronic music world in hot anticipation for his upcoming full-length this year.

DJ Koze has forged a reputation as a dance music Renaissance darling. Besides his work as DJ Koze, Hamburg-bound Stefan Kozalla has kept himself busy under his electronica alias Adolf Noise and also with wry funk posse International Pony.

Fittingly, Kozalla's first remix assortment last year was a perfect reflection of his diversified tastes, working as a conceptualized assembly of some of Koze's finest work over the last nine years or so. This is because he is perhaps most appreciated for his playful, oft superior takes on the music of other artists, partly due to the fact that you never really know what you're going to get from a DJ Koze remix: he's as apt to turn out jumpy, full-sweat house as he is to leave his print in reflective, home-stereo, more minimalist ambience.

Although his name is now synonymous with the international techno scene, Koze's roots actually lie in hip-hop. With his early band Fischmob, he released several successful records, steadily building up a strong fan base of young left-oriented people, and at the same time took home the Runner-Up prize at the DMC DJ Championships a scant few years ago. With Fischmob's album Power, and various smash singles, the band found their way into the German pop charts, with the corresponding video enjoying a month-long, high-rotation run on both MTV and VIVA.

As a live DJ in 2010, Koze builds his sets on techno, house and disco but still uses his well-honed hip-hop skills to blend countless styles seamlessly together into the furious mixes that have made him, currently, 16th in the Resident Advisor poll of the world's top 100 DJs and repeat DJ Of The Year (1999-2004!) in Germany's trend-setting SPEX magazine.

Unfortunately Koze's annual spring visit to Clapper was disrupted last year when he suddenly came down very ill and had to be stretchered off the plane in Germany, thus having to cancel. I'm sure that he'll make up for last year's loss and more, so confirm your attendance now!

Other events worth checking out:

back to chill @ triangle

Sunday February 7th, 20:30-05:00

Door: ¥2,000 w/ one drink

With flyer/Ladies: ¥1,500 w/ one drink

Ladies before 23:00: Entrance free

DJs: Goth-Trad, Harutaka et al

www.triangle-osaka.jp | www.backtochill.com/osaka

Although there are prominent females in the dubstep world - Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 1) and Ikonika (Hyperdub), to name just a couple - it's not surprising that events of the genre tend to be somewhat of a sausage fest. To combat that, Back To Chill and Triangle have a rather nice entrance policy for gentlewomen.

As the dubstep tag has become looser and looser, so the music policy of Back To Chill has incorporated more of the soulful and melodic two-step rhythmic nocturnes of groundbreaking artists such as 2562, Martyn and Joy Orbison; music that infuses Detroit techno chordal patterns with garagey syncopated beats and often heart-achingly beautiful melodies. A far cry from the wobbly, bass-heavy, dark, cavernous tones of past dubstep. There is a much more unisex appeal to the future of the genre, exemplified on a personal level by my own partner's new-found passion for the genre.

onzieme in february

February 20th & 27th, 21:00-02:00

Door: ¥3,000 w/ one drink

Guest artist (20th): Claude VonStroke

Guest artist (27th): James Lavelle (Mo' Wax/UNKLE)

www.onzi-eme.com | www.myspace.com/claudevonstroke | www.myspace.com/djjameslavelle

If you're not bothered about the drink prices and the bad atmosphere, Onzieme have two heavyweights playing this month.

On Saturday 20th, ElektroJunkie host modern Detroit house/techno producer Claude VonStroke, whose remix work and original productions (including 2007's "Who's Afraid Of Detroit?" anthem) have been smashing up dancefloors over the past four years or so. His CD release for the Fabric mix series last year only cemented his standing in the current club-music world. Known for his heavy and messy sets, this is a DJ worth checking out.

On Saturday 27th, James Lavelle, best known for running the seminal UK "trip-hop" label Mo' Wax back in the 90s, comes to town. He probably deserves a better legacy than he has, solely due to the fact that the label he built up almost single-handedly in his late teens and early 20s brought us landmark records from DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Air, Rob D and Blackalicious; proved a catalyst in the renaissance of punk funk by reissuing key Liquid Liquid releases; and eased the enigmatic genius of producer David Axelrod into the spotlight once more.

However, his downfall was brought on by both Tim Goldsworthy (who went on to form the DFA production/label imprint with James Murphy) and DJ Shadow deserting him and distancing themselves from the UNKLE production work they and Lavelle had worked together on, shortly after the release of their debut album, Psyence Fiction. Lavelle was left holding the baby, so to speak, and was then revealed to be not so musically endowed after all, following the departure of the real talent. It was then heavily speculated that Lavelle was just a good salesman for the genius ideas that Goldsworthy/Shadow put to him. Having said this, it should definitely be interesting to see what kind of set he lays down for this event.

Both artists, as usual with Onzieme's money-before-music policy, have been incorrectly billed with local DJs of completely different tastes and backgrounds to create two more embarrassingly incoherent dissemblances of events.

We are still running the Facebook group on which this column was built. If you are interested, please sign up to receive regular updates on events and free podcasts, as well as monthly up-to-date listings of everything going on, from club nights with top international DJs to underground sound art events with local Japanese artists.

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