I’m sitting here with Bob James and his 3-piece in my headphones as he’s tickling away the keys on the Fender Rhodes, an instrument I once owned but had to reluctantly bestow on local hero, Brian Haas of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey fame. And as Im basking in Bob James’s supremely cool grooves, sampled the world over for hip-hop records, I’m thanking Takuma san, pictured here for re-introducing me to the American treasure of a pianist, arranger, and record producer, thinking to myself, “How are these young Japanese guy so tapped in?” as I remember how unrefined I was at […]
Tokyo Record Style
Taiga, Yuusei, and Yoshimi
Highschoolers, collecting records, oldschool, newschool. Dope. I bumped into Taiga, Yuusei, and Yoshimi in Shibuya Station. They had just picked up some records from RECOfan believe it or not, their firsts, all bought on a but of a whim if I remember correctly. Quite a selection. Considering it was the frantic Shibuya scramble underpass, perhaps my first TRS encounter INSIDE a station, I was mindful of the foot traffic and the energy that everybody was on the go. The fact that this encounter was in January, hence the sweaters and puffy coats, any sense of memory from my notes sadly […]
Tokyo Record Style
Towa
Nearly every day on my way home from work, I pass by Manhattan Records, a Tokyo institution of 30 years that mostly Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, and House. After passing Ultra Shibuya, Hi-Fi Records, several Disk Unions, Tower Records, an HMV, Discland Jaro, Next Records, Mother’s Records, and a couple of Face Records, Manhattan Records is the last record shop on my way out of Shibuya on Inokashira Dori, the road that leads me all the way back home. By the time I’m rolling up on Manhattan, I’ve usually photographed a record collector or two on the way at one of […]
Tokyo Record Style
Marlon
I met Marlon from Sydney on the back streets of Shibuya in the Udagawa district along with a pal he had just made, Miguel from Spain (who will be featured in the next post.) Talk about friendly, it was easy to recognize that Marlon’s charisma was as big as his heart. He was keen to be photographed for Tokyo Record Style, and chat me up about the records he scored, a rather sizable lot that ran the gamut of genres but mostly 12” that would get your booty shaking on the dance floor. Marlon mentioned that the record store scene […]
Tokyo Record Style
Saqip
With the pandemic having more-or-less ended, and travelers having postponed their Japan trips for a couple of years now , Tokyo is brimming with tourists. “Over-tourism” is a buzzword being floated around on TV and in conversations, which comes with a plethora of contradictions and complexities. On one hand, it’s great to see business booming, and restaurants and bars full, record stores too, but on the other hand, the streets and train stations are crowded with lost people standing in your way, and every once in a while, you yourself get slightly overwhelmed with a bit of that entitled New […]
Tokyo Record Style
Temuge
They say Shibuya Scramble is the busiest intersection in the world. Is it true? Could be. Two things are for sure. 1.) It still manages to impress, no matter how many hundreds (or thousands) of times you’ve crossed it, and 2.) It’s where I spotted Temuge crossing in the sea of people with his pal, both with ice-pops on a Saturday Night. I chatted Temuge there on the corner in a mix of Japanese and English and I began to wonder if Japanese was both our second languages. I asked Temugu where he was from and I thought I heard […]