One of the world’s most populous cities and certainly among the most interesting, Tokyo is a place where there is never a lack of worthwhile things to do, and that includes musical options in the countless “live houses,” or concert bars, peppered across the municipal map. Japanese musicians and fans have long demonstrated a thirst for sounds from abroad, and an informed respect as well, so quality rock, reggae, jazz, and much more can be found easily enough. For the foreign visitor, the distinctively domestic creations and interpretations are the most interesting. While tickets aren’t cheap, the online reservation system is practical (and honourably devoid of treacherous supplementary fees), sound quality is taken seriously, early start times much appreciated, and the sheer energy of the local audiences astounding. Below are a quartet of musical events from early spring that PANM360 is pleased to report back on. Stories by Rupert Bottenberg and Alain Brunet, who were in Japan last spring.
Jeff Mills presents The Trip: Enter the Black Hole @ Zerotokyo, Shinjuku, April 1, 2024
Jeff Mills has been assembling multimedia shows under the heading The Trip since 2009. A founding figure of the Detroit techno scene, Mills’ name is rarely uttered without the designations “godfather” or “pioneer” attached, and his fascination with science fiction has been in evidence for many years. It’s what drives The Trip: Enter the Black Hole, the latest iteration of his series of multimedia events, which made its world premiere on April Fools Day at Zerotokyo, the expansive, easily navigated club space cradled in the below-ground belly of the recently erected Tokyu Kabukicho Tower entertainment complex, in the heart of Shinjuku’s otherwise tawdry, trashy Kabukicho zone.
Dressed up in a vintage astronaut suit and seating himself at a similarly antique, console-cluttered work station (complete with red rotary-dial phone, presumably to alert Houston if a problem arises), Mills delivered a delicious live mix while serving as ringmaster for a show that involved abstract contemporary dance, mesmerizing projections, and two appearances by Jun Togawa, an avant-garde superstar actress/singer since the 1980s.
Assuming the role of some sort of intergalactic oracle, Togawa was literally rolled onto the stage—her voluminous outfit, almost the size of many Tokyo apartments, was the work of the show’s costume designer Hiromichi Ochiai, founder of the FACETASM brand. Togawa delivered her soliloquies in a somber sprechgesang, though according to our sources (your correspondent’s date for the evening) what she was babbling was largely nonsense.
That lack of substance was in keeping with the unexceptional dancers choreographed by Hiroaki Umeda, and most notably the slim scientific relevance of the proceedings. It can safely be said that Mills won’t replace Neil DeGrasse Tyson as an authority on outer space. Divided into five chapters, the show offered little in the way of cold, hard facts on quantum physics and cosmic phenomena, instead using a general sense of grandeur and wonder as a springboard for the fascinating visuals crafted by Cosmic Lab founder C.O.L.O (whose pseudonym stands for Cosmic Oscillation Luminary Operator).
All of this was both in service to, and bound together by, the marvellous music Mills was assembling on the spot. The show’s chapters included such headings as “Abstract Time” and “Time in Reverse”, and indeed, his music for this show transcends any specific period of EDM’s evolution, and any obligation to establish what might come next. In fact, for a mix to match a theme of the cold, dark, far-flung reaches of outer space, it often felt quite warm and, dare I say, comfortably homebound (the sweet growl of a Hammond B-3 slipping into Mill’s sonic palette likely contributed to that). Not a complaint—Mills is who the audience primarily showed up for, and he did not disappoint.
Mills calls the whole thing a “cosmic opera” and while certainly short of scientific significance, it’s nonetheless a solid and satisfying gesamtkunstwerk for the rave generation. It’s a show about the universe with pretty universal appeal, but with a strong streak of Japanese sensibility to it—even the souvenir program handed out upon departure contains an extensive manga, starring Mills himself.
