Japan saves music, banking, art

[imomus]

The nice folks at Paris / Tokyo label Sonore have drawn my attention to Doddodo, an act worthy of the "Matsuri-kei" label (which I invented fairly arbitrarily, but does seem to sum up a certain sound and attitude). This video by Sonore's Franck Stofer, filmed in May at Earthdom Shin-Okubo, gladdens my heart muchly. Doddodo's enormously fat and primal sound exemplifies all the good things CSS lost by getting too polished on their second album:

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Sonore are currently looking for somewhere for Doddodo to perform live in Berlin this December, so if you know of a good venue, tell them.

In other Japanese news, the nation has a new prime minister in the form of Taro Aso, has bailed out the American economy by acquiring several American banks and is currently hosting the Yokohama Triennale, which I'll be blogging about for the NYT on Friday.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, I heard Tim Gane now lives in Berlin. Have you ever crossed paths with him? I know you liked Stereolab back in the day, what do you think of them now? Are you of the "they've-been-putting-out-the-same-record-for-the-past-ten-years" school of thought?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I actually bumped into Tim just round the corner from my house a month or so ago. He was going to see The Chap play live, along with Fred "Electronicat" Bigot, and they invited me along, but I didn't go for some reason.

They have been putting out the same record for the last ten years, but it's a good one!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

By the way, here's a recent Electronicat (http://www.flasher.com/view_profile.php?profile_id=503) interview on Flasher.

[(Anonymous)]

doddodo isn't a duo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doddodo

After 2012 and the end of capitalism as we know it

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

Hello Momus.

I read your recent blog with the phrase about the end of capitalism as we know it, then, the same day, I phoned a friend, and he said, "So how was America at the end of capitalism-as-we-know-it?"

I thought maybe I'd missed an announcement about the end of capitalism? Have I? That would be just like me.

Anyway, it inspired the following, should you or anyone be interested. I hope that it's fun:

http://sleeping-butterfly.blogspot.com/2008/09/after-2012-and-end-of-capitalism-as-we.html

Quentin.

[(Anonymous)]

She's got it.

[(Anonymous)]

Doddodo played at Club Transmediale in 2006 along with OVe-NaXx, Drumcorps et al. Her and others of the Wrong Music scene http://www.wrongmusic.com like DJ Scotch Egg and DJ Shitmat have been around for a while. Is Maria am Ostbahnhof still going? Surely Jason Forrest should be right onto this?

[silkytooth.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

i did a UK tour with DODDODO about 2 and a half years back, she did a record for adaadat around the same time as the GVSY one. naimin is very cool!
joe

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

It seems as if the primary qualification for a musician these days is the complete inability to make anything but noise.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wow, there's an Adaadat connection!

"before she was recommended to the UK eclectic label ADAADAT, by fellow adaadat and renda artist Ove-Naxx".

Adaadat is Gay Against You / Germlin's label.

The duo thing comes from the photo on her website, which seems to show a collaborator. (http://doddodo.dokkoisho.com/)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

All music is organized sound. Some people organize it in exciting ways, simple as that!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Sick, er, dude!

Looking forward to your Torry Tales!

sound and attitude

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

The sounds produced by the performance artists you exhibit are visceral, lingering in thought and feeling, recurring regularly long after exposure. There should be a disclaimer about this. Nice.

[sandroha.livejournal.com]

Interestingly

[(Anonymous)]

just the matsuri-kei fix i needed!
though my favorite part is that (strangely familiar-sounding) interlude worked in from 0:26~0:33. any idea where that might have come from? (anyone?)
would love to hear more of that..

祭り系

[(Anonymous)]

incidentally, i think "matsuri-kei" is absolutely perfect as a label (for the perceived genre as a whole, not doddodo in particular) (-- and where else but japan could that aesthetic turn out to be somehow appealing?)

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Isn't Taro Aso a rightwinger though?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It depends what you call right wing. He's very much in favour of the "pork barrel spending" the US Republicans deplore -- government make-work schemes like the fabled Alaskan "bridge to nowhere". He's not a Koizumi-style neo-liberal reformer -- he wouldn't have staked everything on postal savings privatisation, as Koizumi did. He also represents a more arms-length stance towards America. It's worth noting that he comes to power at a time when the liberal opposition party is strong in Japan; he may be keen to steal their thunder by adopting some of their positions.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

So he's a sort of Japanese Sarkozy?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

He's "statist" in a way US or UK political definitions would find suspiciously socialist.

He was very much against postal privatisation when he was minister of posts in 2003, by the way. Sarkozy would be better compared with Koizumi.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

He also represents a more arms-length stance towards America.

Actually, that's not accurate. He's pretty pro-American.

[(Anonymous)]

A good venue to perform is Ausland of my friend Gregor Hotz. I think you know him.
Can't write mail to the label now, the link on my mac wont work for some reason.

[fedorfedorovich.livejournal.com]

A good venue to perform is Ausland of my friend Gregor Hotz. I think you know him.
Can't write mail to the label now, the link on my mac wont work for some reason.

it's me

[(Anonymous)]

Unsure how many bankers read your blog, but certainly Japan isn't bailing out America's financial problems, but rather specific global financial entities with a Japanese name. A bank afterall is just a bank, no matter where it is and what's its name.

[(Anonymous)]

oh my, unintentional business blogging at iMomus: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2008/gb20080924_866404.htm (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2008/gb20080924_866404.htm)

ohhh throaty sound genre

[(Anonymous)]

as Ian Curtis once sang...

Wank wank wank wank wank to the momus!
Wank wank wank wank wank to the momus!
Wank wank wank wank wank to the momus!

and then a baby zeitgeist was born in Paisley who was allowed to name Japanese music styles and all the wee stump legged boys and gammy eyed girls surrounded him like a kill-fun-jap-ironic-bunny messaiah

pffffttt ssssttttzzzzkkkk....oh stanky burst pish...itai..itai...GOOSH

sorry mom(us) yer a wank funk covered in pish

doddodo is my fave!!!

[(Anonymous)]

From what I know she does all sound production herself, but there’s a dude who always does the live visuals during her shows who is considered part of the “band”.
-shane

Yokohama Triennale

[(Anonymous)]

> the Yokohama Triennale, which I'll be blogging about for the NYT on Friday.

Dear Momus, couldn't you please refrain from writing about art shows that you haven't actually seen yourself? In particular a rather controversial show like this one.

Re: Yokohama Triennale

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Controversial? All the press reports I've seen have said it's, if anything, rather dull. Do you mean because only ten Japanese artists (and some of those resident in New York City) are represented?

And is your failure to elaborate here -- as someone who's presumably seen the show -- meant to be the correct way to react? See the show, but stay mum, rather than not-seeing it and talking about it?

My report (http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/the-post-materialist-the-yokohama-triennale), by the way, doesn't claim to be anything other than a review of the press and blog reports that have appeared about the Yokohama Triennale.

Re: Yokohama Triennale

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Momus,
First of all, I'm a regular reader of Click Opera and normally enjoy and admire your writing (and your tremendous energy) a lot. However, writing a review of a show based entirely on second-hand information seems utterly pointless, or even immoral. That's not art criticism - it's just gossip! Surely you can do better than that.

My own review (in Japanese) is here:
http://kusagauma.blogspot.com/2008/09/yokohama-triennale.html

So far, I haven't met a single person who actually liked the show, but as you know, negative criticism is usually avoided in Japan, at least in print. Consequently, the reviews I've seen have been rather few and rather bland.
There are any number of baffling curatorial decisions; from the quite abstruse comments by the director I infer that they were aiming for something like last year's (extremely controversial) Documenta, but unfortunately they have had neither the audacity nor the money to carry it through. However, the biggest failure as I see it is that the show has nothing at all to do with Yokohama, and not much to do with Japan either. I find this particularly sad as I've been a resident (and taxpayer) of Yokohama for over 20 years, and I really would (have) like(d) them to succeed, not least in order to make feasible another triennale in three years time. But I honestly find it difficult to recommend this show to my friends who are not already inside the small circle of aficionados of contemporary art.

Re: Yokohama Triennale

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Nice to see such a thorough review, Jan, and one that moves from global negatives to pieces you did like. Naturally, I'd have liked to see the show in person, but neither I nor my employer (the New York Times, in this instance) have the budget to attend this Yokohama Triennale. I wanted to cover it, or rather cover the coverage. And I did quote, for instance, Andrew Maerkle saying it was "boring".

I suspect I would've enjoyed the show a lot -- just going on the inclusion of so many artists I like, and the foregrounding of performance, which is a particular interest of mine. And personally, I don't like the kind of tokenism whereby local Yokohama artists are included just because of their proximity to the site. That can be covered by ancillary events -- and there are some in Yokohama, seeking to attract with more local stuff the art crowd -- let's not forget -- drawn here by Japan's premier international contemporary art event.

Re: Yokohama Triennale

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't mean to advocate tokenism, but the problem here is that they need to attract some 200,000 paying visitors in order to break even, and you don't do that by putting on a show essentially by New Yorkers for New Yorkers - in Yokohama. The regular art crowd (people who know and follow contemporary art) in Japan is tiny, and it doesn't help that many Tokyoites seem to think that Yokohama is "far away" (it's only 30 minutes).
So you really need to attract the local population. Now, Yokohama is a big city and there are plenty of generally interested people that COULD be attracted, had the curators made a bit more of an effort to do so.

As I wrote in my review, this triennale is noteworthy mostly for what is missing, namely works that are "attractive" in the most basic sense, i.e. public magnets: eye-catching public artworks, works that are immediately enjoyable even without a long art education, photogenic works that look good in reviews and newspaper articles, or works that relate to local issues. Performances are well and fine, but can usually only be seen by a handful of people at a time, and most performances were concentrated to the busy opening weekend and are over already.

You quote one foreign reviewer as saying the show is boring, but that sort of misses the point. Foreign visitors are only a minor fraction of the paying audience anyway. The thing is that if Japanese reviewers also find it boring, they won't write much about it at all. For instance, my morning daily Asahi Shinbun had a token review on the first day, with a small black and white photograph and some quotes from the press kit, but no personal opinion whatsoever, and I haven't seen a single line about the triennale in the two weeks since.

The first triennale in 2001 became a big success mostly by accident, in a way totally unforeseen by the curators. Although a lot of the art was good, attendance was extremely poor for the first month and it looked like a disaster. Then, however, the huge but brittle grasshopper on the front of the Intercontinental Hotel suddenly became the talk of the town and was covered almost daily in the news: will it fly today or not? All of a sudden, the Triennale became a hot date spot for young couples in the Kanto area, and during the last few weeks there were Disneyland-like lines around the corner to several of the attractions (an hour to get into that John Bock room, for instance).
Unfortunately, I doubt that anything similar will happen this time.

Jan

Re: Yokohama Triennale

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Asahi Shinbun had a token review on the first day, with a small black and white photograph and some quotes from the press kit, but no personal opinion whatsoever, and I haven't seen a single line about the triennale in the two weeks since.

Isn't that the nature of the Japanese press, though? They tend not to do criticism in the Western sense. I don't think you can blame that on the YT.

As for the grasshopper on the Continental Hotel, I thought it was the worst piece in the first Triennnale. It might as well have been part of some advertising campaign. Better populism, in 2001, was the use of a shopping centre as venue, and the huge photo of a clogged granny (http://imomus.com/dailyphoto040901.html) by (was it?) Miwa Yanagi.

This year, there were some things that would surely have intrigued the local populace: the Fujiko Nakaya artificial fog, for instance, or Terence Koh's crowd-walk to the sea.

But, frankly, I think trying to make contemporary art populist or locally-relevant would be a big mistake. I think it ought to be a sort of publicly-exhibited research, a sort of esoteric poetry, a rather austere beauty that you adapt to more than it adapts to you, a high church. Play to its weakness (elitism) and you'd get something like tabloid TV in an art context. Play to its strength and you get something no other medium can do. And yes, that does often mean slowness (Tsunoda and Luke Fowler's piece) and pretension (Saburo Teshigawara writhing around in broken glass) and difficulty and obscurity and obscenity (Hermann Nitsche) and spikiness (Cameron Jamie) and taboo (Marina Abramovic with her instructions on nude platform viewing).

There's plenty of room in commercial media for the glib and the flashy, we don't need them in art, and when art does them (Damien Hirst springs to mind) it's at its worst.