Why go to Japan? The most accurate answer is also the most obvious: to go to Japan. When you get the chance to film music, to shoot anywhere in the world, wouldn’t you want to go somewhere that’s unmistakably foreign yet so familiar? 

Really, there are a few reasons: Japan is one of the last havens for music like it was back in the day on our side of the world. There are countless places to buy records: they’ve got enormous stores, of course, but also places where albums are sorted by independent label, and little stalls hawking vinyls no one even knew existed. They’ve got obscure local bands, of course, but also old Brazilian rarities and original masters of jazz records, from Marcos Valle to Penguin Café Orchestra, as well as master recordings of Left Banke or The Turtles in perfect condition (this has all been confirmed, found in a tiny shop in Shimokitazawa). 

Japan also has a musical scene of inconceivable vibrancy and uncommon diversity. It’s a scene that embodies today’s “tropicalism”: the discovery and then thorough and voracious consumption of western music, reworked with local flavor. You can find indie, punk, hip-hop, beautiful harmonies, tribal flights of fancy, savageness, fragility, and an unselfconscious desire to experiment throughout, an inclination to play with traditions and to explore new musical frontiers. 

In short, there’s a hunger for music. The real thing. We were there for six days, but we could have spent twenty, shooting day and night so that we could see every band that was breathlessly recommended to us. We spent six days in Japan, filming as much as we could, and when we left again we had only one wish: to return. 

Chryde for la Blogotheque

• Japan Times music page
• Julian Cope’s Japrock Sampler
• Japan Live
• Sparkplugged
• J-Rock Explosion
• Keikaku
• Nippon Rock
• Néojaponisme
• Ongakublog
• ZB’s A-Z of J-Music