Tag: Neojaponisme

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Magazines

NJP

This past week I was incredibly happy and excited to receive the first issue of NJP, a new magazine by the creators of the Neojaponisme website. Full disclosure, the two masterminds behind the site (W. David Marx and Ian Lynam) are great friends of mine, and I was — if ever so slightly — involved with the launch of the original Neojaponisme website, but this is truly a thing of beauty, and I can’t recommend enough that you pick up a copy for yourself.

Cover of the first issue of NJP.

As I started reading the issue, as much as I was enjoying what I was taking in, I will admit that I did feel a tinge of sadness — bordering on jealousy — that I never managed to get a magazine project like this up and running. It’s no secret that I have a great love — bordering on obsession — for the medium of magazines, and it even resulted in an old website I used to run called The Magaziner. I always dreamed of producing some sort of indie magazine project, and what they’ve done with NJP is exactly the type of thing I had in mind — a beautifully designed “meaty” object with a strong theme.

But hey, at least someone is doing it, and I get to enjoy the results.

Categories
Music

The Best of Shibuya-kei, Volume One

You’ll remember that late last year David shared a fantastic series of Pizzicato Five reviews on Neojaponisme, and now he’s shared this terrific mix, a true celebration of Shibuya-kei. I was lucky to get an early draft version of this mix a while back, and it’s been my favorite thing to listen to since (I’ve literally listened to it over 30-40 times). I keep bugging him for Volume Two.

Categories
Web

The Year of Nothing

Néojaponisme has tended to end the year with a collection of short pieces by a bevy of collaborators (including me), looking back at some of the top ideas, topics, and themes that marked Japan that year. This year, as David shares in this essay, nothing much happened, and that’s OK. He also ends with a little tease about a new Néojaponisme project for 2017, and that’s certainly something to get excited about.

Categories
Music

Pizzicato Five Discography: 1998-2006

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And so here it is, the final part of David‘s massive Pizzicato Five discography review series. The fact that I’ve highlighted every part here probably gives away that I so love that David took the time to do this, and it was fun to read along and listen again to a lot of these records. I first met David through a Pizzicato Five mailing list (P5ML) during the years leading up to my move to Tokyo in 1998 (after visiting in 1997) and it’s great to be celebrating this stuff again together almost 20 years later.

Categories
Music

Pizzicato Five Discography: 1994-1997

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Part 3 of David‘s review series of the Pizzicato Five discography is up on Neojaponisme, this time covering probably peak P5. So many great records here, including the album that introduced me to the band (and probably many other of us non-Japanese fans), Made in USA. I used to play so many tracks from that album on my college radio show.

Update: I was just reminded that Happy End of the World is also quite a special album for me, because it was the first Pizzicato Five album I bought in Tokyo — I visited Japan for the first time the summer it came out. I bought a PlayStation on that same trip (it was while I was a student in China), and I have memories of staying at a Love Hotel with my wife (it was cheaper than a hotel), and plugging in my PlayStation so I could listen to this album.

Categories
Music

Pizzicato Five Discography: 1991-1993

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David‘s second Pizzicato Five review post is now up, covering the years 1991 to 1993, which is an important period, since it’s when Maki Nomiya enters the picture. Arguably the best P5 album was released during this period, at least according to David (Bossa Nova 2001).

Categories
Music

Pizzicato Five Discography: 1985-1991

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Following yesterday’s intro post, the first proper part of David‘s review of the entire Pizzicato Five discography is up on Neojaponisme, covering the “pre-canon” era that runs from 1985 to 1991. I’m with David here (as you’ll see through his scores), this is definitely my least favorite period of P5’s output, and I never spent much time listening to these records (with the possible exception of On Her Majesty’s Request).

Categories
Music

The Pizzicato Five Discography Review

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I’ve mentioned in a few posts already that David was working on an exhaustive review of the complete Pizzicato Five discography, and it’s now ready. Head over to Neojaponisme for an intro post, and then check in throughout the week as he shares his reviews over 4 posts, each covering a particular era. The intro also goes ahead and gives you his top 5 P5 records — I’m sure mine would be similar, but I’d need to revisit their discography myself to make sure.

Categories
Anime TV

Matt Alt on Macross

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As I continue to go through my site archives to fix posts, I’ve now hit 2008, and came across this post that pointed to a big feature by Matt Alt on Macross, that he had written for Neojaponisme. Since I’m currently in the process of watching The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, I thought I’d share this again (and I’ve bookmarked it to re-read it).

And speaking of Neojaponisme, although the site isn’t active like it used to be, stay tuned because that’s where David will be sharing his upcoming reviews of the Pizzicato Five discography (that I had mentioned here).

Categories
Uncategorized

Ametora

W. David Marx’s upcoming book on the popularity of the American Ivy League fashion style in Japan in the 60s, Ametora (short for “American Traditional”), comes out on December 1, and you can pre-order it from Amazon.

This is a project that David has been slowly cooking – let’s call it a crock-pot of a project – for quite a while, and seeing it finally get to a point where it’s almost out and already getting some great coverage – like a recommendation in the latest issue of Monocle, pictured in this post, and an excerpt in Lapham’s Quarterly – is really fantastic. There’s no one I know who is more knowledgeable about this topic – and to be honest, the history of modern fashion in Japan – than him (he even wrote a thesis on A Bathing Ape).

This all gets me feeling quite nostalgic. David is one of the very first friends I made when I first moved to Tokyo over 15 years ago. We became acquainted slightly before my arrival, through a Pizzicato Five mailing list, which is how I made all of my first friends in Japan.

Yes, even back then, electronic communications were a thing, imagine that.

Over the years we’ve each had our own entertaining journeys, and his involved producing some excellent music (under the Marxy monicker), and before launching the Néojaponisme website with Ian Lynam, he was quite well known for some epic online essays about Japanese culture that evolved into some of the most pointed and heated discussions, usually with Momus playing the role of foil.

So yeah, Ametora, can’t wait to read it.