just arrived in tokyo. still hugely jetlagged. but we’ve had delicate fresh tofu, lots of gyoza! and startstruck wandering about the city to take up the past three days. went up the government tower, but sadly couldn’t see fuji. haven’t felt an earthquake yet either, kinda hoping we will, but also hoping it’s not ‘the big one’.

there’s so much happening. like berlin. though gigs and clubs are a lot more expensive here in tokyo. the goethe institute have a showcase happening in may called soundz from germany. it’s a pretty amazing lineup of mostly german peeps like senor coconut, monolake, apparat, mouse on mars, mia, lali puna, pole and atom heart.

otherwise i’m looking forward to catching the bug, madlib, hideki kaji, keb darge, luciano… i’ll probably miss half these, catch a hundred others and do some entirely random things i currently have no idea about. god i love being caught up in the flood of people around tokyo!

we had our first dose of karaoke last night too!

lyin’ back in the shade. etc. except that the new album from tzu, set to drop in july, shows the melbourne heads messing with more. country, rock. loads more singing and live beats. looking forward to seeing this one hit radio.

criss cross publishes metropolis and japan today

i was down at hardwax, one of berlin´s best record shops, the other day and discovered a fantastic label. solo-action have only released five 12s so far, no CDs. but what they´ve put out is consistently great. broken techno, like delsin who they seem to be connected to, but without that label´s smooth sheen. the solo action tracks hit that broken tech with hard syncopation, weird sounds and the odd bit of 303. it´s very disappointing that their first party happens on may 15, long after i´ve left.
the tracks that hit me were by stronghold, shed, and egotism. all worth listening to.
other things that i liked were the new albums by venetian snares, autechre and robert henke. henke´s new signal to noise is a beautiful droney-spacey artificial tribute to thunder. probably the best thing i picked up though was omar s´s great ´(and very moodymann influenced) first album just ask the lonely.

today we went to auschwitz-birkenau.
it was pretty heart rending. looking out at hectares and hectares of barracks and the remains of gas chambers and crematoria that you’ve seen in so many pictures is
one thing.
the real stab in the heart is seeing the abstract victims turn into real people in front of your eyes. huge rooms filled with locks of human hair that was used in the german textile industry to make blankets and material. there was a small cabinet filled with little children’s outfits. a corridor of ss mug shots of people about to be murdered, shaved heads and emaciated, but in every other way just looking like people you might know, people with hopes and aspirations. my age. there was even one that had a little wreath above it left by a younger relative.
all i could do was buy a little candle and leave it on the railway track into birkenau.

fourtet, one of the most consistently fantastic producers working the line between indie and electronics, has a new album out in may. his site says it’ll be called everything ecstatic, and there will be a 2 track promo 12” in april.
apparently stones throw are set to release an ep of fourtet remixes of madvillainy too!

heard this great new swedish band at the roxy in prague a couple of days ago. kinda on the shoegazer tip – a bit of ride, a bit of my bloody valentine – their site says they’ll be playing in berlin on the 17th, brilliant.

arrived into prague this morning after an overnight train trip in a sleeper carriage – nowhere near as comfy as it sounds – to find that karl bartos of kraftwerk fame is playing here, supported by tata bojs tomorrow night. all happening at roxy, which has a cool vibe, half multimedia art space, half 2nd hand records/clothes, half great club space.

canberra dj bec paton moved to sydney recently, so i interviewed her for a couple of mags.
here is a fun favourite tunes type thing for cyclic defrost.
this is a more interviewy thing that i wrote for canberrra times and then passed on to 3D World.

smh says that the federal govt used riot police to quash protesters peacefully demonstrating against the inhuman baxter refugee camps.
“One male protester was punched in the head by a riot squad officer and another, a woman, was grabbed by a policeman by the hair, pulled to the ground and had her face forcibly pushed into the red dirt and scrub.”
i guess howard’s moves towards a kinder stance on refugees were just a wedge attempt, as crikey said last week.
hilariously enough, vanstone is saying that protests outside her house are making it personal. what does she think she’s involved in… a game of bridge?
whether she’s right or wrong, she needs to take personal responsibility for her actions as top dog on immigration.

travelling through the balkans shows me just how easy it is to stir up nationalist/racist fervour. and it’s not just there. the uk is getting fired up, and right wing parties are gaining power throughout europe.
i guess it makes it clear just how fine the line is: between comfortable friendly relations and bitter enmity and division. there’s only so long that the australian government can keep using race as a tool to win elections before it starts to infect the electorate.