March 05, 2002
Shibuya wax hunter

Japan has a pretty amazing underground music scene from what I've had the opportunity to observe, bit by bit, which really does makes sense, given the Japanese affinity for gizmos and counterculture. I decided to take the afternoon to explore the scene for myself, hit a few record stores and even spend a little time in the ultra-corporate monolith that is Tower Records.
There's a corner in Shibuya that's home to about 4 or 5 record stores, filled often floor to ceiling with bins of Trance, Drum and Bass, Hip-Hop, Latin House, and UK Garage records. The aisles are just a bit narrow for most gaijin, camera in tow, especially with budding DJ's clogging the lanes, ensconsed in their headphones, doubled over a Technics 1200.
My first house of wax was Manhattan Records, with each floor dedicated to a somewhat obscure musical genre. As you wind your way up, you can sample Reggae, European House, and more mainstream Hip-Hop and R&B. On the ground level, there's an addition dedicated to more old-school Rap, Hip-Hop and Funk. Each room has it's own DJ mixing it up and managing to sell a few plates as well.
Next, I worked my way to Guinness Records, just a few yards down from Manhattan. However, it's three floors up in what appears to be a normal apartment building--I was worried that I would be barging into someone's humble abode if I kept climbing. However, the trip was ultimately rewarding--Guinness was my favorite stop of the afternoon, despite being even more cramped than Manhattan, largely because their collection is about as large but crammed into a space about 1/3 the size. The tone was a lot more mellow, the decibel levels a bit lower. I sifted through the slots, contemplated a DJ Shadow purchase, decided against it (since I don't actually own a turntable) and made my way back down to street level.
My last smaller-scale record store of the day didn't seem to have a name, at least not one in English, just a banner advertising "Dance and Hip-Hop Records" so I decided to check it out. Clearly, these cats catered to a different crowd. Everythig was in order--alphabetically, no less--and the crates were replaced with stylish brushed metal. The actual number of albums in the entire joint would have probably filled a single wall at either of my earlier spots and the music was canned--no DJ in sight. I hung out briefly, scoped the Jazz section, then headed on my way.
I wound around Shibuya a bit before finally making it to Tower Records. For one reason or another, Tower decided to build an enormous store right here, the biggest in Japan, it proclaimed proudly, as if that were an invitation. I felt as if I was betraying some kind of covenant I should have established while patronizing the likes of Manhattan and Guinness, and was certainly hesitant to launch myslef, cog-like, into this whirling capitalistic machine. But, I did succumb and marched proudly to the top of seven floors, to work my way down. Each floor is categorized by genre, or rather an often unholy union of several genres.
I meandered through the books and magazines, the classical music, then the Jazz floor. However, some marketing drone decided that Jazz should also live on the same floor as New Age and Country music, so I was immediately greeted with something resembling Arlo Guthrie under water, followed by some earthy, bad Enya ripoff. I made a beeline for the Pat Metheny demo counter, jacked the headphone volume and listened until I was sure it was safe to come out. I was bent on finding some rare issue that was only available in Japan and finally settled on Herbie Hancock's latest, a special Japan-only issue with a DJ Krush remix at the end.
I then found myself on the Rap-Hip-Hop floor, which shares space with the DVD's and soundtracks. Clearly, this was a recipe for disaster, for as I was inspecting the latest from the Wu Tang Clan, none other than Barbara Streisand's The Way We Were made it's way to the soundsystem. Amazingly enough, I was the only one that seemed to even notice, let alone question the choice of Babs' Academy award winning talents being forced on an entire floor of unsuspecting Hip-Hop purveyors.
I quickly made my way to the Japanese Pop and Indie floor, yet another unfortunate pairing. It's as if Tower is running some massive social psychology experiment on mismanaged genre grouping--I can only imagine a basement addition with top Pop hits from Palestine and Now That's What I Call Music:Hasidic Style! I did learn that Japanese pop music is just as soul-less and void of anything resembling content as American, with only slightly less focus on the artist's midriff.
Eventually, I escaped, Herbie Hancock in hand, and made my way back towards Harajuku, satisfied with my hunting experience.

Posted by jimray at March 05, 2002 12:46 AM
Comments

Hey Jim!
Sorry for the lack of comments. Sad to hear that you won't be seeing us soon :( but it sounds like you've had/are having an absolutely wondrous time. And I think if the whole web journalism thing doesn't work out, you could write for a travel guide . . . or something.
A sushi-go-round ?!? Are you kidding me! How cool! Bring me some sushi! . . . wait, no. Love ya!

Posted by: Blake on March 6, 2002 06:02 AM

live drum and bass,a must see.

Posted by: Kevens on May 1, 2002 11:13 PM
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