Archive for May, 2006


Tokyo Dark Castle[Goth/Industrial Live] UPDATE!! This is the last event for EUTHANASIE this year! Don’t panic, this is not the end – just time off while #449 is in Britain from June to December… BUT if you love EUTHANASIE you better haul ass to TOKYO DARK CASTLE this weekend! If you really love EUTHANASIE you might want to book with them at androgaga [AT] yahoo [DOT] co [DOT] jp!

How many times and in how many different ways have I said that this is the biggest live Goth event around?! Tokyo Dark Castle is UBER-GOTH and this one has ribs!

The June show is shaping up to be rough-riding event with heavy industrial rock attacks from Destruct System and Baal, hard-rock from Auto-Mod, Goth-rock Speed-iD, sexed-up elektronicka from Euthanasie and just some downright explosive shit from Demons. The quieter act of the night is lloy, who will give you much-needed respite from the ensuing madness of the night. As usual, the live assaults will be interspersed by DJs Chihiro, Violet and Taizo.

Remember your ID!
Even if you are in you are 98 you will not be allowed entry without an ID. This is an overnight event so you need to be 18+ to enter and 20+ to drink.

Tokyo Dark Castle #20
When: Saturday, 3rd June
Open: 23:45 :: Start: 24:00
Where: Marz Shinjuku (near Shinjuku)
Address: B1F Dai-ichi Tokiwa Bldg., Kabukicho 2-45-1, Shinjuku :: Map
Tel: 03-3202-8248
Price 3,000 yen adv. :: 3,500 yen @ door (plus 500 1D)
Live: Auto-Mod, Destruct System, Baal, Euthanasie, Speed-iD, Demons, and lloy.
DJs: Chihiro, Violet and Taizo.
Note: Must be 18+ (ID checks) – 20+ to drink.

Jgoth.com is back online after some fuming on whether to pack it in or not. [Re-edited for]

For me personally, the site has grown from a happy little hobby that covered all kinds of things going on under the radar in Japan to a kind of second job for things Goth – since I work for myself and I am a cheap bastard, it is volunteer work I guess. There are good aspects to be sure, but it has also taken up more time and led to other things beyond just talking here. A few issues that have cropped up over the past 13 months have made it difficult to simply enjoy doing something funky.

A few things in the past week+ just sent my blood pressure sky-rocketing, hence my recent rant. It didn’t help. The problems remained and a couple of others have risen as a result… I just seem to be making a onyx-gilted cage for myself.

I’m going to work on unlocking that cage in the weeks ahead and try to get to enjoying playing my own game.

Kyoto’s Jet Pepper Tower will be heading to Osaka to team up with Red Ill Princess and others for an assault at Holiday. JPT are a hot moody Goth-rock unit, while Red Ill Princess is the new (and still mysterious) project for Rie, Satanyanko’s former singer. Not being on that side of Japan, the only other band I can make any intelligent comment on is FBTZ, which has kind of a funked out digi-punk sound. Glamour Design & Viodish were in last year’s Deathtopia with Satanyanko and Jubilee, but I am not sure about their sounds. Definitely worth checking out for JPT & RIP and I’d welcome any post-show comments from folks.

Goat Lan Music @ Holiday Osaka
When: Saturday, 3rd June
Open: 16:30 :: Start: 17:00
Where: Holiday Osaka
Address: B1F Ume-shin (new plum?) Plaza 4-15-18 Nishi Tenma, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0047 :: Map
Tel: 06-6362-5288
Price 2,000 yen adv. :: 2,500 yen @ door
Live: Jet Pepper Tower, Red Ill Princess, FBTZ, Glamour Design, Viodish Select, 刺囁Eand more.

[General Live?] Late entry for moody, bluesey Goth-rock unit, Jet Pepper Tower at the end of the month. I cannot add any information about the other bands alas, but worth checking for JPT. Jittoku, the live house for tonight’s performance proclaims itself to have “Good Food, Cheap Booze & Real Live Bleeding Music.” There you go.

JPT @ Coffee House Jittoku
When: Sunday, 28th May
Open: 18:30
Where: Coffee House Jittoku KOBE :: Map
Tel: 075-841-1691
Price: 1,500 yen adv. :: 1,800 yen @ door.
Live: Jet Pepper Tower, Mirror Balls (Nagoya) and more

[Electro-dance DJ & Live] Late addition to the May listings. How to describe this event…. Maybe 21st century cocktail of electro-dance, fun to fetishy cosplay, experimental cabaret, and more. Decadent and fun with good music. Lots of DJ’s and performers including Aural Vampire, Selia, Shisen/Violet from the darker side of the tracks. Still confused? Well just check the Decadance blog for a couple of cool videos of past events. Recommended for those who like to dress up when they go wild.

Decadance vol. 8
When: Saturday, 27th May
Open: 23:30
Where: Fai Aoyama (nr. Omotesando)
Address: Hachihonkan Building B1/B2, 5-10-1, Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062 :: Map
Tel: 03-3486-4910
Live: Aural Vampire
Performance: Selia, Dragon & Jousama, Go-go Dancers and Dragqueen & Hennayatsu (eh?).
DJs: Sisen (Violet), Hideo Koizumi, and Mutron.
VJ: Ai-Hz

electr-ohmAwesome! Our first local streaming Webcast that plays funked out, crazy stuff 24 hours 7 days a week! Electr-ohm has started an Internet radio service (details below) for iTunes and Real One Player. The show streams each week’s selection of tracks which are updated every Wednesday. Sound cool? You better believe it.

Electr-ohm is a Kobe-based label specializing in many forms of electronic music spanning IDM, abstract, break beat, rhythmic noise, dark electro, industrial, ambient and experimental styles.

To access the tracks just go to electr-ohm’s MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/electrohm, scroll down a bit and click on either the iTunes or Real One Player icon to get your radio!

As the owners say LISTEN TO OUR RADIO!

Minivan + people + charcoal burners = death. Two men plus one woman in their 20s to 30s. There is not much to say, but here is the Yamaguchi tourism site.

Iszoloscope[Industiral] Canadian industrial unit Iszoloscope will be touring Japan in late May with shows in Tokyo (May 27), Naogya (May 30), and Osaka (May 31). This is a great opportunity for locals and local gaijin to catch a major underground overseas band whose range spans harsh tech-noise to ambient soundscapes.

For the uninitiated (like me – I’m such a tourist), Iszoloscope records on the Ant-Zen label and has played at major events like Germany’s Maschinenfest festival. Sounds good? Okay, let’s roll.

Saturday 27 May @ 24:00 :: TOKYO
Iszoloscope @ Marz, Shinjuku (in Midnight Mess)
Address: B1F Dai-ichi Tokiwa Bldg., Kabukicho 2-45-1, Shinjuku :: Map
Phone: 03-3202-8248
Price: 2,500 yen adv. :: 3,000yen @ door (+500 1D)
Live: Iszoloscope (Canada), Contagious Orgasm (Nagoya) v. Government Alpha, Chaos Royale.
DJs: Statik, Maya
VJ: sa-kyo

Tuesday 30 May @ 19:00/19:30 :: NAGOYA
Iszoloscope @ KD Japon (in Daft Jarring Effects #7)
Address: 5-12-7 Chiyoda, Chuo-ku, NAGOYA 460-0012 (nr. JR Tsurumai station) :: Map
Phone: 052-251-0324
Price: 1,700 yen (+1D)
Live: Iszoloscope (Canada), Contagious Orgasm (Nagoya), Guilty Connector and more.

Wednesday 31 May @ 18:15/18:45 :: OSAKA
Iszoloscope @ Bridge OSAKA
Address: 8F Festival Gate, 3-4-36 Ebisu Higashi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka 556-0002 :: Map
Phone: 06-6634-0080
Price: 2,000 yen (+300 1D)
Live: Iszoloscope (Canada), Contagious Orgasm (Nagoya) v. Guilty Connector, 坪冁E

[Goth - Fetish - DJ & Live] Midnight Mess is a regular DJ’d Goth event in Tokyo taking place on the fourth Saturday of every month. The May show sees international live performances from Iszoloscope (Canada). There are also a harsh noise performance featuring Contagious Orgasm (Nagoya) and Government Alpha and Chaos Royale.

Mess’ general sound-scape is Gothic, fetish, dark, experimental and industrial. As always with overnight events, entry is 18+ and drinking is 20+ (remember your ID).

Midnight Mess @ Marz Shinjuku
When: Saturday, 27th May 2006
Open: 24:00
Where Marz Shinjuku (near Shinjuku)
Address: B1F Dai-ichi Tokiwa Bldg., Kabukicho 2-45-1, Shinjuku :: Map
Phone: 03-3202-8248
Price: 2,500 yen adv. :: 3,000yen @ door (+500 1D)
Live: Iszoloscope (Canada), Contagious Orgasm (Nagoya) v. Government Alpha, Chaos Royale.
Show: TBA
DJs: Statik, Maya
VJ: sa-kyo

Hailing from Fukuoka, Harshrealm is a dark harsh electronica unit with some great sexed-up sounds and were part of the massive overnight Goth invasion of Urga in Tokyo last month with Auto-Mod, Destruct System, Calmando Qual and other hot local underground bands. Harshrealm is preparing for their first album release in October, but have put a collection of five demo tracks online!

The songs on the extended demo track are:
1.cruel division (demo)
2.subsequence (demo)
3.misery loves company (rough mix)
4.cell(rough mix)
5.sleepy hollow(non vocal mix)

Have a listen to the songs on MySpace, or drop in on Harshrealm’s Web site. This band is exciting, not only in terms of what they are creating, but also in their international cooperation – expect to hear more from Harshrealm in the near future!

Fukuoka gig in June:
On the local front The band will be doing Fukuoka Drum Be-1 on June 10th. Check Harshrealm for details and booking.