Inside Tokyo's audiophile venues
October 2, 2018 6:39 AM Subscribe
Inside Tokyo's audiophile venues. Small bars, good sound systems. (Not really audiophile as that term is normally used.)
Related: A visual chronicle of Tokyo’s disappearing jazz bars. The dovetailing of two things the Japanese do very well (obsessive music fandom and the making of small, cozy bars) is really a beautiful thing.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:17 AM on October 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by ryanshepard at 7:17 AM on October 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
I want to go to there.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:00 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:00 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
My eyes went all goggly at the header pic.
(And I want to make a club that keeps the air cool enough that you can keep dancing and not be a sweaty sog, but I expect keeping it warmer sells more cold drinks? Which is why I'm clearly not a business person.)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:46 AM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
These low-key events have seen DJs like Prins Thomas, Basso, Lovefingers, Jonny Nash, Tako Reyenga and Abel Nagengast of Amsterdam's Red Light Records play music from the strangest corners of their collections. "The aim from the beginning was to play non-dance music, whether it's jazz, prog-rock, experimental and avant-garde," Shimizu says. "Nobody understood this kind of listening party at first, but we just continued doing it. Then a few years later, some younger DJs began to follow our lead, and they started similar parties at the other venues." Tabiji still happens at SHeLTeR, while other spots, like Forestlimit, a raw space at the bottom of a basement stairwell in Hatagaya, host listening parties of their own.Yes, please! And I don't just want to go there, I want to make that.
(And I want to make a club that keeps the air cool enough that you can keep dancing and not be a sweaty sog, but I expect keeping it warmer sells more cold drinks? Which is why I'm clearly not a business person.)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:46 AM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Another recent visit to Tokyo's record bars, with playlists from each.
posted by me3dia at 9:32 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by me3dia at 9:32 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
This sort of thing makes me thing there is an ideal amount of space for one person to be responsible for. Too much space and one mind cannot attend to all of it. To little space and there is clutter. The right amount of space requires novel organization that is right on the edge of clutter, but allows enough to room for choice to be apparent.
posted by ethansr at 9:59 AM on October 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by ethansr at 9:59 AM on October 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
Mod note: Couple comments deleted; let's just enjoy a modest post about an interesting thing for its own sake, rather than turning it into a fight over generalizations like whether Japan is the best or worst or whatever.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:21 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:21 AM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
Fucking awesome post. Man, today's FPP have just had a run of superbity. Cheers.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:29 AM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:29 AM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also:
Too much space and one mind cannot attend to all of it. To little space and there is clutter. The right amount of space requires novel organization that is right on the edge of clutter, but allows enough to room for choice to be apparent.
The same thing is true of cities, though I think the thresholds of "too much" and "too little" are probably different for each of us.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:30 AM on October 2, 2018
Too much space and one mind cannot attend to all of it. To little space and there is clutter. The right amount of space requires novel organization that is right on the edge of clutter, but allows enough to room for choice to be apparent.
The same thing is true of cities, though I think the thresholds of "too much" and "too little" are probably different for each of us.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:30 AM on October 2, 2018
FYI, Haruki Murakami owned a jazz bar before he started writing books. Not too sure if he still does but it would be neat if he did.
posted by yueliang at 12:03 PM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by yueliang at 12:03 PM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
The world of art lost a lot of real estate with the change from LP to CD and now to digital. Nice place; easy to see how Japan would adopt so well.
posted by Afghan Stan at 12:47 PM on October 2, 2018
posted by Afghan Stan at 12:47 PM on October 2, 2018
I'd wager the Chinese would give any country a run for its money when it comes to best audio. Chinese audiophile magazines are literally as thick as a phone book. Someone in China has the best listening room in the world, I wouldn't be surprised.
posted by Brocktoon at 12:56 PM on October 2, 2018
posted by Brocktoon at 12:56 PM on October 2, 2018
Ah Brocktoon, there's the difference between a listening room and a listening venue.
It's been nearly fifteen years since the time when a friend invited me along to a Sunday night where a turntable in the corner was an open invite for bargoers to play anything from one song to multiple sides of an album -- either the bartender's or their own -- while the relatively slim crowd talked around the bar. In retrospect, a smaller space and a more expensive audio system might have heightened the experience. But there's something to intentionally listening to music with others, without the presence of a band or someone meticulously curating the track-to-track transitions and selection as a DJ might. The records stop being background noise, and pauses in conversation become more intentional than awkward.
Listening to music with friends over a drink and some conversation at home can come close, but you lose the spontaneity of wondering who might show up and the moments of kismet where someone you've met only in passing ends up bonding with you over a beer and a discovered interest in side B of an album you'd nearly forgotten.
posted by mikeh at 1:59 PM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's been nearly fifteen years since the time when a friend invited me along to a Sunday night where a turntable in the corner was an open invite for bargoers to play anything from one song to multiple sides of an album -- either the bartender's or their own -- while the relatively slim crowd talked around the bar. In retrospect, a smaller space and a more expensive audio system might have heightened the experience. But there's something to intentionally listening to music with others, without the presence of a band or someone meticulously curating the track-to-track transitions and selection as a DJ might. The records stop being background noise, and pauses in conversation become more intentional than awkward.
Listening to music with friends over a drink and some conversation at home can come close, but you lose the spontaneity of wondering who might show up and the moments of kismet where someone you've met only in passing ends up bonding with you over a beer and a discovered interest in side B of an album you'd nearly forgotten.
posted by mikeh at 1:59 PM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
Chinese audiophile magazines are literally as thick as a phone book.
Thankfully, while there def. is a traditional audiophile [read: gold-plated cable marks] culture in Japan, these places are generally more about record collecting and obsessing about the music itself.
At least for a little while longer, you can know the joys of going into a place with tens of thousands of dollars worth of collectible jazz records and a 70s hi-fi and smoking with your drink, thumbing your nose at Discogs, Stereophile and the reaper simultaneously.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:11 PM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thankfully, while there def. is a traditional audiophile [read: gold-plated cable marks] culture in Japan, these places are generally more about record collecting and obsessing about the music itself.
At least for a little while longer, you can know the joys of going into a place with tens of thousands of dollars worth of collectible jazz records and a 70s hi-fi and smoking with your drink, thumbing your nose at Discogs, Stereophile and the reaper simultaneously.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:11 PM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
I love things like this, and I want to create a version of it so badly in Portland. My girlfriend is DJing some records at a little bar-that’s-a-house, which will be great, but it’s not exactly the same as this environment-wise.
posted by gucci mane at 2:40 PM on October 2, 2018
posted by gucci mane at 2:40 PM on October 2, 2018
God, I’d kill to find a little place like one of these here in Indy. As it is, it’s nigh-on impossible to find a place that isn’t crowded with hundreds of very loud drinkers, and doesn’t treat music like barely-audible wallpaper played out of a handful of really cheap ceiling speakers. Oh, and isn’t music piped-in via some subscription service.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:14 PM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:14 PM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Not really audiophile as that term is normally used
How is it normally used? By people who have never heard any speakers or other audio components better than what's sold at Best Buy saying things like... 'huhuhu, huhuhu, that dumbass spent $100 on Monster speaker cables, he's so dumb. Huhuhu, huhuhu'
posted by MjrMjr at 7:13 PM on October 2, 2018
How is it normally used? By people who have never heard any speakers or other audio components better than what's sold at Best Buy saying things like... 'huhuhu, huhuhu, that dumbass spent $100 on Monster speaker cables, he's so dumb. Huhuhu, huhuhu'
posted by MjrMjr at 7:13 PM on October 2, 2018
My friends and I have been having listening parties for going on 20 years now; these joints seem like they would be the perfect place to hold one.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:34 AM on October 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:34 AM on October 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by rdr at 7:00 AM on October 2, 2018