japan- it's not all about temples, tofu, toilets and technology
as per mentioned a while ago, tokyo has the most insane reggae record shops imaginable (friendly too- i was given an ujama 7" for free at jammers after having a nice chat with the owner, double h). £50 for rare original press 7"s a norm, if you're that way inclined (i'm not).
i paid about £3.00 per 7" purchased, as i wasn't digging that hard. you'd need to spend a serious amount of time to appreciate the goodies on offer, and i "had not come all this way to spend the entire holiday in record shops" to negatively paraphrase-for effect- christine's thoughts on the matter (in fact she happily gave me an afternoon to search out vinyl delights, in addition to smiling and only slightly rolling her eyes when we happened upon places like gloria's records by chance).
and my suitcase was already full of tat.
in addition i got a couple of nice mix cds- a '70s reggae classics' style one which avoids most of the usual hits, bought from a shop in kyoto that was banging out bashment, full of 'bloodclaat' 'bun batty man' lyrics, of which the mass of people walking past were thankfully ignorant. this appeared to be a bit of an issue amongst the japanese reggae fans- appropriating words without understanding (or at least, not fully appreciating) what they meant.
this was highlighted on the second cd (pack)- a recording of a '45 clashment session', featuring the aforementioned double h (wicked selection) and japanses chums who ruined their selection- generally late 80s/ early 90s ragga- with lots of excessive shouting. the way they dropped from japanese into patois throughout is a somewhat dislocating experience.
possibly more trite tourist type posts as (or, if) i collect my thoughts. for example. i bought a toothbrush called a 'clinica lion'. oh how we laughed.
as per mentioned a while ago, tokyo has the most insane reggae record shops imaginable (friendly too- i was given an ujama 7" for free at jammers after having a nice chat with the owner, double h). £50 for rare original press 7"s a norm, if you're that way inclined (i'm not).
i paid about £3.00 per 7" purchased, as i wasn't digging that hard. you'd need to spend a serious amount of time to appreciate the goodies on offer, and i "had not come all this way to spend the entire holiday in record shops" to negatively paraphrase-for effect- christine's thoughts on the matter (in fact she happily gave me an afternoon to search out vinyl delights, in addition to smiling and only slightly rolling her eyes when we happened upon places like gloria's records by chance).
and my suitcase was already full of tat.
in addition i got a couple of nice mix cds- a '70s reggae classics' style one which avoids most of the usual hits, bought from a shop in kyoto that was banging out bashment, full of 'bloodclaat' 'bun batty man' lyrics, of which the mass of people walking past were thankfully ignorant. this appeared to be a bit of an issue amongst the japanese reggae fans- appropriating words without understanding (or at least, not fully appreciating) what they meant.
this was highlighted on the second cd (pack)- a recording of a '45 clashment session', featuring the aforementioned double h (wicked selection) and japanses chums who ruined their selection- generally late 80s/ early 90s ragga- with lots of excessive shouting. the way they dropped from japanese into patois throughout is a somewhat dislocating experience.
possibly more trite tourist type posts as (or, if) i collect my thoughts. for example. i bought a toothbrush called a 'clinica lion'. oh how we laughed.
