as a music door.

Necessary sound-blasts for riding the trains through Tokyo's blight of post-modern architecture and weary consumers.
Two albums of deep dub to chant down the darkness. Alpha & Omega, who recently performed at Unit in Tokyo, released another dense and eerie album in 2006, with contributions from both Scratch Perry and Mad Professor. "Trample the Eagle & The Dragon & The Bear" is full of stepper's rhythms and ghostly production that gets almost translucent with the oxygen sucked into the hollows of the bassline. Jonah's off-kilter vocals are left alone, dry and organic, and then suddenly ricocheted through reverb chambers, increasing the uneasy and compelling quality of this recording.

Kousuke gave me Kanka's "Don't Stop Dub" after an all-night session at One-Blood in Ikebukuro. Thickly cooked electro dub from France that keeps company with High Tone and Brain Damage--other notable bands operating in stealth from Europe. Heavy, simple electronics all cold and sharp edges with the snare flattened out in deep space compression. Military Dub (version), A Ticket to Die! and Whise come with vocals set on stun and concussion beats pulsing across the embattled landscape of Sarkozy's reactionary France.

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