5th anniversary podcasts – Turntable Radio live from Shibuya

April 21, 2008 by Laurent
Filed under Fifth Anniversary Podcasts, Live Sessions, Podcasts (all)

Records

As announced earlier, we continue our 5th anniversary celebrations with another very special podcast, our second Japan live session.

This time we headed out to Shibuya, for the POPGROUP offices where DJ Baku, Exsample (Ken-One, Naoki and Shige) and Miyajima came together for the occasion. As with the first session, back in September, the idea was simple – ask the guys to come together, put them in a room with lots of gear and just record the outcome. With less space this time round, but still bags of enthusiasm, we took over one of the rooms in the POPGROUP offices and got down to business.

Unfortunately, Miyajima had to leave early as we had some delays in setting up (as always) and so he only appears on one of the tracks. For the rest, what basically happened was that Baku and Exsample jammed together for the best part of 3/4 hours and what you’ll hear on this podcast are edited takes from the jam session. Pretty much everything you’ll hear was done unrehearsed and off the cuff, with the guys chatting in between takes, bouncing ideas and just discussing a rough direction for what they would do.

The session also coincided with the release of Baku’s second album, Dharma Dance (check the recent news item below for more on that), and so Baku, who was using Serato and a Pioneer 909 mixer, primarily used sounds he had made and produced for his album, including drums, guitar melodies and synth lines. For the majority of the tracks you’ll hear in the podcast, Baku provided the backbone for the track with the Exsample guys adding on top, with melodies and vocal cuts. On a couple of tracks the roles were reserved with Naoki and Ken-One taking the lead on drums, and everyone else filling in. So for those who haven’t yet heard the album, this session should give you a pretty good idea of some of the tracks’ moods and influences.

In addition to all this, Ken-One also premiered a new loop routine for us and there is, as I said, a 3 way session between Baku, Ken One and Miyajima, as well as an Exsample freestyle.

As with the first session, this one was once more incredibly good fun and I can’t thank enough all the guys for taking the time to come together and do this for the show. Special shout out also goes out to Hiroki at POPGROUP for letting us use the office and feeding us. Big ups to the POPGROUP office too for giving us a camera to record the whole thing. As previously announced, there’ll be one or two video podcasts of this session coming up shortly too.

For now though, enjoy an hour of some of Japan’s finest doing what they do best. Full tracklisting, pictures and direct download below for those who still haven’t susbscribed to the podcast (or are too lazy to do so!). For subscribers the file should already be waiting on your desktop or podcatcher. Remember subscribing is easy, either by using the shortcuts on the top left corner of the site, visiting our feedburner page or going to our iTunes page and subscribing directly.

Starting this month, we’ve also made some improvements to the quality of the podcast, using a new radio mastering plugin so that the show sounds a lot louder and crispier than before. So you might want to make sure your levels aren’t too high, and if you hear any problems, distortions or anything like that please let us know. I’ve checked it on my system and it should be fine. Any feedback is appreciated as always.

As usual if you like what you hear then please show your support by getting out there and supporting the artists’ releases etc… Check the recent news for details of Baku’s second album, as well as the recent POPGROUP compilation which features Baku and Ken One.

Artist links:
DJ Ken One myspace
Dis Defense Disc
Baku myspace

POPGROUP

Turntable Radio live in Shibuya tracklist

DJ Baku – Turntable Radio intro
DJ Baku, Ken One, Miyajima freestyle (Baku drums)
DJ Baku, Ken One, Naoki freestyle (Baku drums)
Exsample and DJ Baku freestyle 1 (Baku drums)
Ken One loop routine
Exsample and DJ Baku freestyle 2 (Baku drums)
Exsample freestyle
Exsample and DJ Baku freestyle 3 (Naoki drums)
Exsample and DJ Baku freestyle 4 (I Ain’t Gangsta live remix)
Exsample and DJ Baku freestyle 5 (Ken One drums)

Direct download link (right click and save as)

Photos:

Ken One and Baku