Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

In 2009, the All Night Fuji was washed out, and had to be cancelled due to the thick mud on Orange Court. Something about safety concerns, or the organisers forgot their gumboots, or something like that. The invisible army worked all night to suck up the last of the offending slime and take it away for your standing pleasure on the Saturday and Sunday. We missed out on the likes of Towa Tei, Ken Ishii, and more. It was a sad day. Or a sad night.

However, it didn’t affect the last performance on Orange’s normal lineup, that being System 7. These guys with their unique blend of instrumental and traditional techno (should that be the other way around?) had the soon-to-be-shut-down court fairly grooving, and became more and more packed out as the performance continued. Continue Reading…

…fucking, fucking, fucking in heaven

This set was so good and people were so primed to party, it didn’t matter that there was no Warren Fischer and it didn’t matter that we were all dancing in the mud. The rain had stopped and it was all good, and as you’ll read in Dom’s account of the rest of the evening, it didn’t slow down a step until God turned the lights on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For this set, it was just Casey Spooner and Detroit DJ Laura Flax rocking the tunes and pumping the fun. Spooner, in a spangly shirt, may not have even touched the musical equipment once – Flax was more than capable – but he sure did cheerlead up a storm. As “Infidels of the World Unite” was coming on, he was chirping like a gay canary: “I love this song!” Then, pointing to the crowd, “Hey! I can see you! I can see everyone of you! Work it out motherfuckers!” As “Emerge” was fading in, he ravished, “Do you know this song? I never know. It’s so old!” So if you a questions about whether or not they played their hits, that’s pretty much answered by now. And for those readers less versed in the art of subtlety: hell yeah they played their hits. It was awesome!

Here’s a photo of Casey Spooner.

I arrived at All Night Fuji just as Green Velvet was taking over the decks. Some in the crowd expressed their disappointment that he was not to be playing live, but I found no such disdain. As I predicted in my preview piuece, his style was tonight much more tripped out than the house that made him famous. Sandwiched between Ken Ishii and Denki Groover Takkyu Ishino, it’s no surprise that he saw fit to adjust his style to fit the moment. The sign of a good DJ is in my opinion the ability to read the crowd and adapt to what they want, whether that be a track by track decision, or a stylistic one before a beat has been played. Continue Reading…

The one bit of advice that I give to those attending Fuji Rock for the first time (or those coming back after a long hiatus) is to figure out your footwear!

Going back to your hotel room or pup tent in between sets is probably impossible as you should be prepared to mosh around in one pair of shoes the whole time. That said, you better decide what it’s gonna be, and trust me, there are a million good choices out there such as Tevas, Keens, Wellies, Saucony (Kern’s pick), Blundstone, Crocs.

Personally, if I were to buy a pair of shoes for the festival today, I would take my friend Dave’s advice (a fellow blog writer) and get a pair of Gore-Tex lined, ankle high Nike ACG. This half-boot provides enough wet weather protection to muck your way around every footpath at the festival. It also has enough bounce to keep your knees happy on the Red Marquee’s concrete floor. And more importantly, it will give you enough traction to stay upright on the slippery slope near hilltop Heineken tent at the Green Stage.
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Like a lot of house (and other dance music) producers, a lot more of you will know Green Velvet’s music more than those of you who will know his name. Alter ego of Curtis Jones, who has been DJing and producing tracks since the early 90s, Green Velvet’s earlier music had a definite 1980s flavour to it. Big on beats, but far from big beat, the sounds here hark back to Kraftwerk for me. These were tracks that had us on the dancefloor throughout the 90s, sloshing drinks around to the displeasure of all present. Continue Reading…

AN INTERVIEW WITH BRYAN BURTON-LEWIS, WHO STILL WON’T ANSWER WHAT WE’RE SUPPOSED TO DO BETWEEN 5 AND 10AM

Who dreamed up with the idea that we needed an All-Night Fuji? And who envisioned that the dance party might possibly carry on past 5am – albeit after an inexplicable 5-hour break – in a distant, mountaintop field at an FRF extension known as Daydreaming? What originally put me on the track of Bryan Burton-Lewis was Tokyo’s red hot electro duo Dexpistols, the team of DJs Daruma and Maar, who, having blown up over the last few years in the Tokyo scene and on Fujirock stages are now getting major international props, the latest of which is headlining The Fader’s “Asia” mixtape (download it free!!!), just released last week. Within the last year, Burton-Lewis convinced Dex to go indie and help him found the Roc Trax Crew, which meant luring them away from major label BMG. But that’s just a little bit of what he’s been up to. Get the rest, including the inside story on Fujirock’s all-night party scene, in our following chat via that network of electronic chips, resistors and cables better known as the Internet: Continue Reading…

After the washout that turned Orange Court into a quagmire on the first day of Fuji Rock last year, All Night Fuji was unfortunately cancelled. Get in early this year to be sure you don’t miss out!

In the wake of that washout, which saw us miss out on Ken Ishii and Towa Tei amongst others, DJ Bryan Burton-Lewis (pictured) organised the smoking party “All Night Fuji Revenge” at ageHa the following September, seeing many of the original lineup and a bevvy more perform at the superclub. This year, they’re getting in early, you know, just in case, and have organised Road To Fuji Rock 10 All Night Fuji Pre Party for about a month before FRF10, June 26th to be exact. This pre party, again at ageHa, will feature a host of FRF performers past and present, both live performers and DJs, including the ever popular Dexpistols slated to play this year on the Saturday, De De Mouse (who was a popular choice on the White Stage for the staff here at Fujirock.com in 2009), Ryukyudisco, Germany’s Pitchtuner, organiser Bryan Burton-Lewis will play a set, and more. Continue Reading…