Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

Despite garnering high praise internationally, Quasimode drew only a few hundred fans to Orange Court for their Sunday evening performance. Unfortunately, the gents were slotted at the exact same time as LCD Soundsystem (White Stage) and Hot Chip (Red Marquee) and a mere 50 minutes before the local debut of Atoms For Peace on the Green Stage. All of which likely deterred many from making the long hike to Orange Court.
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Christian Vander has been doing this for a long time. The 62-year-old French drummer brought his legendary prog rock band Magma to the Orange Court Friday night for a set of compositional jams that were majestic, spacey and heavily atmospheric. This was music from an era when it was still cool to say you were channeling sounds from outer space, when the promised land lay somewhere beyond Pluto, and when aliens were supposed to be wise, magnanimous beings. Vander, who’s classically trained, has in fact gotten in to some of that, but he’s also gotten into a huge range of music from 20th century classical to all sorts of jazz and rock. This night he was as usual at his rock drum kit at center stage, and seven others surrounded him, including female backup singers, electric organs, one male singer and a very eerie xylophone. (I actually expecting them to pull out a theramin or a real space music instrument, but no one ever did.) The singers would occasionally come to the front of the stage when they had featured parts, and when they were done, they’d return to the wings. It was wonderfully democratic, and also very Age of Aquarius. Vander had a big smile on his face the whole time, and I have to say he seems like a man who knows how to enjoy life, and his music – notwithstanding the galactic overtones – surely reflects that.

Admittedly, when deciding what “new” (for me, at least) local acts to check out I usually make my decision based solely on their name.  If I come across a Japanese band with a really cool or interesting moniker, I try to see what they are all about.  More often than not, this system yields pretty good results.  At FRF’ 09 it led me to Gypsy Avalon to watch the highly entertaining →Pia-no-jaC←.  The duo’s set turned out to be one of the best performances I caught all weekend long. Continue Reading…

After witnessing Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro’s FRF debut in the spectacular Crystal Palace Tent in 2008, our own Don Coglione proclaimed, “This is a band on the rise and you’ll see them back on a bigger stage before too long.” Proving Mr. Coglione right, this year the Saitama sextet will be tearing things up in the Field Of Heaven with funky instrumental cuts from their 2008 eponymous effort and this January’s excellent “Uhuru Peak.”

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Summer Sonic has A-ha, Fuji Rock has Jaga Jazzist. It’s enough to give a Norweigan wood.
Fuji Rock’s Norweigans claim on their website that they “have in one way or another contributed to almost every significant recording to come out of that part of the world (Norway) in the last few years”, which we should take as a huge diss to A-ha’s “Foot of the Mountain” LP.
But the Ninja Tune artists are certainly the best thing to come out of Vikingland except for Röyksopp and possibly the Kings of Convenience. Feel free to list in the comments all the great Norwegian acts I’m ignoring.
People compare Jaga Jazzist to Soft Machine, but that’s a bit unfair. They’re much jazzier, not nearly as indulgent and they have more than twice as many members. This nine-piece incorporates the trombone, bass, tuba and vibraphone among many other instruments.
Jaga Jazzist have been lined up for late afternoon on the White Stage, which ordinarily might be a tough spot for them, but it looks like Smash are going for a gentle Friday afternoon there, and with The Cribs and Ogre You Asshole looking like they’ll fill similar spots on other major stages, this will be the chill-out field.