- When Tokyo is mentioned in the West, people usually think of the human torrents spilling over the Shbiuya crossing and the strict lines drawn between each shopping district by the immaculately styled members of their respective youth tribes. When it comes to techno, though, it sometimes seems almost village-like. Unless you go to the Lonely Planet-friendly superclub Womb for a big name, it's a small band of savvier Tokyoites who keep the scene here running with nights like Real Grooves, Mariana and So Very Show at venues like Unit and Module which bring in the more interesting line-ups.
This night in early December was no exception, with Mariana bringing in Mike Parker, who was taking a break from his University of Buffalo Fine Arts teaching day job, and Cologne's Cio D'Or. On a mini tour of Japan with Dave Twomey, who runs Mariana, they had just come straight from playing a beach party in Okinawa, the southernmost of the Japanese islands.
Photo credit: Nobu Eriksen & Hiro Ikematsu
Warehouse 702 usually hosts more electro and tech-house style nights, but it's a decent venue with a comfortable layout of smallish main room in a gallery style with seating running around the balcony above. The sound system was sounding particularly punchy, which Twomey explained was due to actually having a sound check beforehand. It being Twomey's birthday, he decided to save himself for the afterparty, so D'or was on first and set quite a sombre mood with her severe jet black fringe and highly consistent set of very subtly mixed, almost trancey techno. The crowd though were whooping it up from the start, about 50-50 gaijin and Japanese but pretty much all Tokyoites. There were no drunken tourists fumbling about: Everyone was here to simply hear some pretty fantastic techno.
And that's what they got, as Parker's set was truly a revelation, segueing on beautifully from Cio by maintaining the more abstract side, but also driving the tempo up until it hit that magic BPM where the body seems totally locked into the groove. No vocals or instrumentation, just warm gurgling electronic sounds underlined by techno drum patterns. All the elements came together: The sound was spot on, the crowd kept the energy levels up all night and the sets were both nearly perfect. Apparently it can still happen in Tokyo. Even if it doesn't happen all that often anymore.