February 12, 2005
Tokyo & Anjali
I finally got around to putting together some of my best pics from last summer in Tokyo into a Shockwave Flash presentation. Just click on the green button below to start loading. It’s a total of 5.3 megabytes - so if you are on broaband/cable/ADSL then it will only take a few minutes. Make sure you turn up the volume loud - sit back and enjoy! (You have to click the green button to step through the pictures though.)
The accompanying music is by a British Indian artist called Anjali Bhatia (thanks to Fritz for pointing her out!) who was born in Chiswick and bought up in Manor Park and Ilford, East London. She used to be a “Riot Grrrl” in an obscure band called Voodoo Queens but is now described by The Guardian:
“Now she has reinvented herself as a sultry chanteuse on this record of contemporary exotica. The transformation is more complete than it sounds: a multi-instrumentalist who writes and produces, she also programmes the rhythms and operates the mixing desk.”
She is currently from the same music label as the one-time popular Cornershop - the label being called Wiiija - and the music and her singing sounds quite interesting. The track you are listening to is called “7 x 8” from her “The World of Lady A” album. Listen out for the “stinging sitar” in there. Anjali rocks!
Posted by jag at February 12, 2005 01:05 PM
Nice song. A good fusion of rock and some bit of classical-type music.
Nice set of pictures. Considering that you were travelling at 110kmph, its still a wonder how you got such sharp pictures.
Loved the Bugati. Seems very much in style to me.
And the "Lost in Translation" hotel looks quite different
Hey,
This is very interesting..Just landed at route79 thru blog hopping..Now,you are in my bookmark!!
Nice pics, great music!
Amazing steady camera hand.. You must be a reincarnated gunfighter from the wild west days.
Nice pictures. And a very good choice with selecting the song (just like you ASDA-trip video). Reminds me of Edywn Collins' "A Girl like you".
Felt as if I was having a flashback to Lost in Translation there :-)
Nice work.
Nice; just a note - Ginza isn't entirely pedestrianized - just the main street on Sundays. Did you have a look in the Sony showroom? The Vaio stuff they had there was absolutely astonishing.
Sat: thanks. I'm not sure it was the Lost in Translation hotel - I just *think* it was. And the sharpness of the taxi in the picture is due to the fact that the two taxis were travelling at roughly the same speed - hence the blurring of the road and wheel-hub - but not the car.
Thanks Prabhu!
Cheers Ashley!
Fritz: indeed I must be! See explanation above though - it wasn't that hard. Either that - or I was lucky!
Anand: thanks - haven't heard the "Girl Like You" song - must check it out. (Or maybe I have but didn't know the name/artist.)
Sivani: Cheers!
Chris: Yes - you're absolutely right - I was just referring to the main street - and it was indeed a Sunday when I took those pics! And yes - being a die-hard Sony fan - the very first store I visited was the Sony showroom. I was astonished by many things there - it felt like a pilgrimage for me!
The Voodoo Queens can't have been that obscure, I remember seeing them play in the Rough Trade shop in the basement at Neal's Yard, Covent Garden. They were pretty good too :)
(Hello from Colombo, Sri Lanka, by the way)
Hi Nigel - thanks for pointing that out! I'm amazed that you went to see this band! I'll have to take back the point I made about them being "obscure".
Hope you and Vic are doing OK on your travels now that you are way down South. Will be sure to look out for your new pics too! Cheers!
Hi Jag, Just wanted to say that I too remember the Voodoo Queens. I used to own their first single 'Supermodel Superficial', a good angry catchy punk tune, and I saw the band play in Brighton not long after it came out in oooh 1993? At the end of their last song the band started wrecking the stage and their instruments (not *too* much, mind you), and I vividly remember Anjali lying flat on her back on the stage with her electric guitar on top of her, surrounded by feedback and mayhem, looking like she was loving every second. Looking forward to hearing her new incarnation!
