Underdog

Tetralogistics@Triangle

Warning: This post provides a small, intimate setting that probably doesn't break revenue costs.

Talking with a friend in the Osaka electronic music scene recently, it came to my attention that perhaps Osaka is fighting a losing battle in the electro scene. While I'm not surprised that Tokyo pulls the bigger acts and has the more well-known scene, after hitting clubs in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo I can confidently say that the Easterners have nothing on the vibe of the West. In this case, bigger simply does not equal better.

Of course, in the case of massive festival gigs, Osaka can't win. Tokyo has the huge ageHa (though it's usually reserved for the kind of sickly, overground house - think DJ Emma - and local acts like Takkyu Ishino), and the immense Makuhari Messe (home of Summer Sonic, Ganban Night, and the now-extinct Electroglide). Osaka, by comparison, only really has Studio Partita ("Black Chamber"), about half the size of ageHa, meaning while it is fantastic in its own right, pulls less than half the revenue. I'll concede Tokyo has the large-scale events in the bag.

Womb:Intense...perhaps TOO intense
But it's the small events where I think Osaka reigns supreme. Tokyo's big electronica clubs, Womb, Air, Unit etc. are all spacious, but also full of the usual fronting you get in hip-hop clubs. The location tends to be near semi-residential areas, which means the clubs have a responsibility to keep the external noise from the patrons coming and going to a minimum. Nothing kills my buzz more than having a security guard tell me to stop being so excitable when I arrive. Come on now.

With the lights on, it's tiny. But on the dancefloor, it's perfect.
Osaka's clubs are smaller, which means they often take in less than a third in revenue on what can be made in Tokyo. But that size creates a community and intimacy that I revel in. Some people prefer not to know everyone at the gig, but for me if we're all mates one way or another, the whole place reverberates with the vibe. No cold, heartless pushing to the front. No "pick-up bar" feel to it. Everyone's there for the music, and each other. Sounds pretty hippie, huh. Meh - that's how I roll.

Anyway, point being - clubs like Triangle, LabTribe, and Onzieme need your help! It's up to you to keep electronica alive in Osaka - otherwise we'll all be stuck going to Pure or listening to DJ Kaori.