So proud.....

From the streets of Chicago to those of New York, now finally on the studio floor of Jools Holland at the BBC in London. From the day of that chance meeting on streets of Camden en route to an Anthony David gig at the old Proud Gallery (the one that had the beds, remember?) I've been tracing their growth, even though prior to our meeting they'd been perfecting their art for nearly a decade. I'm not going to recount the usual biography of these eight younger sons of Phil Kelan Cohran, how these sons of the one-time trumpeter for Sun Ra came to unite in the family tradition of performance, or how they came from playing every single day on the streets to touring Europe with Mos Def and Damon Albarn of Gorillaz. All I'm saying is if you haven't already, ya need a dose of the HBE live treatment. For more info check out their blog www.hypnoticbrass.net.

April 1st, 2009

Touch down, woohoo! After months of planning, research, saving...I am actually in Tokyo. Unreal. Albeit on April Fool's day and very rainy indeed. Thing is, I don't actually know any Japanese. Tried to learn, but was too busy partying and courting. Plus what's the point when the language wasn't going to stick? Oh the joys of knowing Chinese. That's right. Being here wasn't as shocking as if I was a total non-asian foreigner, as anything can be guessed as long as it had kanji, plus I'd done so much research and surveys on the godamn city that the neon lights was beyond a novelty. So behold my new home. For the next 365 days.



First meal EVER in Tokyo, Japan. Yes, it had to be Yoshinoya. Where else can you find cheap trashy food at midnight in the middle of downtown Tokyo? I didn't realise at the time, but it was definitely the place to break in my virgin tastebuds, being operational 24/7 and at affordable prices. It's literally a national tradition, to get trashed and go for a beef/pork bowl at Yoshinoya amongst the drunk salarymen at god-knows-why-you're-still-out-o'clock in the morning. Well, it was worth it after dragging my luggage in the rain for 45 minutes to the hostel through eerie temples in a foreign land I hardly know.

So...the journey begins

Tokyo....the people...the obsessions....the food...the culture. Why am I here? Okay. Bringing the story back. After being a happy resident on and off for the best 18 years of my life, London was starting to lose its lustre between the miserable headlines of the broadsheets with the conundrums of the recession. Plus I had the itch to travel. So, to cut a long story short, at the behest of an idea put forward by a friend, I saved up what I could, quit my job and uprooted to the sunny land of Tokyo. That's right. Tokyo. A city whose name is synonymous with hi technology and bright lights. At least that's the romantic association everybody had. Yes, the thought was exciting, and after postponing my flight (twice), I was finally on my way.



After a brief stop over at Incheon International Airport, I carried on my journey to Tokyo. Incheon Airport was interesting, they had these Korean Cultural Centres that you can take photos of traditional Korean costumes and paint your own Korean stuff. Plus they had places where you can sleep and take showers etc before your connection flight. I thought it was pretty neat, being the 'first airport in the world' to provide such services.