It’s fun to theorize about how Moscow Club managed to raise more than $5000 on the website Indiegogo in order to press their first vinyl LP ever (full disclosure: I donated to the campaign, and also appeared in the promotional video for this project). It’s also pretty cool wondering what this all means, mannnnn, how this could impact the Tokyo indie-music scene and so forth. Thing is, as much as a blast it is to ponder about that stuff, I sorta think the answer to the first question is obvious. The bulk of songs appearing on crowd-funded LP, Station M.C.C.B., have been available for upwards of two years now and sounded great then too. The backhalf of this record, in particularly, plays like an aural photo album. I can still remember hearing the warm jangle of “Bikinikill” and asking Moscow Club if I could feature that song as Make Believe Melodie’s first contribution to the Music Alliance Pact. I remember every indie-loving DJ in Osaka finding a way to include “Pacific 724” into their sets, regardless of what else they played. I remember being absolutely floored by “Daisy Miller Pt. 2” to the point where I bought a collection of Henry James’ short stories. Even newer cuts like the Ray-Bradbury-honoring “Fahrenheit 451” and bright-eyed “Lizaveta” left deep impacts on first brush. Their are new songs here – the horn-powered “Choo Choo Train,” the ritzy funk of “Peoples Potential Unlimited” – and they are predictably very good. Of course this album is great – these songs have had time to groove and strum into our hearts, and now they are all available in one place.
The second question is much trickier to think about, but ultimately even that doesn’t matter. Up until now, Moscow Club have been a versatile outfit mostly releasing free EPs. They’ve played shows across Japan and have been doing all they can to primp up other independent acts in Japan. Station M.C.C.B. is documentation – both sonically and physically thanks to crowd funding – of how important this group has been for the Japanese independent scene over the last three years. It’s a well-deserved victory lap.
Listen to it here, or below.