Jurstday Thursday on ottomen.com !!! I’ve been busy, so I haven’t done a new Jurstday post in awhile.  I wrote this album between 2010 and 2011.  I finished the music around the middle of 2011 with the intent to release it under Justin DiCenzo, but soon decided that the group name should be SLEEPY TOKYO because as you can see in the image, everyone is SLEEPY all the time in this city.  The theme is yes, a little cynical, but aren’t we all in the big cities???

Skip the PayPal thing if you don’t wanna pay, there’s a free link to download it!

Sleepy Tokyo’s first release “Dark Circles” is finished and free for download!

“Dark Circles” is a musical journey through the long evening and tough morning of the average Tokyo business man.

or

Download the music free!

The album opens with dark circles

which form under your eyes as your superiors aimlessly extend each work hour into the night, then eventually drag you and the other younger employees out to drink until you can barely stand up.

You get yourself into your own taxi and sit back to witness the 2am taxi ride windows

reflect neon lights in the windows as you dart through the taxi lined streets.

The taxi is extremely comfortable and very easy to fall asleep in with a heavy head fallen

to the side or back against the plush seat.

Once the taxi goes as far into the side streets as possible, you’re on your own left to perform the slow plover stumble

or in Japanese 千鳥足 (chidori ashi) to reach your apartment door.

The elevator ride to your floor seems impossibly long as time slows

You make it in the door and almost automatically begin your night routine. Like a computer, your subroutines take over

and you find yourself passed out on and hopefully in your futon.

Without effort, you quickly fall asleep and proceed to enjoy a short dreamless sleep

Around 430am, the sky changes to a light navy color and with each passing minute dawn creeps

and causes you to toss and turn as you fear the 7am alarm. The rising sun beams in and the solar warmth

lets you know that another day has begun. You rise and prepare to return to the race.

The race to make more money, have more financial stability, have more things, meet your future spouse, raise kids and take an occasional 3-5 day holiday to another country.

I wrote this with lots of electric bass loops and a mic. This is from my album made in japan 2005.
The video is Tokyo at night.

It’s my time – by me, played on trombone, synths, guitar and sung.

This is from my 2009 release: Good morning, goodbye

This video was shot on my iPhone 3g in 2010 around Shinjuku, at the school I’ve been teaching at for the last 2 years.

This song is called GAMEPLAN!

A song I wrote with Misung aka Dave Stevenson.
I emailed him the instrumental rough heard below and he sang over it.

Here is the demo

Then I re-recorded everything and sang it in a more exciting key.  Here is a rough mix by me:

Misung and I have been friends since I was about 14. The first time we sat down together and wrote something was a very strange experience to me at that age. He got out a tape recorder and a guitar and said, come on lets write a song. No paper, no pen, just make!

He is one of the most prolific people I know. Thanks Dave for writing this with me! More to come!

KAPOW! Brand new spankin hot right now video.

The Last Fire Hydrant MP3

I made this video using a song that sounds totally relevant to the girl in the video who I live with in Japan. Amazingly this song was written in 2004 about nobody in particular. Maybe it was some crazy foresight or something with wikwakky power tower of hour! excite!s
Enjoy

AUGUST NEEDS


on this album

Sk welcome by justindicenzo

Track from my NEWLY RELEASED CD: SLEEP (I/II)

First 4 are I

Last 4 are II

I made this Drone/ Ambient album to help me sleep when I was living in Los Angeles. Now it’s always in my ambient playlist with the epic Brian Eno and friend Maxwell who also has a great Ambient record under the name EN.

Here is the store you can buy the full thing:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/justindicenzo

This video I made.

This song I made.

I play the koto on this song and improvise using something called the RITSU scale. This scale is used in Gagaku music.

I like this song and will make more like it.

THE GAMEPLAN

This song was written half by me then the rest by Misung.

I originally wrote it in a key he could sing, then jacked it up played and then recorded all the instruments by myself.

We does did pretty good job on this.

It was intended for KONAMI, but they changed their mind last minute and requested an instrumental instead of an upbeat song about sports.

Now it exists….here.

It will have to go on a Justin and the misungs album.

It is THURSDAY in Tokyo! You know what that means!
THJURSTDAY in OTTOMEN land.

So a girl I came to know on Twitter added me on facebook and sent me a little video of her and her band.
I was blown away, she sent some more clips of new songs.
I was impressed!
Then, I was in the middle of making a new song and she told me she was only 4 foot 8, so I started to sing, “you are my smallest friend”

She asked to hear the song, then she asked to sing a verse then boom!

Amazing!
Listen below!
smallest friend