September 21, 2023 • 39 mins
When WOMB opened in 2000, Japan’s nightlife scene was still in its infancy with a strict ban on dancing after midnight that made it almost impossible to run a regular nightclub. But over the past two decades, the revolutionary club has transformed the way people in Tokyo party. This is the story of how the club went from an idea born on the dancefloors of New York into one of Japan’s most famous nightclubs. How a club that’s been open for over 20 years, became a hotspot for international DJs and found a way to uplift local talent and survive through the pandemic.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Throughout our podcast, we've explored how different clubs around the
world revolutionize the way we party, how they ushered in
the birth of new genres and became hot spots for
political activism, but above all, how they created space for
people to escape the world around them, to lose themselves
in the music and leave it all on the dance floor.
(00:27):
Nightclubs are sanctuaries where people find their chosen family. It's
where you experience the joy of dancing in crowded rooms
with people open to accepting you for who you are
or whoever you want to become, even if it's only
for the night. Partying brings us together. Whether that's under
the mirror ball in New York, or out in the
(00:49):
sun in Legos or beneath the glare of bright strobe
lights in Berlin, they influence one another.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Nightclubs do change.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
The way we see the world because the pure joy
of a good party has the unique ability to transcend language, culture,
and place, to reach people from different parts of the
world and unite them through the magical, unshakable desire to dance.
But as we've learned, no two dance floors are the same.
(01:17):
Each city has its own unique way of party. So today,
in this final episode, we're heading over to Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
My name is Mike Sunder and I've been living in
Tokyo for the past ten years. I started working in
Tokyo as a journalist with a focus on electronic music
and club music.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
When Mike Sunder moved from London to Tokyo, the city's
music and culture scene pulled him in.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I fell in love with the city, felt like there
was a lot to discover. I would go to gigs,
went to see a lot of local artists, and through
that I started meeting a lot of people who aren't
just music fans, but were active in the kind of
underground music scene here, whether it was as a musician
or as a DJ.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
But then he moved to Shabuya, the epicenter of Japanese
youth culture. Even if you don't know the name of
the area, you've probably seen pictures of Shibuyah. It's home
to some of the most iconic spots in Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
If you go to Shiba now, the first thing that
you will see and you will experience is the huge
set of Shabia crossing. You step out of the station
at night and You're immediately blasted by these huge neon signs,
these big you know els eddid screens around Shiba crossing,
and it's just kind of a sensory overload.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
As Mike walked around Shabuya, he was surrounded by flashing lights,
bright colors, and crowds of people heading out into the night.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A lot of the concert halls, a lot of the
places where you go to listen to music are based
in Shiba.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Which is why Mike spent so many nights in his
late teens and early twenties there.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You really see just I think how important Shabia is
as a neighborhood for young people, because there'll be a
lot of young people outside convenience stores, they'll be pregaming,
they'll be queuing up for clubs.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
And one of the clubs Mike spend some of his
most memorable nights in was an unassuming club on two
Dash sixteen.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Marayumachel and I remember going there for the first time
and it's a very low key building. You almost can't
tell from the outside how big it is.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's a tall, black building, so dark that it almost
blends into the sky in the middle of the night.
The only thing that identifies it from the outside is
the four black font letters by the side of the door.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Womb, there was one security guy outside of an unmarked
door telling people to be quiet, and you'd have maybe
fifty one hundred people, you know, getting ready to come
in at peak times, and there was one person trying
to shush them, as if that would have an effect.
But because it's Tokyo, does have an effect, and people
(04:05):
are quiet and they sat outside respectfully.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
The music wasn't leaking out of the club. You couldn't
hear the muffled bass, and people weren't talking and laughing
in line. But then as soon as the door opened,
the music hit you. The colors got brighter, pulling Mike
into an immersive musical and visual experience.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Because Mike had stepped.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Into Womb, one of Tokyo's most iconic nightclubs.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I remember going in and the place was packed, and
you know, there's three or four floors.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Each floor had its own distinctive musical style, and visually
it felt like stepping into an alternate version of the future.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
If you want to feel that energy, if you want
to feel that life, if you want to be in
this environment that feels like the sort of future touristic,
kind of almost Blade Runner style Tokyo that we were
promised in pop culture twenty five years ago, Like that
doesn't really exist.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But Knights at Womb came close. As Mike stepped onto
the dance floor, he was engulfed in a kind of
clubbing experience he'd never witnessed before. Lasers beamed around the club,
filling the room with bright electronic colors. Video art flashed
on the screens, pulling Mike into a visual journey, and
(05:32):
the whole dance floor moved and swayed to the music
playing all around them.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're not going to come out of that environment and
make mellow, ambient electronica. You're going to make hard techno
and high bpm sort of intense music.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
They were intense, energetic DJ sets that pulsated through the
club and inspired people to get up and dance and
release their inhibitions.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
There's a huge, you know, discard ball, which if you're
at the wrong night, feels kind of cheesy, but if
you're at the right night, it feels really epic and impressive.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And that night it did hit the right light, sending
a shimmering wave of light across the dance floor, reflecting
all the different colors in the club and coding the
crowd in a magical, almost otherworldly layer of light because
they were about to have an incredible night at Womb,
(06:30):
the futuristic international club at the heart of Tokyo. From
London Audio iHeartRadio and executive producer Paris Hilton. This is
the History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs, a twelve part
podcast about the iconic venues and people that revolutionized how
(06:51):
we party. Some of the world's most legendary nightclubs were
known for the unique community they welcomed, others for the
cultural movements they started, and some for the musicians and
DJs they introduced to the world. The best nightclubs champion
new music, transform lives, and provide an escape from life's pressures.
(07:13):
One more thing. This is the history of some of
the world's greatest nightclubs. Not a ranking of every club
in the world. It's an exploration of the spaces, people
and club nights that made a lasting impact on nightlife
and music today. I'm your host, Altrinate. I'm a singer, songwriter,
musician and I found my purpose in club culture. This
(07:37):
is episode twelve Womb in Tokyo, Japan. When WOM opened
in two thousand, Japan's night life scene was still in
its infancy, But over the past two decades, the Revolutionary
Club has transformed the way people in Tokyo party. This
is the story of how the club went from an
idea born on the dance floors of New York into
(08:00):
one of Japan's most famous nightclubs. Of how a club
that's been opened for over twenty years became a hotspot
for international DJs and found a way to uplift local
talent and survive.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Through the pandemic.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
World.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
In nineteen forty eight, at the end of World War II,
Japan put a new law into place that restricted the
ways people partied. But it wasn't your typical nightlife related restriction.
It wasn't banning alcohol or loud music. It banned dancing,
well kind of. The anti dancing law was called Fuiho,
(08:45):
and it outlawed dancing in clubs, bars, and public venues
unless they had a special license, but even then dancing
was only legal until midnight. It was a law put
into place to crack down on crime and reduce sex
work in venues across the country in the aftermath of
the war.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean, all of the nightclubs pretty much in Tokyo
are actually within this legal gray zone that means that
the police can technically shut them down at any given
time based on kind of redundant criteria like the space
or the size of the dance floor, ambient lighting, furniture,
things like that. There was a real kind of threat
(09:28):
or fear that you could be in a club, either
as a punch or as a DJ, and it would
just get shut down. Police might even worst case scenarios,
start searching people for drugs, etc. And some people did
get arrested.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So for a long time, there weren't many nightclubs in Japan,
and the ones that did exist had to either operate
by a strict set of rules or go underground and
live with the risk of being shut down. But things
started to change in the eighties.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
The Japanese economy went through massive sort of bubble phase
at the end of the eighties beginning of the nineties,
when essentially, if you had a job, you were probably
making a ton of money and you had a lot
of expendable income.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
The anti dancing laws were still in place, but people
wanted to party. So night clubs started to pop up
around Tokyo to make that happen. Clubs like Juliana's Gold
Space Lab Yellow, which I partied and performed at a
few times and loved, and I was blown away on
my first visit. I mean, they made me feel like
(10:32):
Janet Jackson on stage. Those clubs got licenses so people
could dance until just before midnight, and many of those
clubs were playing American music.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Promoters started flying over big name DJs from Detroit, from Chicago.
A lot of the big name house and techno DJs
that we you know, would still listen to it today.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
America had occupied Japan for six years after the end
of World War Two, and when the occupation ended, American
culture still had a really influential role on the Japanese
music scene.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
My name is Yuki Ito from Tokyo. I was working
as a booking manager for wom Tokyo for seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
When disco music became popular in America in the seventies,
it became popular in Japan too. When house music found
it's footing in Chicago clubs like the Warehouse and the
Music Box in the eighties, it wasn't long before it
was playing in music venues across Tokyo.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
The Japanese people are also very curious, especially the cultural
aspect all these American culture, including New York culture, Chicago culture,
La culture, Detroit culture. So this was gradually coming through
to Japanese youngsters.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And there was a specially young person who was uniquely
inspired by all that American nightlife culture, the future owner
of wom. He's a very private guy, and so out
of respect for his privacy, we'll just call him the
future owner of Womb. The future Owner of Womb was
a successful businessman in Tokyo and in the nineties he
(12:14):
started taking trips to New.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
York, where he was so messurbized by the art and
music culture out there, and especially with the way how
the nightlife was going good house music, techno music.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He went to clubs like Limelight and The Tunnel. He
was pulled in by the clubs that stayed open all night,
the ones that hosted DJs from around the world and
created space for people to just party.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
I think he was really fascinated by all these people
coming in. You know, everyone was really happy socializing and
then listening to their favorite music. And this was something
that was not really there in Japan. So for him
it was really no brainer to kind of start off
something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
The future owner of Womb was a smart, successful guy,
and he really wanted to replicate what he'd experienced in
those New York clubs.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And he was really thinking about how to transfer transcend
this cultural hot spot.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So in April two thousand, he opened the club Womb.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Womb is a place where everything comes to birth. He
just liked the idea of calling it as Womb, as
you know, every great thing is, you know, coming from Womb.
The club by itself as a one five hundred to
two thousand capacity club. It's a four floored club, and
(13:49):
this was considered back in the days it was really
like a mega club.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
They hosted a huge party to celebrate the club's opening night.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Womb brought in Junior Aaskez and then this was really
a big night that everyone would remember.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Junior Vasquez is an American DJ who made remixes for
pop musicians like Whitney, Brittany and Madonna. Junior DJ and
at venues like the Paradise Garage and the Original Sound Factory,
another influential club in New York. He became known for
traveling around the world, and his opening set at Womb
(14:27):
put the club on the map.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
But then after that it was obviously such a difficult
club to kind of operate and manage to run it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
You see, the owner of Womb had the money and
passion to open a nightclub, but he didn't quite have
the musical network to keep up a consistent DJ roster
or the marketing skills to bring thousands of people to
his club every night. So he went head hunting. He
spoke to different people involved in the international music scene
(15:00):
until he came up with a list of names to
look out for, which is how he found Yuki. Yuki
have been living in London for eight years, throwing parties
around the city and making friends across the international dance scene.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Around that time, I was actually having another connection through
drum and Base with all these Japanese DJs who are
actually living in New York.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
He and his friends started organizing club nights across Europe
and America and built up a really strong reputation for
throwing some of the best parties with the hottest DJs
in the world. So Womb's owner asked Yuki and his
friends to move back to Japan to run Womb.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
We were asked to come in to regenerate this place
and re establish this place. I was probably around twenty six,
twenty seven. You know, we were very, very excited.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
There were three other people who moved to Tokyo Yuki
to run Womb.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The other person, my friend from New York, is called
Sabi Takahashi. He was the head of Womb for at
least maybe good ten years. The other person he's called
Djaki and he's one of the most famous droman bassed
DJs in Japan. And then also we have a guy
called Takeo Yatabe and he's wren into like producing music.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
With a new team assembled, it was time for Womb
to step into its fullness. But it was a pretty
big job to take on. The owner of WOM essentially
gave them the keys to a nightclub in the middle
of Tokyo, gave them creative control, and told them to
just run it. Yuki has a good metaphor for what
it was like for him and his friends to be
(16:46):
given so much responsibility.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
For me, it kind of really felt like the owner
of WOM just came and then you know, left us
with this you know, expensive Lamborghini, and then you know,
like he's telling us he would give it to us,
the Lamborghinia, but we have to learn how to drive
the faster than anybody. You know. In the first beginning,
we thought it was like, yeah, it's no problem. You know,
(17:09):
we're so motivated, We're so ready to do this.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
They were young, motivated, and passionate about music. They quickly
realized that the key to the club's success was going
to be all about the bookings. Because Womb was determined
to become an international club in the heart of Tokyo.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
We needed to promote in the right directions, the right ways,
to the right people. And it's not about just like, hey,
well we're bringing some big DJs whatnot. We really needed
to influence people in Japan to really feel the vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Before Womb, Yuki and the rest of the team had
spent years building up a network of DJs and agents
from around the world, so when they took over WOM
in two thousand and one, they were ready. And one
of the biggest bookings was Richie Harton.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
He made his name through Detroit techno scene.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
He played a set at Womb and fell in love
with the club, so he kept coming back.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
He just really felt that it was a you know,
Womb was the right home for him to keep developing
his artist career in Japan.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
DJing in Tokyo was a different experience than playing in
other cities around the world.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
A lot of you know, international DJs came back to
me and it says that you know, like, Japan is
very special because Japanese audience are very, very humble in
a patient and they were just like enjoying the actual
musical Johnny.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I can still remember all the nights I spent out
on the dance floor in Japan. The crowds were phenomenal
because they took dancing very seriously. I usually wouldn't leave
until I was overwhelmed with exhaustion, but it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Was the best.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
By two thousand and eight, it was known as one
of the most legendary venues in the city, packing out
dance floors, booking major headliners, and attracting crowds of young
people excited to hear new music from around the world
and dance all the way up until midnight. Yeah, the
(19:37):
anti dancing laws were still in place, but Womb had
found a way to get people to party.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
When we actually learned how to drive this Lamborghini. It
was unsompable.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Tokyo's night life is constantly evolving. New clubs, bars and
carry spots open all the time. It's a buzzing, futuristic
metropolis and Japan's nightlife capital.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
My name is a Hito. I am from Himiji, Japan.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Even though Hio is from Japan, she was first introduced
to Womb by one of her friends and fellow DJs,
Richie Horton.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
I was invited by Richie to see this Richie's showing Womb,
and it was my first Womb experience.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Ritchie was playing a set at Womb and so he
invited Hio along, and her first night there was magical.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Pretty much like wow, you know, because I never expected
that so many Japanese coming for this night to do clubbing,
no night out.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Walking into Womb felt like stepping into an alternate version
of Japan.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
So I was a bit surprised in a positivity.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Jito's first night at Womb was a really eye opening experience.
She'd been born in Japan and had spent her childhood there,
but she had never partied in Tokyo before. When she'd
left the country Japan didn't have a thriving night life scene.
Yet everything Hito understood about nightlife she learned from her
(21:24):
days studying abroad.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
I was like studying languages in different countries. Then I
went to London, Rome ferries and you know, around the world.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
As she traveled around Europe, she decided to get fully
immersed in all the different cultures, and the way she
did that was by going out to party, especially when
she lived in Berlin. After Techno was born in Detroit,
the sound made its way to Berlin, where it exploded
at clubs like Bergheim, So partying the it was sort
(22:00):
of like Hito's cultural immersion. She'd learned her most valuable
lessons on the dance floors and figured out how to
navigate the culture of each new city by talking to
people in the club.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So eventually Hito became a DJ.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
DJing for me, it's like a consequence of my life
or life style, which I never expected.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And so taking a trip back to Japan more than
a decade after she'd left and experiencing womb for the
first time, felt like seeing a country she'd known in
a past life stepping into a whole new era. But
even though womb was inspired by clubs from around the world.
(22:46):
It wasn't like the clubs Hito had experienced in Berlin
or like the ones Mike had experienced in London.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You would less commonly see that sort of almost heady
euphoria that you see in clubs in London or New York.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Because nightlife culture in Japan is a lot different to
what it's like in Europe and the USA.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I think clubbing, nightlife, et cetera, is kind of a
standard part of any young person's lifestyle, especially once they
enter let's say university or sort of drinking age in
the UK, the US, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So most people who.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I knew growing up with, even if they weren't into
techno or house or knew much about electronic music, they
would be going to clubs as part of their let's say,
weekly routine. And you know, they might be going to
get drunk because they're you know, clubs of alcohol after
midnight and other places don't, or they might be going
(23:47):
to pick up you know, girls or guys. But the
point is that they were going.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But it's not exactly the same in Japan.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I would say that most young people do not go clubbing.
It's not a normal part of the majority of young
people's routine, and the reason for that is that you
have other alternatives. You have izakayah, the sort of local
bars slash restaurants that open all night so you can
drink there until five am. You can go to karaoke
(24:16):
and drink all nights. There are lots of options that
don't involve going into dark room and listening to four
four beats until you know the early hours.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And the other big difference is the role drugs play
in Japanese nightlife culture, the role they don't really play.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
It's much much harder to procure drugs in Japan than
it is in the West.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The government is very strict on drugs. Well, no country
is completely drug free. Recreational drug use is a lot
less common in Japan because the consequences are a lot tougher.
They don't make as much of a distinction between punishment
for possessing drugs for personal use and having them with
intent to supply.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
There isn't easy access when it comes to MDMA, cocaine,
even weed.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That's not to say that nobody takes drugs, but it's
not as prominent in nightlife culture as it is in
the other cities we've explored in this podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So a lot of people in the club are just
drinking or potentially even sober, and it does change the.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Environment and it sort of dictates the kind of music
that clubs in Tokyo, like woomb play.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I could never imagine really sub based, heavy kind of
dubstep UK style dubstep like early DMZ and so on
taking off here, and it never did.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Because the culture around the sounds was really intertwined with
the drugs people were taking. When those genres blew up,
so other genres took off instead.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
You know, house and techno are both incredibly popular with
our needing you know kind of this widespread sort of
usage of uppers or any sort of drug that would
contribute to that experience.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
For Mike, Japanese culture means that you don't need drugs
to enjoy house and techno music at womb and the
minimal inclusion of drugs in Tokyo's nightlife really shape the
way people party.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I think there's more of a kind of low key
appreciation for the music. I think people stay on the
dance floor for longer rather than in short bursts because
they don't need to go keep getting bottles of water
or running to the bathroom to do more lines or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
People stay on the dance floor for longer stretches of
time in Tokyo, so the clubs there have found different
ways of creating euphoric are inspiring immersive nights people can
experience without taking drugs, and at Womb they do that
by making each night not just a musical experienceience, but
a visual feast too. Wom has an incredible sound system
(27:07):
with a very deep bass and music that pulls people
into the club, but the visuals and lighting play a
huge role in what makes each night at Womb such
a transformative experience.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Dance music.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
This is Minami Sakamoto. She's a visual artist based in Tokyo.
She talked to us about her job at Womb, curating
their immersive visual environment. She's speaking in Japanese, so i'll
paraphrase what she's saying in English.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
There are a lot of layers to Manami's job.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Creating a visual experience each night is a collaborative process,
but the music comes first. When she finds out which
DJ is going to be performing at the club, she
researches their personality and musical style. Then she gets in
touch with the DJ to talk about their favorite colors
and the music they're going to play, so she can
(28:09):
then put together a mood board and start to curate
a visual experience to play on the screens while they perform.
At Womb, the lighting is meticulously calculated and beautifully placed
(28:30):
across their high ceiling. Light is a fundamental pillar of
Tokyo's nightlife, and it's what makes parties at Womb feels
so immersive and otherworldly. Manami creates unique visual experiences for
different nights at the club and projects them onto the
big screen to transport clubbers into the world of music.
(28:54):
At once, Manami's friend, Korean artist Machina, had an album
release party at Womb and the art concept used mirrors
picture Doctor Strange fighting in the mirror dimension. On another
(29:15):
night at Womb, they decided to incorporate dance into the
visual experience. DJ spen Faith had released a song called Bhutto,
inspired by a style of Japanese dance theater by the
same name, so Wom worked with a Budoka dancer to
(29:46):
record a music video specifically for that night. In the club.
They recorded the dancer performing, and then Manami created a
video that incorporated the dancing with videos of the natural
scenery a small island in western Japan called Miyajima to
reflect the traditions around the dance. The visuals Minami creates,
(30:09):
paired with the club's stunningly choreographed light shows, makes each
night at Womb an incredibly immersive experience.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It's absolutely that, it's absolutely energetic. You know a lot
of struggles and the smoke machines and you know, all
these items were actually helping to produce a great shows.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
That's part of the magic of Womb. Each night is
an immersive musical experience, but it's also a surreal visual
experience too.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I would always say that, you know, like there is
something very very kind of spiritual about that particular building
or the actual ground, quite a magical place.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
In twenty fifteen, Japan lifted its anti dancing laws after
a sixty seven year ban on dancing after midnight. Opening
the floodgates to a wave of new nightclubs popping up
across the city. But by then Womb had been opened
for fourteen years and had mastered the art of how
to throw a great party, and by twenty twenty the
(31:14):
club understood its audience, its musical taste, and had become
one of the most prominent international clubs in Tokyo. But
something major that they could have never expected was about
to hit them and irreversibly changed the way we all party.
Like so many cities around the world, Tokyo's night life
(31:37):
scene was heavily affected by the outbreak of COVID nineteen.
Tokyo went into lockdown, Womb closed its doors and the
music stopped. In twenty twenty, the busy streets emptied out,
the world got a lot quieter, and the city's dance
floors were abandoned. But when the world began to open
(31:59):
up again, so did Womb, but it was a shaky
start well.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Obviously, the impacts of the corona and the pandemic was
really prominent because there was no way of bringing in
the international artists. International DJs could not actually come to
Japan to perform.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
The borders were closed and people had stopped traveling around
the world to perform, so Womb had to come up
with a new plan.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
There are so many Japanese local DJs.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Big cities often overlook local talent in search of big
international names, but Tokyo noticed they had a ton of
homegrown talent, so WOM invited local Japanese DJs to perform
at the club's early post lockdown parties. DJs like Lisa xxx,
Sakiova and Wada Iragashi.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
WUM has definitely a big role, especially that WOM actually
send these artists to other market other cities in the world,
and then you know, this way, you know, we can
actually help support their career.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So the WOMB team took a step back to plan
out the club's future, and then when Tokyo was close
to being back to pre pandemic partying, Womb brought together
a mixture of local and international DJs to throw one
of the biggest parties yet on one of the most
important nights in Tokyo's nightlife calendar, New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
We don't have so much of a you know, like
Christmas gathering with a family kind of tradition. Christmas are
more like for the couples, you know, and also for kids.
Of course, for families, New Year's Eve to the New
Year's Day is definitely a family thing and also it's
quite you know, important day of the of the year
(34:00):
for Japan.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
So in December twenty twenty two, for the first time
since the pandemic, WOM hosted their famous countdown party. The
lighting director got into place, Manami, the VJA began to
project visual art onto the screens, and the club slowly
filled up. Everyone knew that night was going to be
(34:22):
extra special after spending several years away from the dance floor.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Obviously, the main thing about the New Year's Eve is
that they all want to stay together in such a
festive you know, set up with the Confetti's and the
strow Boys amongst the people. The moment of you know,
then of the town of the year is to actually
be together and celebrate with you know, anonymous you know,
(34:49):
strangers to welcome the new year.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
As the night went on, different DJs got up on
stage to perform their sets, musicians like Craig Richards and
DJ Mazda and Uri Urano, so.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
You know, they were slowly but surely coming into to
the club. Just so many people out there. By the time,
like you know, fifteen minutes before the countdown, it just
it gets completely packed.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yuki was often the MC on New Year's introducing acts.
As the hours went down.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
It was my joke to kind of come down from
ten to the Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Lights were beaming in every direction, music was pouring out
of the speakers, art was flashing on the screens, and
the whole crowd was swept up by the atmosphere. They
were dancing to celebrate the approach of a new year,
but they were also dancing in the aftermath of everything
they'd experienced over the course of the pandemic, everything we've
(35:53):
all experienced. Remember the first party you went to post lockdown.
All the lights felt brighter, the songs felt louder, and
the dance floor felt more magical than it ever had before.
When the final countdown began in womb just before midnight,
you could feel the hope, joy and trepidation in the air.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
No exclusion. Everyone can actually celebrate to each other, so
it's very very legittic. The excitement was crazy. The place
just goes insane, especially where the confetti is. Then people
were like raising up both arms and then you know, celebrate.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It was the start of a new year, a fresh slate,
and we're better to celebrate it than in a place
named after the space where all life begins.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Womb I can totally believe that womb can revive into
something of a very special place yet again to have
a rebirth.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
And with that we close the door for the moment
on the history of the world's greatest nightclubs. What have
we learned well that the hours we spend at nightclubs
are fleeting. Those magical nights pull us out onto the
(37:34):
dance floor, spin us around and change our lives. But
every perfect night has to end. When the sun comes up.
We spill back out onto the street, feet aching from
the way we danced, eyes blurry from the memories we made,
and lives changed by the way the music transformed the
(37:57):
way we see the world. How many of the clubs
we've talked about over the course of this series have
closed down. They were only in the world for a
short time, but they went on to impact generations. The
Music Institute and the Warehouse launched new genres. Dance Ateryria
(38:17):
and the Tunnel set the stage for future icons, and
Bergheim Trade and Space revolutionize the way we party. The
world's greatest nightclubs didn't all last forever, but their legacy
lives on. I'm your host, Altrinate, thanks for listening. The
(38:44):
history of The World's Greatest Nightclubs is produced by Neon
Hammedia for London Audio and iHeartRadio for London Audio. Our
executive producers are Paris Hilton, Bruce Robertson and Bruce Gersh.
The executive producer for Neon Humm is Jonathan Hirsch. Our
producer is Rufiro Faith Masarurra Navani Otero and Liz Sanchez
(39:08):
are our associate producers. Our series producer is Crystal Genesis.
Our editor is Stephanie Serrano. Samantha Allison is our production
manager and Alexis Martinez is our production coordinator. This episode
was written by Rufiro Faith Masarua and fact checked by
Katherine Neuhan. Translation by Amy Shiganaga. Theme in original music
(39:32):
by Asha Ivanovich. Our sound design engineers are Sam Bear
and Josh Han.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I'm your host, Ultra Natey. Thanks for listening.
Throughout our podcast, we've explored how different clubs around the
world revolutionize the way we party, how they ushered in
the birth of new genres and became hot spots for
political activism, but above all, how they created space for
people to escape the world around them, to lose themselves
in the music and leave it all on the dance floor.
(00:27):
Nightclubs are sanctuaries where people find their chosen family. It's
where you experience the joy of dancing in crowded rooms
with people open to accepting you for who you are
or whoever you want to become, even if it's only
for the night. Partying brings us together. Whether that's under
the mirror ball in New York, or out in the
(00:49):
sun in Legos or beneath the glare of bright strobe
lights in Berlin, they influence one another.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Nightclubs do change.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
The way we see the world because the pure joy
of a good party has the unique ability to transcend language, culture,
and place, to reach people from different parts of the
world and unite them through the magical, unshakable desire to dance.
But as we've learned, no two dance floors are the same.
(01:17):
Each city has its own unique way of party. So today,
in this final episode, we're heading over to Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
My name is Mike Sunder and I've been living in
Tokyo for the past ten years. I started working in
Tokyo as a journalist with a focus on electronic music
and club music.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
When Mike Sunder moved from London to Tokyo, the city's
music and culture scene pulled him in.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I fell in love with the city, felt like there
was a lot to discover. I would go to gigs,
went to see a lot of local artists, and through
that I started meeting a lot of people who aren't
just music fans, but were active in the kind of
underground music scene here, whether it was as a musician
or as a DJ.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
But then he moved to Shabuya, the epicenter of Japanese
youth culture. Even if you don't know the name of
the area, you've probably seen pictures of Shibuyah. It's home
to some of the most iconic spots in Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
If you go to Shiba now, the first thing that
you will see and you will experience is the huge
set of Shabia crossing. You step out of the station
at night and You're immediately blasted by these huge neon signs,
these big you know els eddid screens around Shiba crossing,
and it's just kind of a sensory overload.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
As Mike walked around Shabuya, he was surrounded by flashing lights,
bright colors, and crowds of people heading out into the night.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A lot of the concert halls, a lot of the
places where you go to listen to music are based
in Shiba.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Which is why Mike spent so many nights in his
late teens and early twenties there.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You really see just I think how important Shabia is
as a neighborhood for young people, because there'll be a
lot of young people outside convenience stores, they'll be pregaming,
they'll be queuing up for clubs.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
And one of the clubs Mike spend some of his
most memorable nights in was an unassuming club on two
Dash sixteen.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Marayumachel and I remember going there for the first time
and it's a very low key building. You almost can't
tell from the outside how big it is.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's a tall, black building, so dark that it almost
blends into the sky in the middle of the night.
The only thing that identifies it from the outside is
the four black font letters by the side of the door.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Womb, there was one security guy outside of an unmarked
door telling people to be quiet, and you'd have maybe
fifty one hundred people, you know, getting ready to come
in at peak times, and there was one person trying
to shush them, as if that would have an effect.
But because it's Tokyo, does have an effect, and people
(04:05):
are quiet and they sat outside respectfully.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
The music wasn't leaking out of the club. You couldn't
hear the muffled bass, and people weren't talking and laughing
in line. But then as soon as the door opened,
the music hit you. The colors got brighter, pulling Mike
into an immersive musical and visual experience.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Because Mike had stepped.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Into Womb, one of Tokyo's most iconic nightclubs.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I remember going in and the place was packed, and
you know, there's three or four floors.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Each floor had its own distinctive musical style, and visually
it felt like stepping into an alternate version of the future.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
If you want to feel that energy, if you want
to feel that life, if you want to be in
this environment that feels like the sort of future touristic,
kind of almost Blade Runner style Tokyo that we were
promised in pop culture twenty five years ago, Like that
doesn't really exist.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But Knights at Womb came close. As Mike stepped onto
the dance floor, he was engulfed in a kind of
clubbing experience he'd never witnessed before. Lasers beamed around the club,
filling the room with bright electronic colors. Video art flashed
on the screens, pulling Mike into a visual journey, and
(05:32):
the whole dance floor moved and swayed to the music
playing all around them.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're not going to come out of that environment and
make mellow, ambient electronica. You're going to make hard techno
and high bpm sort of intense music.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
They were intense, energetic DJ sets that pulsated through the
club and inspired people to get up and dance and
release their inhibitions.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
There's a huge, you know, discard ball, which if you're
at the wrong night, feels kind of cheesy, but if
you're at the right night, it feels really epic and impressive.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And that night it did hit the right light, sending
a shimmering wave of light across the dance floor, reflecting
all the different colors in the club and coding the
crowd in a magical, almost otherworldly layer of light because
they were about to have an incredible night at Womb,
(06:30):
the futuristic international club at the heart of Tokyo. From
London Audio iHeartRadio and executive producer Paris Hilton. This is
the History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs, a twelve part
podcast about the iconic venues and people that revolutionized how
(06:51):
we party. Some of the world's most legendary nightclubs were
known for the unique community they welcomed, others for the
cultural movements they started, and some for the musicians and
DJs they introduced to the world. The best nightclubs champion
new music, transform lives, and provide an escape from life's pressures.
(07:13):
One more thing. This is the history of some of
the world's greatest nightclubs. Not a ranking of every club
in the world. It's an exploration of the spaces, people
and club nights that made a lasting impact on nightlife
and music today. I'm your host, Altrinate. I'm a singer, songwriter,
musician and I found my purpose in club culture. This
(07:37):
is episode twelve Womb in Tokyo, Japan. When WOM opened
in two thousand, Japan's night life scene was still in
its infancy, But over the past two decades, the Revolutionary
Club has transformed the way people in Tokyo party. This
is the story of how the club went from an
idea born on the dance floors of New York into
(08:00):
one of Japan's most famous nightclubs. Of how a club
that's been opened for over twenty years became a hotspot
for international DJs and found a way to uplift local
talent and survive.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Through the pandemic.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
World.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
In nineteen forty eight, at the end of World War II,
Japan put a new law into place that restricted the
ways people partied. But it wasn't your typical nightlife related restriction.
It wasn't banning alcohol or loud music. It banned dancing,
well kind of. The anti dancing law was called Fuiho,
(08:45):
and it outlawed dancing in clubs, bars, and public venues
unless they had a special license, but even then dancing
was only legal until midnight. It was a law put
into place to crack down on crime and reduce sex
work in venues across the country in the aftermath of
the war.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean, all of the nightclubs pretty much in Tokyo
are actually within this legal gray zone that means that
the police can technically shut them down at any given
time based on kind of redundant criteria like the space
or the size of the dance floor, ambient lighting, furniture,
things like that. There was a real kind of threat
(09:28):
or fear that you could be in a club, either
as a punch or as a DJ, and it would
just get shut down. Police might even worst case scenarios,
start searching people for drugs, etc. And some people did
get arrested.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So for a long time, there weren't many nightclubs in Japan,
and the ones that did exist had to either operate
by a strict set of rules or go underground and
live with the risk of being shut down. But things
started to change in the eighties.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
The Japanese economy went through massive sort of bubble phase
at the end of the eighties beginning of the nineties,
when essentially, if you had a job, you were probably
making a ton of money and you had a lot
of expendable income.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
The anti dancing laws were still in place, but people
wanted to party. So night clubs started to pop up
around Tokyo to make that happen. Clubs like Juliana's Gold
Space Lab Yellow, which I partied and performed at a
few times and loved, and I was blown away on
my first visit. I mean, they made me feel like
(10:32):
Janet Jackson on stage. Those clubs got licenses so people
could dance until just before midnight, and many of those
clubs were playing American music.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Promoters started flying over big name DJs from Detroit, from Chicago.
A lot of the big name house and techno DJs
that we you know, would still listen to it today.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
America had occupied Japan for six years after the end
of World War Two, and when the occupation ended, American
culture still had a really influential role on the Japanese
music scene.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
My name is Yuki Ito from Tokyo. I was working
as a booking manager for wom Tokyo for seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
When disco music became popular in America in the seventies,
it became popular in Japan too. When house music found
it's footing in Chicago clubs like the Warehouse and the
Music Box in the eighties, it wasn't long before it
was playing in music venues across Tokyo.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
The Japanese people are also very curious, especially the cultural
aspect all these American culture, including New York culture, Chicago culture,
La culture, Detroit culture. So this was gradually coming through
to Japanese youngsters.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And there was a specially young person who was uniquely
inspired by all that American nightlife culture, the future owner
of wom. He's a very private guy, and so out
of respect for his privacy, we'll just call him the
future owner of Womb. The future Owner of Womb was
a successful businessman in Tokyo and in the nineties he
(12:14):
started taking trips to New.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
York, where he was so messurbized by the art and
music culture out there, and especially with the way how
the nightlife was going good house music, techno music.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He went to clubs like Limelight and The Tunnel. He
was pulled in by the clubs that stayed open all night,
the ones that hosted DJs from around the world and
created space for people to just party.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
I think he was really fascinated by all these people
coming in. You know, everyone was really happy socializing and
then listening to their favorite music. And this was something
that was not really there in Japan. So for him
it was really no brainer to kind of start off
something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
The future owner of Womb was a smart, successful guy,
and he really wanted to replicate what he'd experienced in
those New York clubs.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And he was really thinking about how to transfer transcend
this cultural hot spot.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So in April two thousand, he opened the club Womb.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Womb is a place where everything comes to birth. He
just liked the idea of calling it as Womb, as
you know, every great thing is, you know, coming from Womb.
The club by itself as a one five hundred to
two thousand capacity club. It's a four floored club, and
(13:49):
this was considered back in the days it was really
like a mega club.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
They hosted a huge party to celebrate the club's opening night.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Womb brought in Junior Aaskez and then this was really
a big night that everyone would remember.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Junior Vasquez is an American DJ who made remixes for
pop musicians like Whitney, Brittany and Madonna. Junior DJ and
at venues like the Paradise Garage and the Original Sound Factory,
another influential club in New York. He became known for
traveling around the world, and his opening set at Womb
(14:27):
put the club on the map.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
But then after that it was obviously such a difficult
club to kind of operate and manage to run it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
You see, the owner of Womb had the money and
passion to open a nightclub, but he didn't quite have
the musical network to keep up a consistent DJ roster
or the marketing skills to bring thousands of people to
his club every night. So he went head hunting. He
spoke to different people involved in the international music scene
(15:00):
until he came up with a list of names to
look out for, which is how he found Yuki. Yuki
have been living in London for eight years, throwing parties
around the city and making friends across the international dance scene.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Around that time, I was actually having another connection through
drum and Base with all these Japanese DJs who are
actually living in New York.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
He and his friends started organizing club nights across Europe
and America and built up a really strong reputation for
throwing some of the best parties with the hottest DJs
in the world. So Womb's owner asked Yuki and his
friends to move back to Japan to run Womb.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
We were asked to come in to regenerate this place
and re establish this place. I was probably around twenty six,
twenty seven. You know, we were very, very excited.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
There were three other people who moved to Tokyo Yuki
to run Womb.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The other person, my friend from New York, is called
Sabi Takahashi. He was the head of Womb for at
least maybe good ten years. The other person he's called
Djaki and he's one of the most famous droman bassed
DJs in Japan. And then also we have a guy
called Takeo Yatabe and he's wren into like producing music.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
With a new team assembled, it was time for Womb
to step into its fullness. But it was a pretty
big job to take on. The owner of WOM essentially
gave them the keys to a nightclub in the middle
of Tokyo, gave them creative control, and told them to
just run it. Yuki has a good metaphor for what
it was like for him and his friends to be
(16:46):
given so much responsibility.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
For me, it kind of really felt like the owner
of WOM just came and then you know, left us
with this you know, expensive Lamborghini, and then you know,
like he's telling us he would give it to us,
the Lamborghinia, but we have to learn how to drive
the faster than anybody. You know. In the first beginning,
we thought it was like, yeah, it's no problem. You know,
(17:09):
we're so motivated, We're so ready to do this.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
They were young, motivated, and passionate about music. They quickly
realized that the key to the club's success was going
to be all about the bookings. Because Womb was determined
to become an international club in the heart of Tokyo.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
We needed to promote in the right directions, the right ways,
to the right people. And it's not about just like, hey,
well we're bringing some big DJs whatnot. We really needed
to influence people in Japan to really feel the vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Before Womb, Yuki and the rest of the team had
spent years building up a network of DJs and agents
from around the world, so when they took over WOM
in two thousand and one, they were ready. And one
of the biggest bookings was Richie Harton.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
He made his name through Detroit techno scene.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
He played a set at Womb and fell in love
with the club, so he kept coming back.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
He just really felt that it was a you know,
Womb was the right home for him to keep developing
his artist career in Japan.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
DJing in Tokyo was a different experience than playing in
other cities around the world.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
A lot of you know, international DJs came back to
me and it says that you know, like, Japan is
very special because Japanese audience are very, very humble in
a patient and they were just like enjoying the actual
musical Johnny.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I can still remember all the nights I spent out
on the dance floor in Japan. The crowds were phenomenal
because they took dancing very seriously. I usually wouldn't leave
until I was overwhelmed with exhaustion, but it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Was the best.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
By two thousand and eight, it was known as one
of the most legendary venues in the city, packing out
dance floors, booking major headliners, and attracting crowds of young
people excited to hear new music from around the world
and dance all the way up until midnight. Yeah, the
(19:37):
anti dancing laws were still in place, but Womb had
found a way to get people to party.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
When we actually learned how to drive this Lamborghini. It
was unsompable.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Tokyo's night life is constantly evolving. New clubs, bars and
carry spots open all the time. It's a buzzing, futuristic
metropolis and Japan's nightlife capital.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
My name is a Hito. I am from Himiji, Japan.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Even though Hio is from Japan, she was first introduced
to Womb by one of her friends and fellow DJs,
Richie Horton.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
I was invited by Richie to see this Richie's showing Womb,
and it was my first Womb experience.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Ritchie was playing a set at Womb and so he
invited Hio along, and her first night there was magical.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Pretty much like wow, you know, because I never expected
that so many Japanese coming for this night to do clubbing,
no night out.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Walking into Womb felt like stepping into an alternate version
of Japan.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
So I was a bit surprised in a positivity.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Jito's first night at Womb was a really eye opening experience.
She'd been born in Japan and had spent her childhood there,
but she had never partied in Tokyo before. When she'd
left the country Japan didn't have a thriving night life scene.
Yet everything Hito understood about nightlife she learned from her
(21:24):
days studying abroad.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
I was like studying languages in different countries. Then I
went to London, Rome ferries and you know, around the world.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
As she traveled around Europe, she decided to get fully
immersed in all the different cultures, and the way she
did that was by going out to party, especially when
she lived in Berlin. After Techno was born in Detroit,
the sound made its way to Berlin, where it exploded
at clubs like Bergheim, So partying the it was sort
(22:00):
of like Hito's cultural immersion. She'd learned her most valuable
lessons on the dance floors and figured out how to
navigate the culture of each new city by talking to
people in the club.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So eventually Hito became a DJ.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
DJing for me, it's like a consequence of my life
or life style, which I never expected.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And so taking a trip back to Japan more than
a decade after she'd left and experiencing womb for the
first time, felt like seeing a country she'd known in
a past life stepping into a whole new era. But
even though womb was inspired by clubs from around the world.
(22:46):
It wasn't like the clubs Hito had experienced in Berlin
or like the ones Mike had experienced in London.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
You would less commonly see that sort of almost heady
euphoria that you see in clubs in London or New York.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Because nightlife culture in Japan is a lot different to
what it's like in Europe and the USA.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I think clubbing, nightlife, et cetera, is kind of a
standard part of any young person's lifestyle, especially once they
enter let's say university or sort of drinking age in
the UK, the US, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So most people who.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I knew growing up with, even if they weren't into
techno or house or knew much about electronic music, they
would be going to clubs as part of their let's say,
weekly routine. And you know, they might be going to
get drunk because they're you know, clubs of alcohol after
midnight and other places don't, or they might be going
(23:47):
to pick up you know, girls or guys. But the
point is that they were going.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But it's not exactly the same in Japan.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I would say that most young people do not go clubbing.
It's not a normal part of the majority of young
people's routine, and the reason for that is that you
have other alternatives. You have izakayah, the sort of local
bars slash restaurants that open all night so you can
drink there until five am. You can go to karaoke
(24:16):
and drink all nights. There are lots of options that
don't involve going into dark room and listening to four
four beats until you know the early hours.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And the other big difference is the role drugs play
in Japanese nightlife culture, the role they don't really play.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
It's much much harder to procure drugs in Japan than
it is in the West.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The government is very strict on drugs. Well, no country
is completely drug free. Recreational drug use is a lot
less common in Japan because the consequences are a lot tougher.
They don't make as much of a distinction between punishment
for possessing drugs for personal use and having them with
intent to supply.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
There isn't easy access when it comes to MDMA, cocaine,
even weed.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That's not to say that nobody takes drugs, but it's
not as prominent in nightlife culture as it is in
the other cities we've explored in this podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So a lot of people in the club are just
drinking or potentially even sober, and it does change the.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Environment and it sort of dictates the kind of music
that clubs in Tokyo, like woomb play.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I could never imagine really sub based, heavy kind of
dubstep UK style dubstep like early DMZ and so on
taking off here, and it never did.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Because the culture around the sounds was really intertwined with
the drugs people were taking. When those genres blew up,
so other genres took off instead.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
You know, house and techno are both incredibly popular with
our needing you know kind of this widespread sort of
usage of uppers or any sort of drug that would
contribute to that experience.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
For Mike, Japanese culture means that you don't need drugs
to enjoy house and techno music at womb and the
minimal inclusion of drugs in Tokyo's nightlife really shape the
way people party.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I think there's more of a kind of low key
appreciation for the music. I think people stay on the
dance floor for longer rather than in short bursts because
they don't need to go keep getting bottles of water
or running to the bathroom to do more lines or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
People stay on the dance floor for longer stretches of
time in Tokyo, so the clubs there have found different
ways of creating euphoric are inspiring immersive nights people can
experience without taking drugs, and at Womb they do that
by making each night not just a musical experienceience, but
a visual feast too. Wom has an incredible sound system
(27:07):
with a very deep bass and music that pulls people
into the club, but the visuals and lighting play a
huge role in what makes each night at Womb such
a transformative experience.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Dance music.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
This is Minami Sakamoto. She's a visual artist based in Tokyo.
She talked to us about her job at Womb, curating
their immersive visual environment. She's speaking in Japanese, so i'll
paraphrase what she's saying in English.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
There are a lot of layers to Manami's job.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Creating a visual experience each night is a collaborative process,
but the music comes first. When she finds out which
DJ is going to be performing at the club, she
researches their personality and musical style. Then she gets in
touch with the DJ to talk about their favorite colors
and the music they're going to play, so she can
(28:09):
then put together a mood board and start to curate
a visual experience to play on the screens while they perform.
At Womb, the lighting is meticulously calculated and beautifully placed
(28:30):
across their high ceiling. Light is a fundamental pillar of
Tokyo's nightlife, and it's what makes parties at Womb feels
so immersive and otherworldly. Manami creates unique visual experiences for
different nights at the club and projects them onto the
big screen to transport clubbers into the world of music.
(28:54):
At once, Manami's friend, Korean artist Machina, had an album
release party at Womb and the art concept used mirrors
picture Doctor Strange fighting in the mirror dimension. On another
(29:15):
night at Womb, they decided to incorporate dance into the
visual experience. DJ spen Faith had released a song called Bhutto,
inspired by a style of Japanese dance theater by the
same name, so Wom worked with a Budoka dancer to
(29:46):
record a music video specifically for that night. In the club.
They recorded the dancer performing, and then Manami created a
video that incorporated the dancing with videos of the natural
scenery a small island in western Japan called Miyajima to
reflect the traditions around the dance. The visuals Minami creates,
(30:09):
paired with the club's stunningly choreographed light shows, makes each
night at Womb an incredibly immersive experience.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It's absolutely that, it's absolutely energetic. You know a lot
of struggles and the smoke machines and you know, all
these items were actually helping to produce a great shows.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
That's part of the magic of Womb. Each night is
an immersive musical experience, but it's also a surreal visual
experience too.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I would always say that, you know, like there is
something very very kind of spiritual about that particular building
or the actual ground, quite a magical place.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
In twenty fifteen, Japan lifted its anti dancing laws after
a sixty seven year ban on dancing after midnight. Opening
the floodgates to a wave of new nightclubs popping up
across the city. But by then Womb had been opened
for fourteen years and had mastered the art of how
to throw a great party, and by twenty twenty the
(31:14):
club understood its audience, its musical taste, and had become
one of the most prominent international clubs in Tokyo. But
something major that they could have never expected was about
to hit them and irreversibly changed the way we all party.
Like so many cities around the world, Tokyo's night life
(31:37):
scene was heavily affected by the outbreak of COVID nineteen.
Tokyo went into lockdown, Womb closed its doors and the
music stopped. In twenty twenty, the busy streets emptied out,
the world got a lot quieter, and the city's dance
floors were abandoned. But when the world began to open
(31:59):
up again, so did Womb, but it was a shaky
start well.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Obviously, the impacts of the corona and the pandemic was
really prominent because there was no way of bringing in
the international artists. International DJs could not actually come to
Japan to perform.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
The borders were closed and people had stopped traveling around
the world to perform, so Womb had to come up
with a new plan.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
There are so many Japanese local DJs.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Big cities often overlook local talent in search of big
international names, but Tokyo noticed they had a ton of
homegrown talent, so WOM invited local Japanese DJs to perform
at the club's early post lockdown parties. DJs like Lisa xxx,
Sakiova and Wada Iragashi.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
WUM has definitely a big role, especially that WOM actually
send these artists to other market other cities in the world,
and then you know, this way, you know, we can
actually help support their career.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So the WOMB team took a step back to plan
out the club's future, and then when Tokyo was close
to being back to pre pandemic partying, Womb brought together
a mixture of local and international DJs to throw one
of the biggest parties yet on one of the most
important nights in Tokyo's nightlife calendar, New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
We don't have so much of a you know, like
Christmas gathering with a family kind of tradition. Christmas are
more like for the couples, you know, and also for kids.
Of course, for families, New Year's Eve to the New
Year's Day is definitely a family thing and also it's
quite you know, important day of the of the year
(34:00):
for Japan.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
So in December twenty twenty two, for the first time
since the pandemic, WOM hosted their famous countdown party. The
lighting director got into place, Manami, the VJA began to
project visual art onto the screens, and the club slowly
filled up. Everyone knew that night was going to be
(34:22):
extra special after spending several years away from the dance floor.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Obviously, the main thing about the New Year's Eve is
that they all want to stay together in such a
festive you know, set up with the Confetti's and the
strow Boys amongst the people. The moment of you know,
then of the town of the year is to actually
be together and celebrate with you know, anonymous you know,
(34:49):
strangers to welcome the new year.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
As the night went on, different DJs got up on
stage to perform their sets, musicians like Craig Richards and
DJ Mazda and Uri Urano, so.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
You know, they were slowly but surely coming into to
the club. Just so many people out there. By the time,
like you know, fifteen minutes before the countdown, it just
it gets completely packed.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yuki was often the MC on New Year's introducing acts.
As the hours went down.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
It was my joke to kind of come down from
ten to the Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Lights were beaming in every direction, music was pouring out
of the speakers, art was flashing on the screens, and
the whole crowd was swept up by the atmosphere. They
were dancing to celebrate the approach of a new year,
but they were also dancing in the aftermath of everything
they'd experienced over the course of the pandemic, everything we've
(35:53):
all experienced. Remember the first party you went to post lockdown.
All the lights felt brighter, the songs felt louder, and
the dance floor felt more magical than it ever had before.
When the final countdown began in womb just before midnight,
you could feel the hope, joy and trepidation in the air.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
No exclusion. Everyone can actually celebrate to each other, so
it's very very legittic. The excitement was crazy. The place
just goes insane, especially where the confetti is. Then people
were like raising up both arms and then you know, celebrate.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It was the start of a new year, a fresh slate,
and we're better to celebrate it than in a place
named after the space where all life begins.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Womb I can totally believe that womb can revive into
something of a very special place yet again to have
a rebirth.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
And with that we close the door for the moment
on the history of the world's greatest nightclubs. What have
we learned well that the hours we spend at nightclubs
are fleeting. Those magical nights pull us out onto the
(37:34):
dance floor, spin us around and change our lives. But
every perfect night has to end. When the sun comes up.
We spill back out onto the street, feet aching from
the way we danced, eyes blurry from the memories we made,
and lives changed by the way the music transformed the
(37:57):
way we see the world. How many of the clubs
we've talked about over the course of this series have
closed down. They were only in the world for a
short time, but they went on to impact generations. The
Music Institute and the Warehouse launched new genres. Dance Ateryria
(38:17):
and the Tunnel set the stage for future icons, and
Bergheim Trade and Space revolutionize the way we party. The
world's greatest nightclubs didn't all last forever, but their legacy
lives on. I'm your host, Altrinate, thanks for listening. The
(38:44):
history of The World's Greatest Nightclubs is produced by Neon
Hammedia for London Audio and iHeartRadio for London Audio. Our
executive producers are Paris Hilton, Bruce Robertson and Bruce Gersh.
The executive producer for Neon Humm is Jonathan Hirsch. Our
producer is Rufiro Faith Masarurra Navani Otero and Liz Sanchez
(39:08):
are our associate producers. Our series producer is Crystal Genesis.
Our editor is Stephanie Serrano. Samantha Allison is our production
manager and Alexis Martinez is our production coordinator. This episode
was written by Rufiro Faith Masarua and fact checked by
Katherine Neuhan. Translation by Amy Shiganaga. Theme in original music
(39:32):
by Asha Ivanovich. Our sound design engineers are Sam Bear
and Josh Han.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I'm your host, Ultra Natey. Thanks for listening.
Host
Ultra Naté
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