DJ Baku DHARMA DANCE

At midnight tonight (Japan time, in like, 1 hour) DJ Baku’s new album, DHARMA DANCE will be available on HearJapan. Be sure to check out a music video from the music video at the HearJapan link, and on YouTube as well.

The album is released April 5th all over Japan, but if you can’t wait until the brick and morter shops open up in the morning you can snag it via HearJapan as soon as the calendar day changes.

I went to a DJ Baku live event in Tokyo last year and had a great time. I’m no music critic, but he’s just everywhere. High energy and intense stuff.

If you haven’t already, check out the music video embedded at the bottom of the HearJapan site. [youtube link to the same video] It’s really, really, cool.

I got some free time. Let’s learn from the video.

In the video there is a marionette who obviously represents a Japanese salaryman. He is holding a giant HANKO, a stamp that is used in place of a signature for documents in Japan. In traditional Japanese companies, many levels of HANKO can be required to complete important (or even no so important) tasks.

The stamps have different Kanji with varying meanings throughout the video. Here they all are, with my interpretations. Once you know the Kanji, watch the video again. It makes it even better.

働ヶ- Work! (commnd form of the verb, playing with characters by using the katakana small け)

マダマダ - Still more! (with the nuance of, you’re not done yet)

忙 - Busy!

押せ - Stamp it! (literally push, but same verb is used to “push” stamps)

死ヌマデ - Until you die! (or, until death)

押シエ - Stamp it!

あれ? - Huh? What?

苦 - Agonizing! or Arduous. Painstaking. (from くるしい, mentally and physically strenuous)

ナイ - Nothing (the negative, oposite of HAI)

疲 - Exhausted (つかれた)

イヤダ - I don’t like it (stronger nuance though, maybe you could say, horrible. Or intolerable.)

辞 - Quit

不要 - Unnecessary

操 - Manipulate (from あやつる, great with the marionette!)

破壊 - Destruction

制御 - Control

不能 - Impotent, incapable

金 - Money

糸 - Strings (literally, thread)

最高 - Awesome! (the best. This appears next to a pictre of the album jacket.)

攻撃 - Attack

And then, he completely collapses. Poor Japanese salarymen. Mechanical stamp pushers. Overworked… Occasionally overworked until they die… Karoushi.

It’s getting better though…

- Harvey