Red Bull Music Academy, Day 1: Of Typhoons And Brainstorms

Not even a typhoon can stop the music.

The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA), now in its 17th year, is under way in Tokyo. Today, the first official full day of the two-week "term one", grey clouds have ominously shrouded the metropolis. There are reports of a typhoon... It's actually kind of exciting. Word is that the only time the Japanese are ever lawless is when it rains. Then, and only then, unattended umbrellas simply vanish. We didn't even think to bring one. Eek.

The RBMA has travelled widely since its inaugural instalment in Berlin. In 2006 the now-institution descended on Melbourne. Participants, all emerging musicians, come from world-over. This year, of 6000 applicants, 60 have been selected from over 30 countries — including, for the first time, Egypt and Kenya. Three Aussies are attending the RBMA. Lewis Cancut is here for term one. The DJ/producer, part of the Scattermusic fold, lately moved from Melbourne's hipster Fitzroy to Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges — not far from where Daniel Merriweather grew up in Sassafras and close to where, weirdly, a young Julian Assange once roamed freely in Ferntree Gully. Cancut's style is described as "tropical trap" in the RBMA guide yet, when we quiz him, he demurs at the "trap" bit. Past RBMA students have gone far, with famous alumni like Flying Lotus, Nina Kraviz and Perth's Ta-ku.

The 2014 RBMA is centred in Aoyama, bordering Shibuya. The programme entails lectures by music luminaries, workshops and, beyond, a mini-festival of club gigs. Architect Jun Aoki's sleekly modernist RBMA building has newly custom-constructed studios, the main one for traditional instrumental recording with a drum kit, with smaller "bedroom studios" on an upper floor. The studios have special rotating "team leaders" — the most notable producer Just Blaze, who, with Kanye West, masterminded Jay Z's The Blueprint. We spot Austrian Dorian Concept, FlyLo's sometime keyboardist, in a studio cubby with pupils. Another group is making what sounds like Renaissance trap. The music heads all have free access to an equipment room that is akin to Aladdin's cave.

Elsewhere is the RBMA Radio hub, broadcasting online. We teasingly ask if expat Kiwi jock Nick Dwyer might play '80s J-pop band Sandii And The Sunsetz. Astonishingly, he knows of them. #Trainspotter. Throughout the complex are art sculptures (how about a giant glittery anus?), paintings, photographs, installations and striking interior design. But equally eye-catching is a strange micro-lagoon, surrounded by willows, in the middle of Tokyo, visible from a window in the dining area. We meet Kenya's poly-genre muso Blinky Bill, whose nickname-cum-handle is brilliantly derived from the iconic Aussie koala. He's dapper with a broad-brimmed black hat that Theophilus London would covet and a patterned shirt. The guy is a star. Cancut has already befriended the Nairobi resident and they've cut two tracks together. Tomorrow they'll add vocals.

Media access to the RBMA is restricted to two days at a time — and the identity of guest speakers isn't disclosed until the term commences. We discover that this afternoon we will hear Japanese electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita, whose '70s renditions of Claude Debussy on the MOOG synthesiser, Snowflakes Are Dancing, proved a crossover phenom in the US. He'd receive Grammy noms and find a fan (and friend) in Stevie Wonder. Alas, the eightysomething Tomita isn't as often cited as Vangelis, or Jean Michel Jarre, but he's a hit with the RBMA crowd.

Incredibly, Tomita was originally approached to create "surround sound" music for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now but, he says via an interpreter, label red tape prevented it. Tomita also recalls defending his synth music from traditionalists. "If it's not music, what is it? What is music anyway?" 

Indeed. That's the question.