S4E2 - Yamazaki 12 and 18

This Is My Dram - The Whisky & Music Podcast

Luckily at This Is My Dram, we have one presenter who is enthusiastic and sociable enough to actually go abroad on holiday and a much anticipated trip to Japan presented an obvious opportunity for resident Japanese whisky nut, Stu, to visit a couple of whisky distilleries. In this episode we enjoy two expressions from the Yamazaki distillery, the 12 year and the rare and expensive 18 year (courtesy of our friends at The Bourbon Gents) along with some excellent Japanese music.

Yamazaki is the oldest distillery in Japan and proudly displays Barrel no.1 - the genesis of Japanese whisky - on the distillery tour. Although the company, founded by Shinjiro Torii, has been producing whisky since the 1920s, the Yamazaki label did not appear until 1984 and has been one of the most sought after Japanese whiskies in recent years.

Check out some of Stu's fantastic photos from his visit to Yamazaki Distillery:

Our playlist theme for this episode was Japanese music - obvious and enticing - and despite having featured as a playlist theme way back in series 1, we still had a treasure trove of splendid tracks to choose from. Stu selected an indie classic reimagining the robotic battles of a real Japanese drum legend and some fullwidth font ambient electro from 2 8 1 4. Andy opted for an anime space cowboy's funk-jazz theme tune and a song so shoegaze you'll have shoelaces burned onto your retina.

The tracks that feature on the podcast, in full, are:

Stu’s 1st selection: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Andy’s 1st selection: Yoko Kanno & Seatbelts - Tank!
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Stu’s 2nd selection: 2 8 1 4 - 修復 (Repair)
Andy’s 2nd selection: Boris - Farewell

For the playlist, we mined the anime and computer game genre a little further, sampled a little underground trip hop and finally found a spiritual home for Dave Brubeck...Have a listen to the full playlist here:

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