3 days ago
Japan's music community comes together to help those affected by the LA wildfires
On January 7 this year, several intense wildfires erupted near Los Angeles, tearing through the area and destroying or damaging more than 10,000 structures. Lives, livelihoods and entire communities were lost, with tens of thousands of residents forced to evacuate.
Among the displaced were many musicians and artists, including hip hop producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Madlib, who lost much of his recording equipment and record collection, and keyboardist and producer John Carroll Kirby, whose home was consumed by the flames.
Five months later, both LA as a whole and the local music community are on the road to recovery, but reconstruction work is still ongoing in many parts of the city and a sizeable number of Angelenos who evacuated in January remain in temporary housing.
One LA institution that's been working tirelessly to help the city back on its feet is the nonprofit internet radio station dublab, whose Tokyo branch is now providing fans of Japanese music with a groovy way to support those affected by the fires.
All proceeds from the digital album A Charity Compilation in Aid of the 2025 LA Wildfires – Resilience –, set to be released by on June 7, will be donated to the fire victims via dublab in LA.
Priced at ¥1,500, the eclectic compilation features music from the likes of genre-traversing electronic producer Foodman, Shibuya-kei icon Takako Minekawa, psychedelic rock band Suishou no Fune and singer-songwriter Yuga, all of whom draw inspiration from the LA scene in their contributions.
With Tokyo and LA coming together over everything from baseball to doughnuts lately, the two cities' trans-Pacific bond looks stronger than perhaps ever before. The Resilience project looks set to deepen those ties even further – and we can pretty much guarantee there'll be some bangers among the album's 38 (!) tracks.
See the full details for A Charity Compilation in Aid of the 2025 LA Wildfires – Resilience – on the website.
