SUGGESTIONS OF PLACES TO GO OUT
To celebrate our love for music, two regions have a monopoly on festivities: Tokyo and Osaka. In the first one, you’ll be able to dance the night away at WOMB, VENT and Unit, without forgetting the recently closed yet legendary Contact. In Tokyo also stands the Future Terror festival. In Osaka, Circus Club is the place to be, and there is also the Moment festival, which stands in the beautiful forest of Dorogawa this year. The Chubu Region is also the land of Rural Festival. But we shouldn’t forget that the Kanto region has fabulous events to offer, such as the Rainbow Disco Club festival and, of course, The Labyrinth, which, through its special connection to nature, contributed to building the fundaments of the Italian hypnotic techno. Thus, the legendary mix below has been recorded in Labyrinth’s 2008 edition…
SOME LOCAL HYPNOTIC TECHNO ARTISTS AND LABELS
It’s not so easy to cover the culture of this country, because this is “a land of creators”, and its artists usually don’t stick to “one genre” or “aesthetic”. And indeed, In terms of culture, Japan is immeasurably rich. Regarding the hypnotic techno scene (and its links with other psychedelic and dancefloor-oriented styles), the first names that come to mind are undoubtedly DJ NOBU (and its legendary label Bitta).
Wata Igarashi, with his signature psychedelic waves, is also an important figure in Japan.
Other important artists are at work, such as Takaaki Itoh, IORI (and his own label Visionary), Ryogo Yamamori, Hironori Takahashi, Lemna, DJ Sodeyama and DJ YAZI…
Very hypnotic in its original meaning: we have also DJ Shufflemaster’s minimal loops. There are of course numerous other artists in the larger circle of electronic music, and if we had to mention some of them, it would be Ken Ishii, A.Mochi, DJ Masda and Shinichi Osawa, in a more experimental style…
Our humble blog had the privilege of crossing paths with other qualitative names in its articles, such as YUKIMASA, Lindamann, Seiichiro Itoyama. We also have to mention some talented emerging producers: YSK, Doltz, Yuji Kondo, Kannabi and Yukari Okamura.
And for all the creations of the producers, let’s have a look at some Japanese labels that you should follow. Some of them are built more or less exclusively for their owner, such as 951Beat for Ryogo Yamamori, Visionary for IORI, WIP for Wata Igarashi or Wols for Takaaki Itoh. Other labels are more open: let’s focus on Kizen Records by Ro Mi for example, or Katharsis Recordings by Masafumi Take.
Japan has also a wide experimental scene which could sometimes be seen as hypnotic, thinking of Kosei Fukuda’s album Ruten or Akiko Kiyama’s track “Newmud”. In the ambient genres, the country teems with legends, thinking of Ryo Murakami and Ryuichi Sakamoto (RIP), as well as poetic labels, such as Muzan Editions, and humbler yet talented artists, such as O-Ma (and his album “Kōgen”).
We can write another special mention to atmospheric drum and bass artist Ena, who sometimes produces grey area stuff as well (a genre that we also cherish).
WRITING BY: CLARENCE RISE | JANUARY 2024
