Japanese techno recommendations

[seanocean]

Ok, so i hate to admit this but i'm going to be a big man and say i don't know a damn thing about Japanese techno.

yeah i know Ken Ishii, Takkyu Ishino, and maybe a few others.. but i am interested in hearing what you think are good Japanese techno artists. they've always seemed to have their own thing going on, i just haven't really found anyone who's been into that scene.

can anyone educate me?

[Lost to the Void]

Go Hiyama
Jin Hiyama
Takaaki Ito
Fumiya Tanaka
Asagao Audio
Kuniaki Takenaga
DJ Shufflemaster
Ryuji Takeuchi
tomohiko sagae

I`ve definitely forgotten a few

Go Hiyama and Takaaki Itoh in particular were there right in the first wave of industrial (broken beat) techno in the late 90`s early 2000`s. Go in particular has a wealth of killer tracks. Early Sheep and Wols releases were cool.

There is a great percussive tradition in Japan that comes across in a lot of the techno.
the sounds of a lot of the production tend to be quite mid heavy and abrassive, not so thick on the bass. I put this down to the lack of space in places like tokyo leading to small studios, small speakers etc.

[Alume]

Yuuki Sakai, Steven Porter(Katsunori Sawa and Yuji Kondo) and Wata Igarashi are cool as wel.

[Hepta]

Aoki Takamasa

[Wiu]

There is a great percussive tradition in Japan that comes across in a lot of the techno.
the sounds of a lot of the production tend to be quite mid heavy and abrassive, not so thick on the bass. I put this down to the lack of space in places like tokyo leading to small studios, small speakers etc.

A mate of mine used to be a manager at a Sony Center many years ago and when I bought an amp from him I asked what the 'UK Sound Tuned' badge on the front meant. He went on to waffle about Japanese systems being generally designed to be more mid frequency heavy and slightly less bass as that's how music tended to be listened to in Japan. Apparently us British cunts just like to be smothered in bass so some subtle changes were made to the amp to help achieve that. How correct this was, I have no idea.

But yeah, DJ Shufflemaster is a fucking must regarding your original question. Subvoice (both the artist and his label) are worth checking out too.

[Lost to the Void]

There is a great percussive tradition in Japan that comes across in a lot of the techno.
the sounds of a lot of the production tend to be quite mid heavy and abrassive, not so thick on the bass. I put this down to the lack of space in places like tokyo leading to small studios, small speakers etc.

A mate of mine used to be a manager at a Sony Center many years ago and when I bought an amp from him I asked what the 'UK Sound Tuned' badge on the front meant. He went on to waffle about Japanese systems being generally designed to be more mid frequency heavy and slightly less bass as that's how music tended to be listened to in Japan. Apparently us British cunts just like to be smothered in bass so some subtle changes were made to the amp to help achieve that. How correct this was, I have no idea.

But yeah, DJ Shufflemaster is a fucking must regarding your original question. Subvoice (both the artist and his label) are worth checking out too.

Yeah, I think this is down to a prevalence of thin walls and small apartments. Keep the bass down.

[SFBM]

There is a great percussive tradition in Japan that comes across in a lot of the techno.
the sounds of a lot of the production tend to be quite mid heavy and abrassive, not so thick on the bass. I put this down to the lack of space in places like tokyo leading to small studios, small speakers etc.

A mate of mine used to be a manager at a Sony Center many years ago and when I bought an amp from him I asked what the 'UK Sound Tuned' badge on the front meant. He went on to waffle about Japanese systems being generally designed to be more mid frequency heavy and slightly less bass as that's how music tended to be listened to in Japan. Apparently us British cunts just like to be smothered in bass so some subtle changes were made to the amp to help achieve that. How correct this was, I have no idea.

But yeah, DJ Shufflemaster is a fucking must regarding your original question. Subvoice (both the artist and his label) are worth checking out too.

That's actually really interesting, and makes quite a bit of sense to me. The housing in Japan can get super super tight, and noise pollution/general noise seems like it can be quite an issue (When I was there, I had one person tell me to turn my earbuds down on the school bus I was taking, when the sound would have been *just barely* audible from the outside), so strong techno in a restrictive frequency range is quite a logical outcome. Do you suppose that also this fact could mean that Japanese speakers have a more well produced mid and high range set, and clean (and uncoloured) bass? I've found a big difference between Japanese and German/European style hi-fi speaker sets before , but don't know if that is just subjective.

But definitely some good choices here, I have to check out all these guys work, too!

[seanocean]

oh hey, thanks! i have been following go hiyama and shufflemaster for a long time too. also i think chester beatty was J as well. whatever happened to that guy? too original?

totally agree a lot of japanese tracks have a long rhythmic tradition. what's unique about their scene is that all the tracks seem to have a really interesting push to them, like the music is just shooting out at you. also there's this deep respect for detroit still going on there (may have changed recently).

what gets me, is that their scene could happen anywhere and from anyone that takes influences from the whole yet doesn't necessarily imitate the standard. or, a differentiated techno sound may erupt from someone who may have a different idea on what the standard is. you could take the whole leipzig scene for an example of this as well (but that's another thread).

i'll definitely check out these recommends. guess my sunday is sorted. :)

[PixelKind]

Iori comes to mind as well

[Berhoff]

Really into Tomohiko Sagae at the moment. Especially 'DSPS1' is a killer track I think.