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| Details / Tracklist: |
1. INTO THE INSIDE
2. FADING SKY
3. NON ESSENTIAL
4. FINITE TIME
5. INTERJECTION
6. SCENE ONE |
 | | Number of discs: |
1 |
| | Extra-Infos: |
180g |
| | Description: | The musician and DJ Ken Ishii sits right at the pinnacle of techno's mostnoteworthy, but although a game changer for the artist personally - andfor Japanese electronic music in general - his 1994 album 'Reference toDiff erence' is something of an unsung gem today.
Now reissued and remastered, released to mark the 30th anniversary ofMusicmine / Sublime Records, and available on vinyl with its originaltrack-list for the fi rst time, this stunning, lesser-known classic is ripe forrediscovery.
Born 1970 in Sapporo, Ishii was introduced to electronic music at ayoung age through arcade games, and Japanese and German pioneerslike Yellow Magic Orchestra, Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk. During his teens,he absorbed new wave, synth-pop, EBM and industrial, before making alife-changing discovery of Detroit techno in the late 80s.
As the 1990s dawned, so did his introduction to Black Dog Productionsand Warp Records' Artifi cial Intelligence compilations. Blown away bythe emerging British and American IDM, braindance, and ambienttechno movements, he quickly folded their infl uence into his still-developing but cultivated aesthetic.
A futuristic confl uence of unplaceable ambient atmospheres, space age
2 of 3 WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
techno, IDM and minimalist composition, 'Reference To Diff erence'unfolds as an eff ortless series of exercises in pristine synth textures,robust man/machine rhythm and understated melodies. It teleports thelistener back to a golden moment in the mid-1990s, when a dedicatedgeneration rose out of Tokyo's storied clubs and took the innovation,energy, and creativity of Japan's unique techno culture to the world.
Opened in 1993, Maniac Love was a new nightclub where ManabuYamazaki aka DJ Yama promoted the Sublime parties, which soonbecame a crucial hub within the burgeoning Tokyo underground. It washere where Yamazaki rubbed shoulders with peers including Ishii andSusumu Yokota, and the trio's future became intertwined.
Much like Ishii, the late Susumu Yokota began his musical career byreaching out to Europe. Not long before Ishii released his debutlongplayer 'Garden On The Palm' through Belgium's R&S, Yokotareleased his debut LP 'The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection' throughHarthouse, the German label co-founded by Sven Väth. In the wake ofboth records' overseas success, Ishii and Yokota set a benchmark fortechno in Japan.
By 1993, as they both became in-demand producers and DJs, it felt liketheir dreams were coming true. Through talking with Ishii and Yokota,Yamazaki became emboldened to transform Sublime into a record label.
Soon after, Yamazaki partnered with Hideoki Amano, who was on theverge of founding Musicmine, a now respected and longstandingindependent Japanese music company. As Yamazaki tells it, Amanohelped him turn his dream into a reality: Sublime Records.
For Musicmine and Sublime Records' inaugural album releases,Yamazaki and Amano approached both Ishii and Yokota, resulting in thesimultaneous drop of 'Reference To Diff erence' and 'Acid Mt. Fuji'respectively, on June 29th 1994.
Yamazaki remembered 'Reference To Diff erence' being well received byDJs, listeners, record store buyers and journalists, stating "people wereexcited by this new wave of music coming out of Japan, and had highpraise for its unique sound."
With the pair of LPs further stamping Japan on the contemporarymusical globe, the scene was beginning to boom at home too. Specialistrecord stores, and club music magazines like Ele-King and Loud spreadthe word, and in the wake of Maniac Love's impact, new nightclubs likethe legendary Liquid Room were opening up, bringing a steady streamof world-famous DJs to the Japanese capital.
"Without a doubt, I think the arrival of Ken Ishii was a major turningpoint for the Japanese music industry in the 1990s," Amano refl ected."Nowadays, the Western club music scene is rediscovering Japanesetechno from the 1990s, and digging our music is a common sight, butbefore Ken Ishii, no Japanese DJ was in sync with the global club musicscene. He was the catalyst."
"Looking back, I can tell it was meaningful that this was one of the fi rsttechno albums by a Japanese artist that was released on a Japaneselabel," Ishii refl ects. "Maybe I did something that bridged between oldschool Japanese electronic music and 'new school' techno in line withthe Detroit sound with this record" he adds, in modest understatement.
The new liner notes were written Martyn Pepperell, a well-regardedmusic journalist who has covered Susumu Yokota for Wax Poetics andMidori Takada for Dazed, amongst numerous other articles. - 180G | | | Manufacturer No.: |
1656289 |
| Product Safety
Responsible Person for the EU:
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20, 22113 Hamburg, DE
was_word_and_sound@alive-ag.de | |
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