P052: Cabeza de Vaca – Japanese IDM

So we finally end our four part series on Japanese electronica with a special on Japanese IDM and experimental music which is available now to listen at on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM .

There are lots of female artists on this week’s show too which is nice to see. We start off with Kyoka Kondo from Tokyo who was the first ever woman to release on Raster-Noton with her “iSH” EP from last year, quite a surprise after xx years of the label’s existence. She has a new album called "Ufunfunfufu" that is due soon/now on the Onpa))))) label.

Kyoka, who is Berlin-based, is also developing a nice looking experimental techno set and has also played Sonar in Japan. Definitely an artist to look out for.

Somewhere in the middle of the show we feature MimiCof or Midori Hirano who was born in Kyoto and is now based in Berlin. She has several albums to her name including her latest “KotoLyra” on PROGRESSIVE FOrM which features heavily on the show this week as it has been an important outlet for many Japanese IDM artists.

We also close the show with some older tracks including one from Mariah that somehow reminds me of the music that might play after a “and they lived happily ever after” finale to a film as the credits roll. Therefore it seems an apt way to close. Don’t know too much about Mariah though and she doesn’t appear to have too many releases. A curiosity of this track is that the song was written by two artists with Western names, so it could be a cover version if it wasn’t written for her directly. She definitely sounds like she was singing in Japanese though.

Tujiko Noriko was also definitely singing in Japanese about the Tokyo Tower who just announced in September that the Tower would be closing for some time and losing their collection of Krautrock waxworks .

Tujiko Noriko has also done a lot of collaborations, including with Aoki Takamasa who’s track “Constant Flow” we did not do enough justice to in the show by only managing a platry 4-5 minute of its 20 minute epic length. The duo shared the credits on an album for FatCat in 2005.

She has also worked with Lawrence English and John Chantler as well as recently with Nobukazu Takemura as well as having an extensive back catalougue of beautifully inventive avant pop.

Speeaking of Aoki Takamasa, he also has an album out on Raster-Noton called “RV8” standing for rhythm variation. We will have to pay him back one day, by looking a bit closer at his music.

As we mention in the show, part of the reason we went up to four programs from three is because there was a few labels who offered promo tracks once we started the series. In particular, the samples of the upcoming 4^th release on Malmö-based label SonuoS sounded exceptional enough to build a show around it. In the end Finn Albertsson sent the track so many thanks to him as it is a stunner from Go Koyashiki. The original too of “Rundgång” also sounds pretty impressive from Swedish artist A.O.T. or Fredrik Nilsson,

<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F99905543"></iframe>

Go Koyashiki has just released a piano-driven album “Silent steps” that sounds quite beautiful and cinematic. You can hear his playing at the end of the “Rundgång” remix as well, where it feels natural and felt and not just added on.

Finally, Kashiwa Daisuke was a great find. He is an artist that I had not heard before, but I was very impressed by his editing and as well as some of the tracks on his recent album “Re:”, his previous outing “Program Music” is also highly recommended for its scope and ambition.

If you still need more, head over to FACT Mag’s recent article on Japonism 2.0 for an overview of 8 Japanese hip hop artists and reference to a couple more in the text.

And here is a motley collection of random Japanese electronic artists, past, present and future that I couldn’t fit into the show just for time:

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Kyoka	HADue	Raster-Noton	2012
2	Geskia!	BGMREM	PROGRESSIVE FOrM	2013
3	Kashiwa Daisuke	Ajanagar	Virgin Babylon Records	2013
4	ENA	Mule Mouth	7even Recordings	2013
5	A.O.T.	”フィードバック (Go Koyashiki Remix)” (Rundgång)	SonuoS	2013
6	MimiCof	Horologium	PROGRESSIVE FOrM	2012
7	Ametsub	Cloudsfall	Nothings66	2012
8	Fugenn & The White Elephants	Timeless	PROGRESSIVE FOrM	2013
9	Aoki Takamasa	Constant flow	Svakt	2013
10	Tujiko Noriko	Tokyo Tower	Tomlab	2003
11	Mariah	心臓の扉 (Shinzo No Tobira)	Shan-Shan	1983

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