WHAT'S GOING ON?
SAPPORO TECHNO SCENE - their love & truth
Northern metropolis Sapporo have had the scene, but it had been hidden to us
. Recently, it started to disclose itself partly. At first, Otsuka Takashi +
his comrades' activities for years. Their units that named 'Digitals' or
'Kraftwops', once play Kraftwerk(or Devo, Gary Numan & etc)'s parody "I am an
operator of my soroban..."(Soroban is EastAsian mechanical computer. Asian
technocrats used to check computers' result by using it) or cover Kraftwerk's
classics, even 'Morgenspaziergang' by 'a capella'(no synths & no samplers,
they say). It sounds something like Krafts raped in W.C. by the Residents.
Awful... What will Ralf + Florian say if they know it? Their cassette albums
(hand made) are sold also in Tokyo's tech-maniashop 'DISK UNION shibuya 2',
and bought(!) by some extraordinaries. Otsuka must be possessed by the spirits
of evil robots. Exorcise, otherwise we will encounter further nightmarish
techno. Brrrr!
On the other hand, new label 'Dubrex' have emerged from Sapporo. Their 1st
release "Analog in My Mind"(Dubrex/DRCD-001) contains ambient, acid,
indescribables & etc. They all have unique senses of construction, and are
well engineered. We like it, especially Cycle Energy's 'Get Love' that is
mixture of frower-tech trance, yodel & baby voice 'dah dah'... It must be the
Northern taste. And Northern lives are HARD, Fat Fat Boys' hard & minimal
acid 'TB Fakkah' tells so.
CHICAGO ACID breaks!
Degital Biscuit (domestic version) have featured Chicago acid before('94
summer), and it is comming now. Can you believe, in Tokyo, kids (include
schoolgirls) rush to buy Trax, Dancemania and Relief? (Incidentally, in Tokyo,
an average new 12'EP is about 10$) Are they sane? Never. But we also love
Chicago sounds. So we luckily got second hand Boogieman's "Vitamin B"(RHYTHM
BEAR/RB204) by \100 (about 1$). A2 + B1 are excellent acid-house. Is B1 'Like
This' what DJ Hell appropriates in his recent EP?
And got Dancemania classics, there DJ #1's "Ghetto Trax"(DM060) knocked us
up completely. We know Chicago acid are all bizarre, but it is TOO MUCH. It is
enough to recommend this EP only B1's title 'Computer Sex', and further,
moanning 'DJ Shaaaap Oooone from Westside Chicaaagoo', he dashes into the
silliest ridiculous last track, all men must be touched seriously. Chicago
acid...respectable.
'TRIP TRAP' trip it out!
In Nippon, independent techno labels have been founded one after another.
Trip Trap released their 1st omnibus CD in '94/11, but the artists who
gathered to Trip Trap are not new-comers. Most of them experiensed debut from
foreign labels, or have performed live in domestic parties (Their own party
'Tokyo Techno' had been once given) for long time. So their techno is
'grown-up', not unreliable. "Dimension One"(Trip Trap/TTCD-001) contains
tracks by I.R.M., T.Tokuda, Trance Warp, X-TRON, "O"SAMPLE. DIGITAL BISCUIT
loves "O"sample's flower-tech 'Lotuseater' most.
Here emerges 'ele-king'!
Techno magazine 'ele-king' has made its first appearance in '95/01 by Noda
Tsutomu & Ken=go- who are the founder menber of
FROGMAN RECORDS.
They bragged 'This is the 1st techno exclusive magazine in the world', but is
it sure? To consider about only in Nippon, we DIGITAL BISCUIT seems elder than
that...(yet it is EP size, 50 pages, full DTP, and sold all over Japan) Okay,
we don't mind. The 1st issue of ele-king featured interviews of Derrick May,
Ishii Ken, Black Dog, Laurent Garnier... and report of Love Parade '94 in
Berlin. We DIGITAL BISCUIT also supplied a column named 'that's flower-tech'
there. The 1st chapter was about Chicago acid (Robert Armani, Armando,
Drewski, Paul Johnson... & etc).
'ele-king''fax no.:+81-3-5722-8852
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Nogucci Harumi < MGH03372@niftyserve.or.jp >