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


Back to Contents Next Page "NIPPON TECHNO LABELS' FAX No."

Nogucci Harumi < MGH03372@niftyserve.or.jp >