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Japanese Electronic Music

Page history last edited by avi goldberg 13 years, 1 month ago

by Avi Goldberg

 

Like many other post-industrial countries, Japan has imported many different styles of electronic music from around the world.  Japanese electronic music is often indistinguishable from music of the same genres produced in other countries.  However, Japanese producers often incorporate elements of both modern and traditional Japanese music, in the usual "cut and paste" style of electronic music culture.

 

House/Techno/Disco/J-pop Crossover

 

House and techno music are by far the most popular genres of electronic music in Japan, and there is a significant amount of crossover between these genres and what is commonly considered "J-Pop".

 

Towa Tei

 

Japanese born Towa Tei came of age in the New York Techno/House music scene in the 1990s.  He rose to fame as part of the group Dee-Lite with their hit single "Groove Is In the Heart".  He is now living back in Tokyo, continuing to produce music as well as hosting a monthly party called Hotel H, which is extremely popular among trendy Tokyo party goers.

 

Hotel H Flier for 1/14/2011

 

 

Denki Groove

 

 

Shinichi Osawa

(this song is pretty obviously about doing drugs)

 

Pizzicato Five

dark disco 

 

Ken Ishii

 

 

 

Dubstep

 

Dubstep is a genre that arose out of the British scene in 2003, and has been steadily gaining international popularity since around 2006.  Japanese DJs and producers such as Goth Trad and DJ100mado are pioneers of the Japanese Dubstep scene, building up mainly through a monthly party in Tokyo called Back to Chill.

 

DJ100mado describes the budding Tokyo dubstep scene:  

 

"The scene is getting bigger," he says. "But some people think that dubstep is so underground they're turned off of it. Some think that to have a good party you shouldn't be too underground and far out — you don't want to only attract maniacs. You have to think about making money, too."

 

Most Tokyo dubstep events offer discounts for women, but thus far that "maniac" impression remains. Michael Condon, a Tokyo-based music-video director who attends BTC parties, notes, "You are basically looking at your 20- to 40-year-old male music geek crowd. This is not a party scene, this is a scene for guys who are deeply into this kind of thing and go to listen to the music."  (source:  Japan Times)

 

Goth Trad

 

 

 

 

Psytrance

 

Psytrance is the current evolution of Goa Trance, a genre that came out Goa, India in the early 1990s.  It has spread all over the world, including Japan.  The Japanese psytrance scene is much like what you would expect to find in other countries, even down to the style of dancing.  Japanese party promoters often bring artists in from Europe and the US to perform, but there are also some native Japanese artists.  The one major difference between Japanese psytrance parties and parties you would find in other places is that there seems to be a significant Yakuza influence in the Japanese scene.

 

Slum:

 

Japanese kids dancing to psytrance:

 

 

 

Other

 

Jazztronik (Nozaki Ryota)

Broken Beat, Nu Jazz

 

I first encountered Jazztronik in 2005 when he released the album "Samurai", and the single of the same title.  The title track, "Samurai" was considered one of the best dance tracks of 2005 on the international scene.  Jazztronik has also done occasional live performances using a full jazz ensemble to play live versions of his electronically produced tracks.

 

live vs recorded

 

Samurai

 Recorded Live
 

 

 

Tiger Eyes

Recorded
Live
   

 

 

 

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