Given the proximity of Australia and Japan you would expect Japanese DJs to come out here to play very often, but it has only been recently that those kind of exchanges have taken place - the trancier guys - like Tokyo Techno Tribe and DJ Tsuyoshi, etc - come out all the time, but not so the techno DJs. Ken Ishii made his first visit to Melbourne for the Earthcore outdoor party for last New Year's Eve and is now returning to play club dates in Sydney and Melbourne this weekend. I think it will be very cool, so maybe people can consider going to that. He plays the next installment of the Innovator party at Seven nightclub this Monday night - which is Cup Eve - in Melbourne, I am unsure of the Sydney details. He is being described as a Derrick May type DJ, so we'll see - funky, soulful and diverse! Has anyone experienced Ken's sets - what can we expect?
Recloose and Common Factor are playing the same night here in Melbourne at Honytonks, so it's a case of needing a cloning machine or party-hopping, I guess! Incidentally, Ken Ishii has a new album out in Japan - it actually came out two months ago. It's called Flatspin and three of the tracks are part of the soundtrack to a new film. There is also a track called Iceblink which is a collaboration between Inner City and Ken - that is Ken did the track and the vocals are performed by Paris Grey and produced by Inner City. I don't know if anyone has heard this track yet but I should imagine it would be very interesting. The album should be released in Asia over the new few months and will get an Australian release - at this stage possibly early in the New Year. Fumiya Tanaka is another Japanese DJ who has only just made his first foray into these parts and I caught him at a small party a couple of weekends ago. Unfortunately something went wrong with the mixer just as he was about to start - I think with the monitor headphone jack breaking off in the socket, just one of those things! So that caused a delay - for some the night lost a little momentum, for others it added to the anticipation. He was very good - subtle and subliminal, as I said in an earlier post, but I was tired (it was Friday) and couldn't really focus on the whole night. I did wonder however if anyone else caught Fumiya and had any thoughts?
