Here are a few I haven't seen mentioned yet:
o PARK AVENUE are on Frogman sublabel USB, and are a great mixture of
relaxed techno and house with more idm-ish elements. The track
"Park Avenue" on their debut LP _Mexico_ is one of the nicest vocal
techno / house tracks I've heard in a while. Most fans of Aril
Brikha and Optic Nerve would find something to like on _Mexico_.
It's probably my favorite techno / house album from last year (I
really couldn't tell you whether it's more techno or more house,
but it doesn't really push any "tech-house" buttons, which I
personally think is a good thing).
o DJ Q'HEY is more of a DJ than a producer (he has one EP out but is
one of the residents at Tokyo's Maniac Love), but his mix CD REBOOT
#01 is a manic three-turntable mix of stuff people here claim to
hate (Adam Beyer, Cari Leikebusch, Chris Liebing) put together by
someone with serious mixing skills and a good ear. Most looped-
banger style mixes get tedious after the first half-hour or so, but
this one stays consistently interesting. Fun and high-energy
without ever getting overly monotonous or hectic.
o I assume we all know about FUMIYA TANAKA by now, but I thought I'd
mention that his MIX.SOUND.SPACE mix CDs are an interesting idea (2
CDs' worth of short, 10-20-minute micro-sets) that I think is very
well executed. Akufen, Basic Channel, Stewart Walker, Jeff Mills,
Twerk, Kit Clayton, and the Advent all make appearances, and
nothing ever has time to get boring, but neither does it get as
hard as you might guess from listening to Tanaka's tracks.
o KAGAMI takes house, disco, techno, mildly progressive bits, and a
tiny tinge of the electro revival, and throws it all in a
blender. The net result is maybe a bit poppy for the more
discerning 313 tastes, but Kagami's recent album _Star Arts_ is a
fun listen.
o If you can find them, the Isolated Audio Players comps are idm-ish
comps of more abstract Japanese electronica. The quality is
variable (like on all idm comps), but there are a couple tracks on
the first one that I wouldn't part with.
And of course, DJ SHUFFLEMASTER, RYOJI IKEDA, KEN ISHII, and DJ KRUSH
all put out albums last year. I'm surprised the Ishii (_Future In
Light_) didn't get mentioned more prominently here, as it's his most
obviously dancefloor focused album, and it owes a strong stylistic
debt to one D. May. It's very 313 and very good. I guess maybe it
hasn't found a distributor outside Japan yet (Ishii started his own
label to release it), which is really too bad. The DJ Krush album
(_Message at the Depths_) is probably his strongest effort as well,
with guest appearances by Anti-Pop Consortium, Anticon, Sly & Robbie
(!), and a bunch of less well-known talents.
share and enjoy,
F
--
. . . the self-reflecting image of a narcotized mind . . .
ozymandias G desiderata [EMAIL PROTECTED] desperate, deathless
(415)823-6356 http://www.pushby.com/forrest/ ::AOAIOXXYSZ::
