Japanese House Album Download the 15 Best Pre-00S Deep House Albums
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japanese house album download The 15 best pre-00s deep house albums. Slower tempo, brooding bass, droning synths, chromatic key changes, swinging percussion and the general feeling of being deep in a rainforest, the ocean or a club bathed in red light at 3 in the morning are its traditional elements and if a track doesn't have them, it's not true deep house. It's warm, inviting, a little trippy, very human and owes more to jazz and soul than the funk and disco of original Chicago house. The 90s witnessed a thriving deep house scene from Chi-town to Detroit, New York to London and Paris and, in a time when the album wasn't dead, produced some stellar LPs. Check out the 20 best pre-00s deep house albums below. Mr Fingers. Where else could we possibly start? Larry Heard is the godfather of deep house. The man from Chicago invented the genre as soon he laid down that first gorgeous Jupiter 8 chord over a boisterous bass line in 1986 on the sublime 'Can You Feel It'. With only his second track, Larry AKA Mr Fingers was a house music star. That track, along with 'Mystery Of Love' and 'Washing Machine', landed on debut album 'Amnesia' which some might think should warrant a place on this list. Instead we've gone for 1992's 'Introduction', a record that took another leap in furthering the genre he had already started. Opener 'Closer', the elegant 'Jazzy' and 'What About This Love' are all direct descendants of his breakout material, but have been refined, made dreamier and sound like the work of a genius fully given his own space to operate. And proven by performances at Dekmantel and Sunfall this year, Heard's material still sounds as fresh as ever. 15 Classic Japanese Techno Albums That Every Head Should Know. The country’s contributions to the sound’s development span from the technological (exhibit a: Roland Corporation, creator of the TR-808, TR- 909, TB-303 and more) to the sonic (exhibit b: the futuristic video game music of Yellow Magic Orchestra and the ’80s synth sheen of city pop). With that in consideration, it’s no wonder that Japan has harbored a particularly creative scene for Japanese techno (and house!) since the genre’s initial boom in the ’90s. As a team of Japanophiles ourselves, we decided to explore this current through some of the notable full-length albums that’ve been released over the years. Takkyu Ishino, Berlin Trax (Ki/oon Music 1998) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. Ishino’s Berlin Trax is definitely not worried about living up to the intensity of its namesake. From the first track, this album—Ishino’s second—is rough and banging. As part of the Ki/oon music catalog, it was released in 1998 under the umbrella of Sony Records. It signals not only Ishino’s Japanese interpretation of hard Berlin-style techno, but it also illustrates its distance from Berlin itself. It wouldn’t be long until this kind of intensity became rare in the German capital and paving the way for the minimal revolution. Think hard kick drums, glitch analogue sounds and excited percussion. Fumiya Tanaka, Uknown Possibility Vol. 1 (Torema Records 1997) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. Fumiya Tanaka is considered to be one of the Japanese kings of modern minimal, but his sound wasn’t always so stripped back and meandering. His album Unknown Possibility Vol. 1 is a testament to his previously hard and aggressive style of production. Still reduced to a few key elements, it definitely strays from the idea of “listening music.” This is a collection of tracks created for the dance floor. It was released as the debut album of both Tanaka and his label, Torema Records, in 1997. He’s definitely come a long way, but his productions have been timeless since their inception. Ken Ishii, Jelly Tones (R&S Records 1995) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. Although R&S Records is renowned for only releasing exquisite tracks, this album is particularly unique. It’s a psychedelic sci-fi musical journey that straddles the line between club and couch listening. Always interested in individuality, the Belgian label knew they’d struck gold with this mid ‘90s classic. It’s Ishii’s second album release on R&S and over an hour in length. At times it’s confusing, wandering and disorienting, but eventually it slides back into rhythm like you slide back onto the couch during your club comedown. Come to think of it, it reminds us of another kind of experience that has peaks and valleys. Want to get really tripped out? Then watch the incredible anime music video for the album single “Extra”. Ebi, Zen (Space Teddy 1994) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. This slow-burning acid chill-out album is an invaluable release by Susumu Yokota, here working under his Ebi alias. Initially released in 1994, it’s an ear-pleasing style of ambient techno that blends trippy acid lines with atmospheres that almost sound like they could have come from Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92 . It’s hazy and a little druggy, but it’s not quite party music in the traditional sense. We’re not at the rave, but we definitely haven’t gone home either. What is this place? And if you like this, you should definitely check out our story on Grinning Cat , one of Yokota’s ambient masterpieces. Rei Harakami, Unrest (Sublime Records 1997) As the new millennium waged a maximalist war upon music, fashion and the internet, some artists decided it was best to refine in retaliation. In 1998, Rei Harakami released one of Japan’s best ambient and minimal-inspired listening albums. Japanese label, Sublime Records—home to artists like Ken Ishii—gave Harakami a platform worthy of his particularly smart style of dance music. It slithers between analog bleeps and acid squelches, softened by graceful percussion and catchy drum patterns. It sounds inherently creative; it’s easy to picture Harakami hidden out in a cabin, producing this incredibly interesting series of modular grooves. DJ Shufflemaster, EXP (Tresor Records 2001) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. DJ Shufflemaster has been a key force in Japan’s techno scene since the mid ’90s. His stunning debut album on Berlin’s mighty Tresor Records from 2001 is a criminally underrated classic in the label’s classic-filled discography. EXP is a fast-paced—and at times frantic—techno record with a sharp futuristic edge. Nearly 20 years later, it still sounds as uncompromising and funky as back when it was first released, ready to be rediscovered and to be given all the praise it deserves. Susumu Yokota, The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection (Harthouse 1993) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. Frankfurt meets Tokyo on this early 1990s album by the late ambient and techno master Susumu Yokota. On The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection , feverish acid modulations collide with majestically trance-inducing synth leads. In a time when early ’90s trance is being rediscovered by a new generation of DJs and ravers, The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection is one of those albums that sounds pretty fresh again twenty-plus years later. Kaito, Special Life (Kompakt 2002) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. Special Life , Kaito’s debut album on Cologne’s Kompakt imprint, is a good example of how to walk the fine line between wide-eyed buoyancy and cheesiness. The record is filled to the brim with uplifting, chord-driven techno, shuffling house rhythms and trance atmospherics. To hear those arching and bending synth arpeggios on Kompakt back then marked a shift and extension of the renowned pop-infused but minimal “Cologne Sound.” FLR, Easy Filters (Reel Musiq 2001) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. FLR is one of Ken Ishii’s many alter egos. Released at the turn of the millennium on Reel Musiq, Easy Filters is a hard-hitting tour de force of filter-heavy (hence the title) techno with a tribal touch. While his Ken Ishii stuff is melody-rich, expansive and futuristic, this is no-frills techno squarely aimed at the dance floor—it’s as hard as it is funky. Perfect tools with that raw edge that sets them apart from being just another collection of functional club tunes. DJ Wada, One (Sublime Records 2009) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more. Always unblock YouTube. DJ Wada is one of Tokyo’s undisputed techno trailblazers. He held a long-standing residency at his own party, Sublime, throughout the ’90s and into the ’00s. His 2008 solo debut album, One , is a concept album of sorts. It’s divided into three extended and mixed sequences, with the first and third clocking in well beyond the 20-minute mark. Musically, One is a pretty tracky and bare bones affair. This one’s crunchy minimalist Japanese techno at its best. Takaaki Itoh, Box EP (Majesty Recordings 1999) By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy. Learn more.