Random Monday : Why I Love Techno – Takuya Kashiwada @ Under Water Bar Praha

Monday, March 10th, 2008, 9:00 amRoys0 comments

For those that still confuse Euro-house with proper techno, this post is really not for you

Check out this 1:40 min video clip edited from video footage taken during Japanese DJ Takuya Kashiwada’s two hour set at the Under Water Bar Praha (Niigata) on 03 Nov 2007. I think it perfectly sums up the reasons why I still love techno after listening to this genre since 2000 (although the current minimal craze is slightly distressing )

First track played is fellow Japanese producer Takaaki Itoh’s Shadow Play, followed by Hideyuki Eto’s Permutations and finally two copies of Studio 1’s old skool minimal track Green.

The fact that multiple techno tracks can usually be layered on top of each other coupled with the genre’s suitabilty for turntable and mixer trickery sets it apart from most other electronic music genres which tend to favour either fluid mixing or turntable antics but seldom both (with the exception of perhaps drum n’ bass e.g DJs like DJ Hype)

The full 2 hour set by Takuya Kashiwada which spans multiple genres of techno can be downloaded from Japanese techno/house label Asian Dynasty’s site which happens to be the very same label that homegrown electronic music producers/DJs Angela Flame and Case Woo release their tracks on. Check out the tracklist which includes tracks like Damon Wild’s Avion, Ian O’Brien’s melodic Jarrett’s Blues, Octave One’s lush Detroit classic Blackwater, Fumiya Tanaka’s percussive Talking Drums and of course, Takaaki Itoh’s Shadow Play and Studio 1’s Green.

His earlier 40 Tracks Abuse Mix from 2004 which is also downloadable from Asian Dynasty contains even more funky minimalistic techno – especially the final track : Captain Funk’s O.Y.M.

Also check out the other newer mixes on Asian Dynasty, my firm favourites being Dualtek’s energetic set at the massive Awakenings 2007 festival in Amsterdam and Toshihiro Komine’s digitally mixed house/electro/techno set at Tokyo’s Womb club. Notable tracks in the latter mix include Kei Kohara’s uplifting house track Anklet remixed by Yasu.exe from the Heavenly Reworks EP (below) and Locutus’s shuffling Datch Dragon

If I’m correct, the artwork for the Heavenly Reworks EP was done by Roy Gerritsen of Boompje Studios who has designed several of the sleeve artworks for Asian Dynasty’s releases such as the Perfect Strangers EP. (below)