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Behind the Decks: Ken Ishii and J-tek
I like to think that in the future, electronic music will be subject to the same academic scrutiny that is now given to classical and jazz. And when the textbooks are written, whole chapters will hopefully be devoted to the emergence of techno in Japan.
The Land of the Rising Sun had always been an important player in the development of electronic music, going back to the likes of the Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late 1970s and the pioneering electropop bands that followed throughout the 80s. But it was in techno that the country’s obsession with technology and its forward-thinking attitude found its perfect expression.
This music first emerged as a combination of the synth-heavy, Eurobeat-style Japanese pop innovations with the raw electro sounds of the West that could be heard on Tokyo dancefloors, but with plenty of the quirkyness that we have come to know and love from the Japanese.
The purest Japanese techno sound, or J-tek, is strongly rooted in classic Detroit techno – having a stronger house influence than much of the hard techno, heavy percussion, and comparitively groovy basslines. But while some Japanese trance and breakbeat DJs managed to achieve mainstream success, its techno DJs have mostly remained underground and relatively unknown outside techno circles.
One Japanese techno DJ/producer who has achieved a level of international success is Ken Ishii, who performed in Hong Kong on the eve of this year’s handover anniversary. Ishii was one of the founders of the Japanese techno movement and helped bring the sound to the attention of European DJs through his label, Sublime, which he founded in 1994.
Sublime is still one of the pillars of the J-tek movement and – while Ishii’s own recorded output has been sporadic and inconsistent in recent years – continues to release music by the latest generation of J-teck producers including Newdeal, Tanzmuzik, and DJ Wada.
If you caught Ishii’s set, you have now been officially introduced to the joys of J-tek. And if you liked what you heard, there’s a whole new world of music awaiting you out there – check out releases on another pioneering label, Syzygy Records, plus other J-tek masters Denki Groove, Dr Shingo, and DJ Shufflemaster.
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