V/A - The Japanese Experience

[Lemmiwinks]

1 K.U.R.O. - Perfect Rainbow (7:43)

2 Masa - Super G (9:44)

3 K.U.R.O. - The Revolution (6:32)

4 Amida Buddha - Day Break (5:59)

5 Masa - Gray (9:18 )

6 Charm - Incense (6:17)

7 Charm - The Orsis of Love (5:49)

8 Masa - Beautiful People (Fantazy Mix) (10:05)

9 Masa - Dalai Lhama (Halo Mix) (10:57)

 

 

After a certain post on psynews which can be found here: http://www.psynews.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20983 I got interested into what seemed as THE first comp representative of the Japanese goatrance scene. With a little luck I found it and here are my comments:

 

first of all, I'm AMAZED that Tsuyoshi Suzuki isn't featured in ANY of the tracks... for people outside Japan if there's one name that stands out for Japanese goatrance it's Tsuyoshi and his project Prana. I checked the artist names to see if he wasn't part of any of the other projects on this CD but no... odd, but on the other hand it allows people to see that other talented artists were present as well.

First of all, K.U.R.O. (real name Takeichirou Kurosaki) which is a genious. I actually stumbled on an old album by KURO a while ago in a second-hand CD shop and decided to walk away... DAIM! And it seems that he's still active today, some search shows that he released a new album in 04 called Satisfaction . I'm definatley looking forward to hearing that one A lot of synth presets on his tracks from this comp sound much like the ones used by AP in their earlier work. I especially like The Revolution it captures that mystical oldschool feeling perfectly. I'm amazed that I never heard this track before since I'm a big oldschool fan....

 

Then there are no less than 4 tracks by a project called Masa . Again, I never heard of this guy (Masayuki Kurihara) but he sure knows how to make oldschool!! I especially like the deep, hypnotic melodies in Beautiful People oh baby I can only imagine how it was back in the early 90s on a beach during sunrise and then sudenly the DJ would play this track... ah why wasn't I in my 20s in the early 90s?

 

Amida Buddha has a nice oldschool track, I like this one as well. Nice buildup in the melodies.

 

Charm is actually a project between KURO and some other guy (Tatsuo Endo). These are more on the mellow side of things, still full tempo but a little slower than the other tracks on this comp.

 

Conclusion Since aparently this is THE first comp ever to be dedicated to the Japanese trance scene it's invaluable as collectable. Also, to my surprise I didn't know ANY of the tracks although I'm a huge oldschool fan so if you want oldschool but already know your classics by heart this is one for you

However this was released in 95 and most tracks were probably even older than that and it shows production-wise... if I were new to the scene and wanted a few classics, I'd definatley pick stuff by AP, Etnica and Prana over this. But if you already know those then this is a welcome add to your oldschool collection.

Oh and it seems that newbies don't like the oldschool sound... so if you're new don't say I didn't warn you

 

As for me: 10/10 for its historical value, 8/10 for its musical value