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Joujouka - Joujouka


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Joujouka - Joujouka

 

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Artist: Joujouka

Title: Joujouka

Label: Matsuri

Date: 1998

 

Track listing:

 

01. 02'40" Kibiki

02. 09'32" Re-Psycle Frequency (Big Psyche)

03. 07'15" Aoki Uru

04. 07'46" Codeine Slash

05. 07'20" Tokio Drome

06. 08'37" Forgotten Communication

07. 07'28" Talking Drum No Maho

08. 08'41" The Right Stuff

 

Review:

 

Joujouka is a collaboration between well-known DJ and producer Tsuioshi

Suzuki and legend of Japan techno scene - Takeshi Isogai (also known as Ubar

Tmar). Together they created and album that can not be compared with any

other. If you heard Prana's Kollage (on Forever Psychedelic/Matsuri), then

this style would be very familiar to you - tribal ethnic percussions, lots

of background noises, sudden rhythm changes and psychedelic acid riffs!!!

Production is nothing less than perfect - very clear and precise and

selection of tracks is pretty well too. Album starts off with "Kibiki",

which could be described as preview of what is to come after - simply it

contains samples and loops from the other tunes. "Re-psycle frequency" is a

well known (New Psychedelic taster/Matsuri) break-trance track - it starts

pretty strange, but when the funky bass guitar comes in ...wow! This is

really full-on stomper that will rock every dancefloor (not only

trancefloor!). After it changes to plain 4/4 it looses some of it's

funkiness, but still is great. Then there is "Aoki Uru" - I wonder what it

means? - that continues the path shown by 2nd track. It combines fast 4/4

beat with great breakbeat loops and ...hard guitar! I personally don't like

guitars in trance but this one changed my mind. It's really well put

together, and when the acid line comes in the end of the track you don't

need anything more. "Codeine slash" and "Tokio drome" will let you catch

your breath, because they are quite calm tracks - the first one could be

easily described as drum'n'bass with a female-opera voice (sounds strange,

isn't it?) and "tokio drome" is a dark, industrial track with trippy

bass-guitar. With "Forgotten communication" we're heading back to the

dancefloor - this one reminds me Chemical Brothers because of charakteristic

bass and voice-acid (?) that is used at the end. And then there is "Talking

drum No Maho" - for me the best track of this album - lots of tribal

percussions that are perpetually morphing and changing, electronic twists

and noises in the background and - finally - great acid line. Just perfect.

The last one - "The right stuff" - is much in the same style, but more on

stomping side than tribal. Very hard bass drum keeps the track in order to

move your feet, then in about half-way to the end it brakes down - ethnic

drums are comming in with a lot of digital effects applied to them and a

voice starts counting form 10 to 0! And then is the acid! The best acid line

of the whole album - very twisted and furious!!! Great track.

If you still haven't noticed - I think this is an absolute buy. If you're

looking for something new in trance, fresh ideas and new influences then

this is for you. If you're traditionist (is there a word like this in

English?) and like AP, MFG or other old-fashioned goa trance, then you'll

hate this, because there is no melodies at all - this is pure psy-trance!

I'll give it 8.5/10.

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  • 2 months later...
Guest Mindbender

This is definetly not goa. Most of the stuff is techno with some DnB. I've

really got nothing against that in general, but for some reason this just does

not work for me. If I started analysing every track, they're all around

average, but for some reason this stuff just ends up boring me. Judging by

feelings this is bad. No extatic feelings, no landscapes, and repetetive. This

is not because the lack of melodies, as I do like trance without melodies as

well. 3,5/10

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Pit-UFO

Pure Energy. Full of metallic and fat breakbeats, rock influences and acid

lines. Tsuyoshi and Ubar are totally crazy and don't give a damn about

creating hits, they just like to make crazy muzik!!! BOM. 8.5/10

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Guest GlobalSteez

Superb album. It also knocks seven tonnes of shite out of any of Prana's

offerings ever did. I would imagine this would work really well live too.

Tsuyoshi pulled this one straight out of the bag marked 'tasty'. 8/10

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Guest Mikael.maros[at]pp.inet[dot]fi

I've only heard talking drum no maho, but that song is so awesome that it

enteres my top-5 straight away. These guys really know how to break boundries.

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  • 8 months later...

I bought this the second it came out nearly three years ago. I listen again

today and I love it just as much. This hasn't become a dust collector because

what these guys did was creative and really activates the neurons. It wasn't

following a trend it was just being itself and what a treat that was.

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  • 6 months later...
Guest Joemrmeat[at]hotmail[dot]com

I think this cd is good but not excellent. I prefer Ubar Tmar alone, but this

team with tsuyoshi make a very strange and crazy musik. I'm agree with

bomblehotmail.com, it was just being themself. 7/10

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  • 2 months later...
Guest device6[at]hotmail[dot]com

This CD is interesting musically, but the production is weak. After playing

this loud, I put on Infected mushroom. In spite of their dreadful name and

ridiculous cover art (well on classical mushroom at any rate), they kicked the

living shit out of this disk. Joujouka needs more bass and a lot more punch.

THe music does rock though, even if its a little dull.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Davidtolsn

i did not like this album at all... too many samples, too random sounding. some

songs are ok, but some are just bad. i wouldn't call this psytrance.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Fotis Psy

THIS IS THE BEST PSYCHEDELIC ALBUM EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i am from

Kalamata in Greece and i have a problem.I can't stop hearing this samurai

TSUYOSHI SUZUKI.i am listening this amazing cd more than 3 years almost every

day.You must listen live this japanese brain!He is gonna burn your mind!No

doubt the number 1 dj all over the planets!!!!!!eehh... guys it's time to

listen something more difficult...not only tim schuldt and gms. Please mister

Yoshi give us again this treasure of MUSIC!!!!!OPEN YOUR BRAIN'S EARS

GUYS!!!!!!!!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 16 years later...

I do like a lot of percussions in psytrance but for some reason this album did not age well for me. It sounds very dated and too simplistic, the production could be better, even though it was made in 1998. A lot of passion in this album with potential here and there, but something missing for me to really appreciate it. 

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