Ken Ishii: S&D

The stuff he did on the Apollo label is fantastic, imagine the same "palette" but w/no beats basically, just slow long pulses and sifty sounds and a weird system-whine treble that sounds like a set of 10,000 computer monitors somewhere very far away being turned on all at once and fading from white to grey and black and back to white again.

I have a 12" on +8 Records that's really fierce and violent and clattery, it's good. (Can't remember what it's called)

The old Detroit records are a hell of a lot more digital than you might expect.

PS Tracer there's plenty of DX series on old Mr. Fingers productions as well! 4-op FM = the bass to end all basses

Future Light is enjoyable, but man oh man did he memorize that "Built A U.R./Red Planet Track For Dummies" book.

Oh yeah, that mix-album he did for Sony is really good too.

Haha you say that like it's a bad thing or as if it has any relevance at all - this is techno we're discussing!

It is nitpicky, but no, not everybody was using _analogue style_ hardware pattern sequencers back then. They were using Yamaha QY's, Kawai Q-80's, Alesis mmt8's, Atari 1040st's with Cubase or Notator and a bunch of other stuff. I am not going to have a gear argument over it because life is just too short, but yes, there is a difference and it is a big one.

Also the cassette 8-track Detroit thing is a bit of a myth as far as I can tell. A lot of people have the idea that the early Detroit and Chicago records were made on cassettes in bedrooms, most of the big tracks were made in either professional studios or at home using reel to reel multi-tracks. I can tell you for a fact that one of the greatest lost treasures of Detroit Techno history is the reel-to-reel tape machine that Ron Murphy mastered from at United Sound. The tape machine that everybody used to transfer the classics from tape to lacquer is in a landfill somewhere because nobody used tape by the end of the 90's and RM threw it out.

I think the big difference between Detroit Techno 1988 and Detroit Techno by way of Berlin/Tokyo in 1994 is that the fashion for recording in the early to mid 90's was to record on DAT's rather than reel to reel. By the early 90's you were not "techno" if you were still using tape. DAT was to Techno in 1992 what CDR was to IDM in 1998. You cannot really drive a DAT machine like a 1" reel and get nice results, hence cleaner recordings. Also, digital outboard processing technology had gotten a _A LOT_ better in the six years between 88 and 94.

MT in Detroit Techno Windbag shocker.

This is so beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sLw23lfRP0

love early ken ishii but he really went to shit after jelly tones

i think the best ken ishii is the stuff he did as flare, though

if you like flare, you'll love kiyoshi izumi

I dig both Flare albums, rumor is he did a third last year?? Anyone have it?

Ken Ishii has a beer

https://kenishii.com/topics/kikk-ipa-ki30-edition-brewed-in-collaboration-with-rise-win-brewing-co/

Didn't know he had his own thread. I interviewed him last year (via email).

I recently listened to the entire REBORE series, and his mix (vol. 2) is arguably the best, only EYE's is in the same league (vol. 0).