Sundance レコード& CD

Review: Last Front made these tunes for the Torema Records label in the 90s and they were only ever released in Japan in 1993. back then the country was leading the way when it came to indie labels manufacturing and pressing up their own material. Now the music made by Fumiya Tanaka, Tamotu Ide and Takehito Miyagi has been remastered for 2021. 'Green Tower' (original Paradise mix) is a dense and intense techno track with freewheeling synths and jacked up drums and 'Dream Punk' is another rattling and urgent banger that hurries onwards with a sense of tension and astral drama.

Review: Cult minimalist Fumiya Tanaka last released an album on Perlon in 2019. He now returns with a new collection of precision tool tracks hat have been made by sampling his own sounds from his own DAT tape archive from the 90s. Reconstructing those sounds today in news ways makes for a faultless blend of the old and the new. There are silky, dubby tech house tunes, rich melodic minimal work outs and deep house grooves along the way. This release is the first part of 'One More Thing' with the second part dude later in 2022 as a separate double pack.

Review: Japanese techno legend Fumiya Tanaka returns to his own Sundance imprint with a brand new 12" with a customary strange and cryptic title. While information is scarce on the theme behind "We Would Like To Do Song For The Step", we can happily report that the Berlin-based artist's penchant for deep, hypnotic minimal house is on full force across the EP. We can easily imagine the dusty and understated title track being played on a Sunday afternoon at Hoppetosse, along with "In A Memorable 2018" where ethereal samples sit atop a groovy percussion layer. If you're longing for some old Tanaka material, the bass-driven and rolling minimal funk of "Don't Stuporous" calls to mind some of the quality grooves found on his acclaimed "Beautiful Days" series a couple of years back.

Review: Here's one that got us excited: the collaboration of Japanese techno legends Fumiya Tanaka (boss of Sundance and Untitled) and veteran Kuniyuki Takahashi aka Koss: who recently appeared on our radar with his retrospective release on Music From Memory. You're in good hands with these two on the A Round About Route EP: the dynamic duo treat us to some trippy and hypnotic after hours business with these three minimalist trips. They sure know what works on the dancefloor, with over 30 years experience on the scene between them. From the hypnotic shuffle of the title track, the reductionist weirdness of "Long Journey Away" and the groovy "Shaker" experimenting with odd polyrhythms and disorienting field recordings - this one's a solid release.

Review: Fumiya Tanaka sneaks in a final EP for 2012 on his own Sundance imprint with the D6 missive featuring Radiq. "D6" skips along with the assistance of repetitive bass pulses, inconsistent clicks and claks and an oddball assortment of other bleep and blips. "D7" strips things back further, showcasing more awkward tones and underwater gurgles. The barely decipherable vocal in "Loc" replaces any synth action, as fuzzy electronics and crunched hi-hats belie penchant for simplistic perfection.