Omodaka / Far East Recording (沢瀉)

Omodaka and Far East Recording are both names used by one Soichi Terada.

Soichi has been producing a wide variety of electro/techno music since 1989. Browsing through his extensive discography is much like taking a lesson in electro history. He started out like many others in the early 90s with bare-bone, sample filled dance tracks. He gradually shifted into jungle/drum and bass territory with his "Sumo Jungle" series of albums. Much of his music featured bossa rhythms and other more sophisticated elements, propelling his tracks slightly further than the usual stagnant underground house and jungle tracks.

He continued to evolve his sound into a much more lively house realm, pushing the vocal element to the forefront. With his "Monkey Turn" single, he fused his older jungle style with a new, vocal-centric sort of cyber-house, with its robotized traditional style Japanese vocal track. After that he jumped straight into a Daft Punk style of upbeat house tracks with more traditional Japanese folk vocals courtesy of Kanazawa Akiko (I highly recommend checking out the video diaries on her site.) He also slowly incorporated the current trend of using modern/retro 8-bit sounds, eventually creating songs made entirely of vintage video game music tracks. While these songs would be great on their own as instrumentals, the addition of Kanzawa's anachronistic traditional vocals makes for a truly unique mix.

So far Soichi has released only one album and an EP featuring his new sound under the name Omodaka. CANTATA No.147 is basically a collection of his recent singles (including his excellent version of Bach's Cantata No. 147.) The Favorite Games EP is a natural evolution, pushing the vocals to the bleeding edge and even including some acoustic guitar among the retro-bleeps. With the amount of attention his new work is getting, and more notably the excellent videos that accompanies it, and a growing number of high profile remixes for the likes of Ram Rider and YMCK, we can be sure that we'll be hearing (and seeing) a lot more from Omodaka / Far East Recording in the near future.

[Photo by Ace0fClub5]

Kokiriko Bushi



Official Site

Major Releases
Omodaka - Favorite Games EP (2008)
Omodaka - CANTATA No.147 (2006)
Far East Recording - SUMO JUNGLE GURANDEUR
Far East Recording - SUN SHOWER REMIXES
Far East Recording - NEWS AND OLDIES 1996
Far East Recording - FAR EAST RECORDING 2
Far East Recording - FAR EAST RECORDING

Yosawya-san


Kyotei Zinc (video mix)


Kyotei Daiski


Cantata No. 147


Fortunate 1 Mark


Live


Live @ Holy 8bit Night 1/4


Live @ Holy 8bit Night 2/4


Live @ Holy 8bit Night 3/4


Live @ Holy 8bit Night 4/4