Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011
Courtesy of Music Mine
Tokyo electronica producer Inner Science, a.k.a. Masumi Nishimura, has thrown a curveball with his fifth album. In an era of MP3s, Elegant Confections will be released only on CD because he wants people to buy it in its entirety. Not only that, he’s included a second disc of ambient versions, allowing listeners to compare each track with and without drums.
“Rhythms tend to draw attention away from the music itself,” Nishimura explains in an interview at the heart of what’s left of Shibuya’s once-mighty Organzaka record shop district. “If you make an ambient version, it puts the focus on the melodies, chords and effects themselves.”
Even if you ignore the second disc, Elegant Confections is a difficult album to categorize. Elements of downtempo, techno and breakbeats define its grooves, but there is also a strong ambient flavor to much of the synth work. The title track burbles with gentle, R2D2 bleeps, and twinkling, gurgling sounds tend to dominate over the 11 songs.
“At the time I started out, Japan was the number one record market, so there was a huge amount of music to listen to,” Nishimura says of his influences. “Just ten years ago, there were dozens of record shops right here in this building alone. So I absorbed a wide variety of sounds.”
It’s no surprise to learn that the producer was recently chosen to provide the music for Birthday, a new 3D show at the cutting-edge Dome Theater GAIA in the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.
“I don’t think of myself as a ‘techno’ producer per se,” he says. “I don’t set out to make music of a certain genre, but music that is interesting to myself, so that’s probably why my music is difficult to pigeonhole.”
All the same, it’s the club scene that molded Nishimura and that continues to define him. He got his first taste of it while working at Nuts in Roppongi, and came of age at the old Liquidroom, grooving to the breakbeats of DJ Kensei.
“Unfortunately, even after all these years, it’s still illegal to dance to loud music after 1am,” he says, referring to Japan’s notorious public morals laws. “You’d think they could find other things to worry about, but these laws still exist on the books. Why is clubbing still treated with such suspicion?
“But on the other hand, the laws and the recent ID checks have limited the numbers of young people going out to clubs, which has reduced the numbers of clubbers—but, in a perverse way, given the scene more focus and power.”
For the Elegant Confections release party next week, Nishimura is planning a bill composed entirely of solo instrumental artists like himself. “I’m interested in people who work alone,” he concludes. “Individual, solitary expressions intrigue me.”
Inner Science
Feb 18, 6pm, ¥2,300 (adv)/¥2,800 (door). Fever, Shindaita. Tel: 03-6304-7899. www.fever-popo.com
Elegant Confections is available on Music Mine.
