Metropolis Japan

April 16, 2013

Oiso Listening

Essential tracks ahead of the Hacienda Festival

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

1 New Order

“Blue Monday” Remixed endlessly, this 1983 track embodies the shift from ‘70s disco and ‘80s house music. It became New Order’s signature encore tune.

2 808 State

“Pacific State” 1989 acid house anthem that launched a thousand chill-out rooms. Sterile rhythm machine beats contrast with warm synths and saxes.

3 Happy Mondays

“Step On” Seminal guitar rave outing from Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches hit #5 in 1990, a high water mark for the then-budding dance scene.

4 John Digweed

“Heaven Scent” With its ricocheting synth melodies, four-to-the-floor beats and arms-in-the-air ethos, this 1999 track essentially defined the progressive house style.

5 Takkyu Ishino

“Ghost in the Shell” One-half of Denki Groove, Ishino is also capable of heavy-duty Detroit minimalism. This 1998 track for the PlayStation game is one of his finest moments.

6 Digitalism

“Idealistic” German unit’s tweaky 2007 opus helped set the template for the electro movement of the latter 2000s.

7 Ken Ishii

“Extra” No one did more than Ken Ishii to put Japanese techno on the map, and this 1997 track—and its hallucinatory animated video—remains one of his finest moments.

8 Afrojack & Steve Aoki feat. Miss Palmer

“No Beef” Two DJs party their way through Vegas in 2011, downing bottles of “Afroki” and redefining house music for a new generation of Millennials.

9 Delphic

“Good Life” If for nothing else, this English quartet will be enshrined in dance music lore forever for this deliciously throwaway synth-pop outing for the 2012 London Olympics.