Atobe, Shinichi

Atobe, Shinichi

Yes

DDS

“Shinichi Atobe’s fifth album for DDS, his first in two years. Deep and sublime, the classic Chain Reaction < > Chicago House vibe, but this time with a swarming Drexciyan undercurrent, somewhere between DJ Sprinkles, Dopplereffekt and The Other People Place, and yet still 100% Shinichi.  It’s odd working with an artist without ongoing dialogue; no context or an exchange of ideas. It’s all conjecture. Here's another CD of material in the post from Shinichi, two years more or less since the last one. No words except for the track titles. Oh, a photo this time. ‘Yes’, positivity, hope. But the album starts with a dystopian vision; something like Dopplereffekt’s sound-chemistry experiments, a tense builder. Big optimistic chasms open up, the Piano House euphoria of the title track, beautiful sunset closer 'Ocean 1’. But there’s a noticeable change too. 'Lake 2’ is more fraught sci-fi, 'Lake 3’ a sort of percussive Chain Reaction monster, 'Loop 1’, on a Drexciyan tip.  It’s all coated in that weird - some people say infuriating - toppy production, witnessed this time in a more tempered and different formation courtesy of an amazing Rashad Becker master, all precise but loosely swung arrangements. Everything slow to unfurl but, also, everything in exactly the right place.”—Boomkat

Atobe, Shinichi

Heat

DDS

“Unexpected new album from Shinichi Atobe - an hour of deeply inspirational House music for the ages that could have been produced 20 years ago, could have been produced earlier this year - we’ll probably never know. RIYL DJ Sprinkles, good times!  Heat is a surprise new double album from Shinichi Atobe for DDS. It follows on from last year’s “From The Heart, It’s A Start, A Work Of Art” set and continues a run of highly enigmatic, acclaimed and completely unparalleled productions that follow their own timeless logic. There’s no sonic fiction involved - this material really does just turn up on a CD sent by air mail from Japan to Manchester, sparse info, no messing, pure gold. What’s that cover art about? prob something to do with the balmy, slightly fuucked, sunstroked material within. So Good, So Right, the 10 minute opener, will force you to forget about all the shite around you for a while. There are also several tracks called Heat; they’re all killer. This music takes you elsewhere almost immediately; that fan on your desk is basically a summer breeze. In fact, this whole album is absurd; completely effortless; a total classic. Convince us that there’s a more life affirming electronic album this year and we’ll buy you an ice cream….”—Boomkat

Atobe, Shinichi

From The Heart, It’s A Start, A Work Of Art

DDS

This album has its origins 17 yeas ago in early 2000, before Chain Reaction released the legendary Ship-Scope 12”. Three of the tracks here are taken from an acetate cut at Dubplates & Mastering at that time but which wouldn’t see the light of day until now, including another batch of tracks taken from original masters. Only 5 copies of that acetate were ever made so this is the first time any of these tracks are available for public consumption and, for our money, rank among the finest and most distinctive in either the Chain Reaction or Shinichi Atobe’s vaults.  The material is effectively some of the Japanese producer’s earliest work, showcasing the sort of tender, feminine pressure that would bubble up on the Ship-Scope EP and later be revealed in his new productions, Butterfly Effect and World yet, for many reasons, they would lay sunk in his archive for the next 17 years.   The tracks taken from that acetate are labelled First Plate 1-3 and really are quite remarkable, having taken on so much character and added weight over the years that the incidental crackle of surface noise imbues proceedings with an added dimension that’s hard to fathom. it basically sounds like a lost transmission making its way from Paul-Lincke-Ufer at the turn of the millennium to a new, completely changed world all these years later.  The patina of crackle lends a mist-on-bare skin feeling akin to summer garden parties at Berghain in the stepping...

Atobe, Shinichi

World

DDS

40 minute mini-album of minimalist Japanese house, beatdown and ambient themes from the elusive Shinichi Atobe, recorded some time over the last 20 years in Saitama, Japan, and given life by Demdike Stare’s DDS imprint. Highly Recommended if you’re into DJ Sprinkles, Larry Heard, Kassem Mosse, SND or indeed Shinichi’s previous releases...  The reclusive artist has seen a lot of justified and overdue praise surrounding the reissue of his sole early release, the Ship Scope 12” which was originally issued by Berlin’s Chain Reaction label in 2001 and reissued by DDS last year, following on from the unexpected dispatch of his distinguished and brilliant Sprinkles-esque Butterfly Effect album.  His new World LP will expand your preconceptions, coursing a beautifully louche vibe from the most minimal loops and motifs - the kind that one could play all day without ever tiring of hearing them.  The supple, floating DX7 bass contours and vaporous jazz chords of Intro start up like some Chicago or NYC deep house classic lost in its own reverie, and could happily go nowhere for as long as it wants, before the rainy day piano house melancholy of World 1 promptly inverts that supple aesthetic with a fizzing, hazy sort of depth perception and World 2 switches up again to a sort of trim du momentum in stepping, swinging equilibrium, riding the groove like no other.  Turn over and the lingering, slowed downstroke of World 3 sounds like it got waylaid from a 0PN session...

Atobe, Shinichi

Ship-scope

DDS

Hugely sought-after techno classic - the precedent to 'Butterfly Effect’, originally released on Berlin’s legendary Chain Reaction and out-of-print for 15 years, now newly remastered from vinyl by Matt Colton at Alchemy. A massive personal favourite of Demdike Stare's, Shinichi Atobe's 'Ship Scope' was Chain Reaction's penultimate release in 2001 and, with the benefit of hindsight, also one of the legendary label's most sublime offerings. Phase fwd to 2015 and DDS rightly put it back into circulation with this necessary reissue arriving in the wake of Atobe's much loved archival salvage, 'Butterfly Effect', which caused quite a ripple in late 2014. Notable not only for its unusually sweeter, dreamier ambient tone - especially when compared with the rest of the CR#'s - but also for its happily lost-at-sea feel, connoting a deeply romantic and almost shoegazy late '90s / into-the-'00s deep techno aesthetic that would essentially become washed away with the advent and normalisation of mnml techno's pristine production values. Quite simply, it's a must-have for followers of the romantic streak in Ross 154, Convextion and classic Chain Reaction - do not miss!

Atobe, Shinichi

Butterfly Effect

DDS

“Up until the release of his debut album in 2014, Shinichi Atobe managed to stay off grid since his release on Basic Channel’s Chain Reaction imprint back in 2001. He delivered the second-to-last 12” on the label and then disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a solitary 12” and a trail of speculation that led some people to wonder whether the project was in fact the work of someone on the Basic Channel payroll.  That killer Chain Reaction 12” was also longtime favourite of Demdike Stare, who had been trying to follow the trail and make contact with Atobe for many years before a lead from the Basic Channel office turned up an address in japan and - unbelievably - an album full of archival and new material. That material was compiled and released back in 2014 as Butterfly Effect.  And what a weird and brilliant album it is - deployed with a slow-churn opener that sounds like a syruppy Actress track, before working through a brilliantly sharp and tactile 9 minute Piano House roller that sounds like DJ Sprinkles at his most bittersweet, before diving headlong into a heady, Vainqueur inspired droneworld. It’s full of odd little signatures that gives the whole thing a timeless feel - like a sound bubble from another era.”—Boomkat