Present on the global electronic music scene since the early 1990s, Japanese techno legend Fumiya Tanaka recently graced us with his presence at Shelter, playing for ONE with support from Ben Huang & Don Wong. Fumiya Tanaka’s releases span across a variety of prominent independent and commercial labels, such as Torema (founded by the man himself in 1993), Perlon, Trésor, and Sony (with eclectic releases such as the Mix-Up and Unknown Possibility series). His sound has something almost characteristic of electronic producers from his home country, with the use of avant-garde filters and atypical tones shared by many of his peers. In Fumiya’s case, his productions make use of odd quirky bits and blips that complement deep minimal beats, itself somewhat more characteristic of the oh-so-saught after ‘Berlin Sound’ that many German DJs fail to produce. In addition, his frequent associations with the Chilean-born ‘Don’ of minimal techno Ricardo Villalobos is a testament to an extraordinary – and somewhat overlooked on the global scene – producer and DJ.
Ricardo Villalobos & Fumiya Tanaka - Fumiyandric Pt. 1
Ricardo Villalobos & Fumiya Tanaka - Fumiyandric Pt. 2
In recent years Fumiya Tanaka has also focused more on touring, playing at legendary venues and festivals such as the Berghain, Unit, Womb, Wire Festival, Soundwaves and Awakenings. And recently, Shelter.
That night, Ben Huang opened for Tanaka with a deep and groovy minimal set, mixing techno, deep and tech house. A favorite from his set was one of his last tracks, 2000 and One’s Work (Late Night NYC edit). Huang has created quite the name for himself in the last few years, and we’ve already seen him mixing quite the variety of genres – from Nu-Disco, to House, to banging techno – both locally and abroad. We’re not sure how well his mixing skills translated to a mainly minimal set: the transitions were sometimes a bit too hasty, when one would expect them to be longer and smoother. But the track selection was great, and this made for a more-than-decent opening set.
Tanaka came on at about 1AM, playing on three turntables and 2CDJs. I’m not even sure how that works (what if one of them goes out of beat, how can he keep track of that?) – but it was obvious he knew exactly what he was doing: spot-on mixing. The set’s backbone formed a narrative on the drone of a steady, rolling minimal beat, with haunting (yet beautiful) piano and vocal backups. Around 3AM the mix took an even deeper and darker tone, with gorgeous vocals from the legendary Gil Scott-Heron harmoniously complementing the droning minimal techno. Apart from some drunk ass occasionally leaning into the booth with a flashing camera right into our man’s face, Tanaka aptly managed to entrance the crowd, proving with all the sublety of an experienced DJ that the power of techno does not necessarily lie in heavy basslines and violent drops. “It’s all about what you don’t hear”, I’ve heard someone say once about Jazz music – perhaps that applies to good minimal techno too?
For your enjoyment, we’ve selected a couple mixes by Fumiya Tanaka we’ve really loved over the years, and really look forward to seeing him play again.
