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Ryukyu Underground biography, Ryukyu Underground discography
They've been based in Okinawa for a while where they met and
became fascinated by the local music.Then they progressed from listening
to it to sampling it and including it in their own musical experiments.Okinawan music with a club sound to arrive at something
they call world dance fusion.Nenes) and is quite a groundbreaking experiment.But is it any
good?Okinawan groove and show a respect for the music they've
sampled while appealing to a wider audience with their modern sounds.Yano Kenji's creation The Surf Champlers, whose album 'Champloo
A Go Go' combines Okinawan music with surf music.Underground's experiments are by far the more interesting as they retain much
more of the original Okinawan feeling.Okinawa before ending up in Los
Angeles where the final mixing took place.Borne out of a respect to the past while not afraid to embrace
the present.Numbering over one hundred islands, the biggest of which is Okinawa, they stretch from mainland Japan for over seven hundred kilometres in the East China sea, almost to Taiwan.Japan, but this is only half the story.Hi, The Junky Jap Dogs, Ryukyu Free Style and Bleach.DJs spinning the latest dance sounds in small, dark, cavernous clubs, each creating its own special vibe.In the Ryukyus, be it roots, rock or dance, music comes without the glitz or superficiality of the big cities, slaves to the latest trends.For centuries the Ryukyu Islands have absorbed and embraced foreign cultures, to create their own distinctive music.Since World War II, however, these influences have also come from the Americans, whose military bases still (controversially) occupy about twenty percent of the land area, and whose input helped spawn the first wave of modern Ryukyu rock in the 1970s.Born out of a respect to the past while not afraid to embrace the present, Ryukyu Underground operate under the same virtues.Nobody before them has tapped into and juxtaposed world cultures and contemporary dance music into what is still a distinctly Okinawan framework.American Jon Taylor went to Okinawa in 1998 to conduct environmental research.With his groups The Subjects and Mach 5, he released techno records, combined with undercurrents of ambient, industrial and world music.Deciding to combine these ideas was to become Ryukyu Underground.Indian, Afrobeat and Japanese traditional music.The tracks mostly use original recordings sampled from local labels who, in the open Okinawan spirit, were only too happy for Ryukyu Underground to transform and transport them into uncharted territory.Asian sound to the world, direct from the Ryukyu Underground.Nankuru Naisa (TUGCD1023)
Visit www.Gift CertificatesBuy one for a friend!Without it, there probably would be no The Rapture, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand or Bloc Party.Think of it as 1991's equivalent of Radiohead's seminal Kid A, the nerdy electronic record that rock kids were not embarrassed to like.While Ryukyu Underground's Keith Gordon and Jon Taylor may not have set out to recreate the lofty success of Screamdelica, the title of their latest endeavor is an obvious reference to it.What the two albums do share is 60s and 70s style psychedelic grooves, mixed in with RU's generous helpings of live Okinawan and Asian instrumentation and vocals propelled by electronic club and dance rhythms.This time around though, the spotlight is more on the manmade sounds as opposed to the machine ones.Programmed 70s style sitars and Indian vocals make up most of "Shimadelic Sound System"; the legacy of Ananda Shankar, no doubt.Both tracks are demonstrative of how RU is adept at making even the most synthesized loops and rhythms sound organic."Ashimi Bushi" has a distinctively Brazilian flair as bass and acoustic guitars drive its medium tempo, sunny, shuffling groove."Uprising" visits the Orient via samples and album closer is all out rock psychedelica.While not restricting itself to the rich, DJ friendly, treasure trove that is Okinawan music (see Talvin Singh's 1998 opus OK), Ryukyu Underground has taken global electronica and given it a well deserved, long overdue organic makeover.
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