Ken Ishii | Profile Ken Ishii is among the most innovative and respected artists in the modern techno genre. While loosely categorizable as Detroit style due to its dancefloor orientation, Ishii's music draws on a wide range of influences including Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Derrick May, Nitzer Ebb, and others, also containing elements of avant-garde, ambient, drum'n'bass, and trance that flesh out the techno framework and mark Ishii as one of techno's most skilled and interesting composers. Ishii debuted in 1993 on Belgium's R&S label with the 12" Garden on the Palm. Cosmic techno with a distinctly oriental flavor, the record made a splash among techno fans and earned Ishii the questionably complimentary nickname "Asian Techno God". His follow-up from the same year, Pneuma hit #1 on the UK techno charts, further entrenching him in the scene. Ishii released several more records in the same vein to warm reception from the techno set, compiling them on his first album Innerelement in 1994. Ishii released his second album, the breakthrough Jelly Tones, in 1995. The record, loaded with ambient, minimalist trance soundscapes alongside techno, breakbeats, and drum'n'bass tracks, helped Ishii reach a much larger audience in Japan and Europe. The video accompanying the single "Extra" was especially popular, created by Koji Morimoto of Akira fame and featuring a mind-blowing animated post-apocalypse Tokyo. The same year Jelly Tones was released, Ishii played Berlin's legendary Love Parade festival, attended by over 300,000 people, making him arguably the most well-known Japanese techno artist in the world. 1998's Japan only release on Sony, Metal Blue America, signalled a branching out for Ishii, as he added self-performed guitar and vocals to the mix. Metal Blue America drew mixed reviews, but the creativity behind it is inarguable. Several more 12" records and the album Sleeping Madness followed, much in the same vein as their predecessor. The full-length Flatspin was released in Japan in 2000, and in the UK and US the following year. Containing the popular "Iceblink", one of the few Ishii tracks "mixable" enough to get widespread play from DJs, Flatspin showed Ishii further pushing his limits while at the same time proving to be possibly his most accessible record to date. 2002's Future in Light, also released in the UK and US the following year, saw Ishii backing off of the experimentalism and sticking to standard tech-house fare. In addition to his own name, Ishii has released music under the names Rising Sun, Flare, Utu, and Yoga. He has remixed tracks for Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Cova, Keiichi Suzuki, and actor Masatoshi Nagase. He continues to tour, especially in Japan and Europe where he maintains the highest profile, and has spun with the likes of Alex Patterson (The Orb) and Richard James (Aphex Twin). by Bill Haw
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