6-track EP compilation with Terada's work for the Ape Escape games, tip!

Outside of the international house underground, where his early ‘90s works for the Far East Recording label he co-founded with Shinichiro Yokota are rightly celebrated as bona-fide classics, Soichi Terada is best-known for his work composing music for video games. Yet until now, few of his productions for video games have been released outside of Japan, especially on vinyl.

Apes In The Net, a six-track EP featuring music composed for the popular PlayStation 1 series Ape Escape, sets the record straight. It not only showcases Terada’s quality as a composer and producer, but also his versatility. Like much of Terada’s work on the Ape Escape series, the tracks featured don’t explore deep, New York and New Jersey influenced house sounds, but rather his lesser-celebrated love of jungle and drum & bass – a sound he fully explored on 1996 album Sumo Jungle.

“The producer of the Ape Escape games heard that and got in touch,” Soichi remembers. “They asked me to make the soundtrack, and then work on the music for the sequels after that. I used to love making music with AKAI hardware samplers, synthesisers, and computers, so I played and recorded the tracks using almost the same methods as I did when I made house music. Using breakbeats and audio samples with a sampler was the most useful way to make the soundtracks.”

The six tracks on show, which were originally recorded in the ‘90s but reconstructed and remastered for Japan-only CD and digital releases over a decade ago, mix elements of Terada’s familiar deep house style – think warming chords and pads, memorable melodies, and emotive musical motifs – with blistering D&B breakbeats, 16-bit synth sounds, electronic bleeps and undeniably weighty basslines. They’ve stood the test of time and arguably sound just as fresh now as they did at the turn of the millennium.

For proof, check the soaring, spellbinding ‘Spectors Castle’, where uplifting lead lines and sumptuous chords dance atop punchy beats and growling bass, the jazzy and saucer-eyed rush of ‘Mount Amazing’ (all twinkling piano motifs, alien synth sounds, squelchy bass and skittish drums) and the intergalactic, liquid D&B excellence of ‘Time Station’, whose whistling melodies and stargazing chords are undeniably alluring.

There are plenty of other delights to be found across the EP, too, from the bustling, race-to-the-finish breathlessness of D&B/bleep techno fusion workout ‘Spectors Factory In’, and the rumbling sub-bass, creepy pads and suspenseful melodies of ‘Haunted House’, to the bombastic, all-out-assault on the senses that is ‘Coaster’, the set’s most “purist” jungle workout – albeit one that also doffs a cap to the pulsating world of big room techno.

Apes In The Net, then, celebrates Soichi Terada’s mastery as a video games composer and early Japanese junglist. Props are well and truly overdue.

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*2025 Edition, - packaged in a revised cover with OBI and printed innersleeves*

Originally released in 2015, Sounds from the Far East' features highly sought after material by legendary Japanese house producer Soichi Terada and fellow producers Shinichiro Yokota, Manabu Nagayama. The two LP set, compiled by Hunee, took Soichi's music deep into the records bags, and more importantly the hearts of DJs and music lovers the world over

Soichi Terada is an adventurous multi-talent and all round beautiful human being. He was born in the 1960s, and as a child he loved to play on his fathers' electric organ. Terada majored in Computer Science and Electric Organ - after he graduated, he founded Far East Recording in1989, because he couldn't find a label for his compositions at that time.

The sound of Far East Recording was very much inspired by early nineties US deep house. Soichi Terada went out to parties in the late eighties, where he was equally influenced by other forms of house music house and hip-hop. A few years later, Terada took on producing music by using digital sampling. In the early nineties he occasionally DJ-ed with a DAT player and some reel to reel tapes, rather than the conventional setup of of turntables. This way he could mix up his own cuts .

"Sounds From The Far East" shines a focussed light on Soichi Terada's label output released in the early nineties. Next to Terada's music, Hunee also selected a few tracks by fellow artist Shinichiro Yokota for this compilation, as well as 'Sun Showered', a track based on the classic Paradise Garage gem 'Sunshower' produced by Terada and Nami Shimada in 1991.

Here's the man himself with his reflection on the compilation, 10 years after it's initial release:

This is a dream I never even dreamed of.

Since releasing my new album Asakusa Light towards the end of the global coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been fortunate enough to keep performing live. When I think about those performances, which blend tracks from the ‘90s and more recent years, they sound like one continuous piece.

When I was first making and performing house music, I never thought I’d still be doing this decades later. That’s thanks in part to the great advice I received from Rush Hour during production, but most of all, to everyone who picked up the record and came out to the shows. I’m eternally grateful. 10 years have now passed since the release of Sounds From The Far East in 2015, and I’m truly happy to release a new edition with updated packaging, while still having the chance to share this music on stage.

Soichi Terada

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The Hacker and Italo Moderni join forces with a masterful electro EP, guided by the French G.O.A.T. from Grenoble. Infused with techno vibes and featuring a remix by the renowned Terence Fixmer, this EP is a testament to the cutting-edge fusion of styles. Drawing inspiration from Liaisons Dangereuses, The Hacker weaves intricate basslines and rhythms, exemplified in the track ‘No Señor.’ ‘Me and My Sequencer Part 1 and Part 2’ unveils a clandestine narrative, a hidden tale shared only between The Hacker and his synthesizers—revealing the magical connection cultivated over the years.

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Milan, Italy, 1983. In the midst of the 80s economic boom, which gave an injection of optimism after the heavily political 70s, a group of young local musicians meet every night in a basement to rehearse and record a peculiar breed of Italian disco music. Originated from the ashes of various other projects, and rooted in the broader jazz-funk tradition, the group creates music which is equally inspired by contemporary fusion as well as by the first wave of the italo-disco sound. Over approximately 3 years the band has recorded and played live, until the dismantling of the project towards the mid 80's.
Fast forward 35 years and the genuinely mediterranean flavor of Qvark's demo recordings are still enjoyable, both for the actual resurgence of the Italian disco tradition and for the groovy quirkiness of a project which has been too long forgotten. After an intense work of audio restoration of such tapes, heavily affected by time, Early Sounds is pleased to present a compila

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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Contact: [email protected]More