‘Where is Agartha? What is the specific region in which it lies? Along what road, through what civilizations, must one walk in order to reach it?.’ Saint-Yves d’Alveydre in 1886

Agartha, the debut full-length album by Japanese producer Wata Igarashi, is a mysterious, divine thing. Named for the mythical secret kingdom, understood as a complex maze of underground tunnels, perhaps designed by Martians who colonised the Earth tens of thousands of years ago, it’s a similarly mystical, perhaps even cosmic trip – but this time, exploring an inner, deeply personal cosmos. Beautifully detailed and bustling with rich incident, it takes Igarashi’s music to new places, which still retaining his unique sonic imprimatur; in this respect, it’s perfectly at home with Kompakt, a label that’s always encouraged artists to make the visionary music they need to create, to take risks and make sideways steps into uncharted territory.

An eloquent producer and DJ, Igarashi has been releasing techno for eleven years now, appearing on such imprints as The Bunker NY, Delsin, Midgar, and Time To Express; he has also self-released his productions via his WIP net label. Throughout, Igarashi has consistently explored his unique approach to techno and electronic music, one that’s eloquent and poised, even when it shifts into more psychedelic terrain; he’s a master at balancing the sensual and the functional, and he has an unerring ear for the right texture, the right tone, at the right time. He brings all of this into Agartha, his most thorough-going expression of self to date.

For Agartha, Igarashi had a strong concept he wanted to explore. Visualising specific scenes from an imaginary film based on the titular secret kingdom, he created soundtracks for those scenes, spending time during the pandemic in his studio, working away carefully at the ten tracks here. Given his background in creating music for television and advertisements, Igarashi is well-placed to explore the marriage of the sonic and the visual in such intimate ways, but freed from commercial concerns, he let his imagination run riot. He also drew on a rich palette of musical influences – techno is in there, of course, but you can also hear the smoky, improvised jazz of the likes of Miles Davis (to whom the album’s title is an indirect nod), and the minimalism and systems music of Steve Reich.

The latter is particularly pronounced on the gorgeous, beatless drift of “Floating Against Time”, where an arpeggiated sequence lingers, lovingly, around your ears for nine blissful minutes, coasting across swooning drones and waves of ambient noise. “Ceremony Of The Dead”, originally composed as part of a Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial sound concert, is a deep pass into systems composition, with various patterns overlaid and interlocking, before a wordless vocal rises from the depths, a gorgeous counterpoint to the swarming textures that gather across the track. On the other hand, tracks like “Burning” and “Subterranean Life” nudge toward Fourth World territory, painting deluxe dreamscapes of uncertain provenance; the title cut is an abstract drift-world, Igarashi painting an alien tableau dotted by shape-shifting creatures.

Agartha’s conceptual framework means that everything on the album sits perfectly together; listening to it in one sitting is a dizzying, lush experience. Its imaginings of inner landscapes recall, in some respects, the nautical, aqueous mythologies of the Drexciyan universe, though from different perspectives. But the result is Igarashi’s own creation, a deluxe, enchanting trip through the visionary Agartha of this unique producer’s cinematic mind’s-eye. More

Fresh from dropping a suitably forthright EP on Mistress Recordings, Anthony Rother returns to Danny Daze's OMNIDISC imprint for the first time since 2017. The long-serving German producer is in fine form from the word go, with opener "Machine" offering a particularly mind-altering blend of broken techno rhythms, wayward electronic motifs, electro sassiness, deep space sounds and robotic, Kraftwerk style vocal snippets. You'll find more vocal nods towards the Dusseldorf legends on "Compute Me", a dark, throbbing and mind-mangling techno stomper, while "Rubber Skirt" is an angular but funky romp through distorted electro territory. Like the rest of the cuts on the EP, it's deliciously weighty and peak-time ready. More

The Kioku EP is Wata Igarashi’s third release on The Bunker New York, showcasing considerable emotional range that speaks to his long career as a sound designer. All four tracks feature a cinematic, expansive quality that make it easy to imagine how each could fit specific moments across the arc of a party. Different aspects of the music are carefully balanced and combined: seemingly simple patterns in the foreground are animated by precise intensities at play in the background.
We encourage you to give this one a listen on a proper sound system or headphones to fully dive into the intricacies of Igarashi’s sound design. “Reflecting on his feelings about these tracks, Igarashi tells us that, “there are many times when you’re listening to powerful music and you are not really able to think but your body still remembers how to move and breathe”. Kioku means “memory” in Japanese and Igarashi goes on to explain that “all the fast and complex melody combinations (of the title track) make me imagine how our memory functions: connecting via synapse and nerves, going all over the place...the music comes from my experience and memory.” The complexity and beauty of our thoughts and bodies are mirrored in these fine productions that make up the Kioku EP. More

Nobu welcomes Japanese sound artist Doltz to his Bitta imprint for a full pack of hypnotic techno. Doltz started his musical career in 1998 as a drummer in a hardcore punk band, and had a fateful encounter with DJ Nobu, who shares the same musical roots, when they were billed alongside each other at a party called 'Broad' in Fukuoka-city in the winter of 2022. Impressed by Doltz's live performance, DJ Nobu immediately booked him for his residency party 'reprise' at Womb Tokyo. Set the stage for Doltz's sensational debut in Tokyo. The two hit it off and began exchanging tracks, with DJ Nobu actively playing out Doltz's tracks while touring across the world and receiving a good response. This first EP on Bitta consists of four of such tracks that were tested and proven. Doltz has already released several deeper techno and ambient works under the alias, but his encounter with DJ Nobu has allowed him to show his new potential on trippy and powerful tracks that are more dancefloor-oriented, and he has made rapid progress as an electronic music producer over the past year. More to come. More

Konduku makes his first appearance on DJ Nobu's label Bitta, presenting four highly energetic, deep hypnotic cuts. It's the perfect collision between their characteristic practices. Konduku's two immersive techno works, in the form of 'Hayal' and the atmospheric 'Yakamoz', compliment Nobu's powerful and uplifting mountain-valley sound. Balancing out the EP are two proper mind-benders: 'Damla' perfectly represents Konduku's take on twirling half-tempo rhythms and 'Zifir' is a freaky heavy-hitter in the low sub territories. More

DJ Nobu's Bitta welcomes Refracted. The Spanish producer delivers four expertly crafted cuts of his deep diving techno, fully embracing Bitta's hypnotic and energetic approach. Nobu: "Refracted is a unique techno producer whose work I have been playing in my sets for a long time". And the respect is mutual. Where Refracted witnessed many DJ sets of Nobu in person. "As a fan he experienced a number of my open air sets that were important to me, I think he has developed a complete understanding of what style of track works best on the dance floor in my sets". More

For the tenth release, Ko-ta joins DJ Nobu's Bitta label. The legendary Japanese producer, known for his releases on Stratosphere Records where he showed a unique take on tribal and off-beat techno tools, now returns with two fresh and fast paced rhythm work outs. After blown away by a tune he heard in a friend's Instagram Stories, Nobu asked the friend about the track which turned out to be a work of Ko-ta's. Nobu immediately suggested Ko-ta to release his material on Bitta, and the result is this outstanding and singular EP for which Ko-ta contributed two amazing originals. Remixed by Don't DJ who flips 'Shiya' into an energetic stripped down drum and bass swinger and DJ Nobu who re-works 'Shiza' with his powerful broken techno touch. More

The fifth release on DJ Nobu's Bitta label. A debut single by a new Japanese producer Daisuke Uchimura with two mesmerizing remixes by Marco Shuttle. Mindbending deep and hypnotic techno trips. More

DJ Nobu is back with the next installment of his Extra Tools series on Bitta. In Nobu's own words: "In the time when I have much less opportunities to play dance tracks as a DJ, I imagined the dance floor of the post-pandemic future, which I know will be filled with positive vibes. This 4-track EP consists of variety of tracks that can be played in different phases of a DJ set. I chose to make straightforward dance floor oriented tracks, because I wanted to encourage listeners and DJs not to forget about the fun we have on the dance floor. I wanted to convey my hope to those who are not yet able to restart the parties." Opening track 'Entering' is a trippy psychedelic track for those deep outdoor hours when the snares echo throughout the mountains, 'Resemblance' is an acid tinged breakbeat that resonates with industrial and electro style. On the flip 'Desire' is a hypnotic peak-time techno track that will function well in any environment, and 'Fade' is an atmospheric and pleasant morning breakbeat tune. The striking artwork for the cover is contributed by Nobu's close associate Tomoo Gokita. More

DJ Nobu takes Follakzoid's 'IIII' in a new direction. The Chilean band Follakzoid released their latest album via Sacred Bones last year. The Bitta label boss turns around the final track twice, adding his deep techno hypnotism creating two powerful remakes. "When I heard Follakzoid's music for the first time, I felt like what we are trying to express are fundamentally similar. In other words, I felt like we are both trying to reach the same destination. And one day we met each other in the forest. Domingae and I discovered that we share the same love for Cortozar. The encounter between Follakzoid and myself is a game designed by the universe. Therefore our collaboration was a destiny, but it also imposed me the most difficult challenges I faced in my music life. I'm extremely relieved and grateful to be able to present the result as a piece of work here." More

DJ Nobu returns to his own Bitta label, his personal playground for new musical projects with a focus on artists coming out of Japan. The label functions as a space for experimentation with the intention of instigating multiple styles by unexpected artists or pairing them with stimulating remixers. The unique chemistry created by these cross-genre connections results in an exciting catalogue carefully curated and directed by DJ Nobu himself. After recent outings on Rush Hour, Token and BleeD, the Japanese producer dives even deeper into a pure and adventurous techno journey with his most simplistic output to date. A DJ tool EP designed for the club, with four tracks of stripped down yet powerful dance floor workouts. All cuts have been tested and proven in Nobu's own DJ sets before now, so he decided to make them available for fellow DJs to play and experiment with.
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