Delving into the early efforts of a well-known musician can be like undertaking an archeological dig. Sometimes all that comes out of the ground are little fragments; other times, you get the whole foundation. The latter is what the Dutch label Music From Memory unearths with Early Tape Works (1986-1993) Vol. 1, the first of two volumes collecting the earliest known recordings from the Japanese electronic musician Kuniyuki Takahashi. Originally released on a series of short-run, self-released cassettes, the six marvellous tracks compiled here lay the groundwork for nearly all his subsequent recordings, from the harsh EBM he created as part of the duo DRP to the lush deep house he’s best known for.
The threads connecting these tracks with his later music are easy to follow. The looping synth lines and bulbous basslines that wrap like infinity scarves around a cooing bit of Kozue Fukuma’s spoken word on “You Should Believe” have been mirrored in tracks as recent as “Between Shadow and Lights,” a song recorded with Anne Clark for Takahashi’s 2013 album Feather World. And with just a small shift in BPM, a track like “Zero to One,” which throbs with the cool sensuality of Depeche Mode’s late-1980s work, could fit comfortably on DRP’s 1990 album Electro Brain 586. The final three tracks on this short collection are generally indebted to club sounds of the time. “Signifie” comes across as an homage to Front 242, complete with barking samples of film dialogue and what sounds like sheet pans being abused.
Side A of this vinyl edition particularly reveals how essential these primal synth-and-drum-machine experiments were to Takahashi’s future work. (The collection’s title, Early Tape Works, is a nod to the four-track cassette deck he recorded on.) The first three tracks feel like remixes of his deep-house singles that have stripped away the pulsing beats and bass, leaving behind only a colorful haze of drones and flowering melodies. “Night at the Seaside” lives up to its title in long, intertwining chords evoking a moonlit stroll on the sand. In “Day Dreams,” a plucked guitar replicates the sound of traditional Japanese instruments like the koto and shamisen, while a honking synth imitates the timbre of the horagai, or conch shell. The closest Takahashi gets to his deep-house future is “Drawing Seeds,” a winsome, Eno-esque tune with fluttering stabs of melody girding a clattering yet barely-there rhythm.
The most remarkable takeaway from Early Tape Works is how fully formed Takahashi’s ideas were from the jump. For someone who was working with relatively inexpensive equipment and learning on the go, he produced some assured, complex music. The only aspect of Takahashi’s recent music that isn’t present on Early Tape Music is the interest in jazz that guides 2007’s All These Things. Perhaps we’ll have that to look forward to when Volume 2 arrives later this year.
