Shinichi Osawa turns 41 today. Happy birthday, guy.

Osawa has had a long and varied career, and started recording as Mondo Grosso in 1991, making what I think is particularly Japanese-sounding Acid Jazz and Deep House. Like this:

“Tree, Air, and Rain on the Earth” by Mondo Grosso, from Best (2007)

In the last three years or so, though, he’s been doing a lot of remixes and producing more tracks under his own name, most of which have a cleaner and more refined feel than much of the Blog House being made now. Yeah, it’s pretty much still rocky electro-house, which clearly there’s plenty of out there, but the difference is that this dude has a studio and real chops, versus a bedroom and laser fashion. There’re the stutter cuts and the fuzzed low-ends, but somehow a lot of the tunes come off really populist feeling, I think, and the response to his music in Japan is fucking huge. He fills massive clubs and is well known, and that’s not accidental. People love this shit.

His Remixes

“Ah Ah” by Anna Tsuchiya (Shinichi Osawa Remix), from Kitsune Udon (2007)

This was the first song I heard by Osawa, and it’s on the album he selected with Kitsune, which was put out on Avex Trax last year. It stuck out among 30 tracks on the two disc comp, maybe because of Tsuchiya’s voice, but probably actually for the first tone swell after the first drop. I pushed this song in my car for a month like a fucking sixteen year old girl.

“Popper” by Christopher & Raphael Just (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Disco Edit), from Kitsune Maison 2 (2006)

One of my favorite kinds of videos on Youtube: the single image, put to music. I love how watching an unmoving picture that I expect to change but never does, while the music is setting its own pace, can cause my brain to constantly recontextualize the image, making it mean new and impossible things. Plus this song is fucking legit.

“White’s Dream” by Plaid (Shinichi Osawa Remix), from Tekkonkinkreet Remix (2007)

This one’s a mellow delight. Osawa leaves out (most of) the distortion and lets the optimism of the original ambient track (taken from the 2006 anime Tekkonkinkreet, which looks super clean) stay in the top of the mix, while filling out the bottom with the throbbing pulse of electro whalesong (MUSIC WRITING WHAT’S UP)

His Productions

“Our Song (A Lonely Girl Version) – Featuring ULTRA BRAIN” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

“Our Song”’s got that strident uplift thing in it that can make me start feeling unabashed about everything, and think about the comfort I take in my personal weirdness. Although, that’s pretty much what the video is about so maybe I’m just cribbing my emotion from it and the music isn’t saying shit. But anyway just watch how that girl does that running dance hell of times; she’s so pretty but no one understands her really. Except ULTRA BRAIN (what doesn’t that guy understand?!?!)

“Star Guitar (Featuring Au Revoir Simone)” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

This video is almost total crap but the song is an outstanding example of how Osawa can put together some shit that bangs really modernly, but has a huge pop hook that can convert people suspicious of electro.

“Ami Nu Ku Tuu (The One Version)” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

And finally, here is everything that I loved about IDM — the emotionality, the technicality, and the way people have settled between those two oppositions — but without the pretense and fashion. The strings here make the song sound humane to me, but I’m a sucker. Listening to this, I think about the pace and length of my life.

Artists like Osawa are especially important to me, because they help blur the parts of my own criticality that I think are boringly young. As I get older, I’m glad to start feeling like the big picture — the snapshot of human music I get to listen to while I’m alive — is more valuable and real than the fickleness and constant musical hunger of my early 20’s. I’m no less hungry, I guess, but I’ve got a lot more context to work with now, and I hope that makes me a fairer listener.

Links

Shinichi Osawa’s Homepage
Shinichi Osawa on MySpace
Shinichi Osawa on Discogs
Mondo Grosso on Wikipedia