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.
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