"The good thing about Warp--unlike a lot of other producers, and of which I have been guilty and not guilty enough--is that he doesn't seem to be over-obsessed with the breakdowns; he works them to efficiency, and focuses hard on his loops. He makes all seven minutes work, rather than 30 seconds work out of seven minutes."
So observed a good friend of mine, Ben Mill (aka Melbourne-based producer Bitch Shift), late last year, when we were talking about Japanese tech-house producer, Takashi Watanabe--better known as the blossoming DJ Warp. And Mill was absolutely spot-on in his assessment.
Funnily enough, Watanabe has other things on his mind when it comes to interviews about his prowess behind an array of rack-mounted machines in the grounded environment of a studio setting. His mind lives instead on the edge in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat.
"Sometimes I sing 'Danger Zone' in the bathroom," he muses.
"I like the music from Top Gun. When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot, and to this day, Top Gun is my favorite action movie."
First up, a quick history lesson, with subliminal notions of geography on the side: Watanabe kick-started his DJing career as a student in Fukuoka, in Kyushu - my wife's hometown, and the the origin place of insanely delicious tonkotsu (pork bone) noodle soup.
Watanabe acquired his moniker - DJ Warp - thanks to the Warp label t-shirt he was wearing the very first time he spun records. In the intervening years, he's developed a taste for what he calls deep, hard techno, and - after a stint in Okayama, near Osaka - DJ Warp moved back to Kyushu, where he now spins, makes music and runs the infamous Missile parties, in Kagoshima.
For a long-time professional DJ, Watanabe also shares an interesting observation on the use of records. "Vinyl is too bad to the waist," he feels. "I used to play vinyl, but now play CD."
And funnily enough, despite his extensive back-catalogue and ascendant popularity (Dave Clarke has recently been dropping one of tracks), Watanabe has only been making tunes since April 2008, and says he's influenced on a lot of levels by many different things, from the crowds at the Missile parties to an array of musicians--and from consuming vast amounts of Nodoame candy, and occasionally beer, to keep up his concentration.
"I love Jeff Mills' music and DJing," Watanabe enthuses, and in the same breath refers also to fellow DJ/producers Paul Mac, Dave Tarrida, and DJ Wada from Co-Fusion, as well as tech/electro labels like Drumcode, Sublime, IF? Records, Warp and Tresor.
Then there's the double-whammy of Elektrax Recordings/Hypnotic Room, the twin Australian labels through which Watanabe is currently releasing his music.
"I love Elektrax, and DJ Hi-Shock [who runs the label]," he declares. "He found me and he made me into a techno creator. He is the best label manager, and also my best friend. There are many artists there with great talent and their tracks stimulate my imagination; I have great mates at Elektrax."
The previously released Takashi Watanabe/DJ Warp releases to check out include Fuga, Deep 2, To Go, In the Still of the Night, and Psychic Attack.
Look out for the appropriately-titled Tonkotsu Factory, through Elektrax, on 7 April 2009.
While making his own music, Watanabe has also been tweaking a wad of remixes of late, for people like his label-manager, Hi-Shock, Bitch Shift, Gayle San, Jungle Taitei, three of my Little Nobody tracks, and a new Melbourne artist called Alkan--which we asked him to do for IF?
12 hours later he'd finished, and the remix purrs.
"It's deep tech-house, like a speedy Basic Channel," Watanabe reckons of the Alkan remix, due for release via Juno Download on 30 April 2009.
"The deep and dark sounds make you feel alone, and possibly you'll fall inside yourself. I did it because the original mix is great, and I enjoy remixing!" Watanabe declares with a grin. "Good original source material leads me to make good music! It's like cooking."
VIEW "FUGA" VIDEO
Cool interview.