Of all musical initiatives, the format of the curated compilation (sorry for the pompous neologism) has always greatly fascinated us. Ready to satisfy the most discerning minds nerds from the editorial team, this format is seen as the ideal guide to discover in the blink of an eye an entire scene or an era, often put into context in a place and in a well-defined time line. A sort of turnkey contract fortunately far from simple musical tourism: you start listening, you know nothing about it; ninety minutes later you have the first keys to finding your way around and possibly going further into the digging savage. We obviously think of the compilations published by the London institution Soul Jazz Recordswhich are sometimes so niche that you could sleep in them – who has never dreamed of sending themselves compilations with titles as coolly geeky as Electro Throwdown – Sci-Fi Interplanetary Electro Attack On Planet Earth 1982-89 or even Punk 45 ! : Kill The Hippies ! Kill Yourself ! The American Nation Destroys Its Young – Underground Punk in The United States of America, Vol.1 1973-1980 ?
Maybe that’s why we’re gaga over a label like Music From Memory. In addition to releasing high-quality ambient music for a little over ten years, the Amsterdam team with such a sexy artistic direction punctuates its progress by publishing compilations with absolutely delicious choices from time to time. Latest to date, this Virtual Dreams II : Ambient Electronics In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999. And the column could obviously end there because its title is so exhaustive. This selection is the Japanese response to Virtual Dreams : Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997 released four years earlier, which this time set its sights on England.
So you will have understood, we will be entitled to a sort of mirror portrait of the compilations Artificial Intelligence – part of the legendary series published by Warp Records at the beginning of the 90s – in the rising sun version. And so far it obviously doesn’t disappoint. In just under a hundred minutes of dry hi-hats, ambient keyboards, each more dreamy than the last, beats between hip-hop, electro-funk and leftfield electronica, Virtual Dreams II paints the portrait of a youth who thought of their pulsating music in a format cocoon. Considered as a genre in itself rather than a reaction to a scene, the ambient here takes a retro-futuristic form – inevitably helped by a rediscovery of this treasure 30 years later – but invigorating and absolutely dynamic in its authenticity.
And of course, beyond the prime quality of the thirteen titles presented here – most of which, as you can imagine, are generally unobtainable – there is enough to nourish the spirit of adventure that characterizes you. The perfect opportunity to delve into the heart of what Japan at the time could do best in this area, to explore the entire back catalogue of Sublime Records, Transonic Records or even Form@ Records; realize that beyond the legend Inside he caught himself from the masters of the storm Katsuya Hironaka, Yuji Takenouchi (also active for Konami studios and having worked on the original soundtracks of Metal Gear Solid) or Yukihiro Fukutomi. A little-known part of history on which the veil is now lifted, which invites attentive listening, reinvents the calm of the sofa and rethinks the history of pulsating music with intelligence and seriousness. Winner on all counts.
