When I spoke to Osaka-based DJ / producer Akio Nagase a few years back, one of the things he was most enthusiastic about was mixing acid house with traditional Asian music. This passion has since been born out by music released on the labels Chillmountain and Emotional Especial, plus his ongoing collaboration with singer Yukino Inamine. The pair issued a 45, 宮城海岸 (“Miyagi Beach”), on Jet Set, in the fall of 2023, but they now have a whole LP ready for Harajuku’s Glocal Records. 

The album largely consists of covers / re-imaginings of Ryuku folk songs from Inamine’s homeland, Okinawa. The pieces showcase not only her haunting, high-pitched vocals, but also her skill on the sanshin, a local 3-stringed snakeskin instrument, which she inherited from her grandfather. On Shirahamabushi, Inamine’s playing is echoed and sent both backwards and forwards over a chunky, chugging beat. Akio adding acidic details and flashes of funky, fairground-like organ. Tinsagu Nu Hana has a tougher, dubbed background, that’s sweetened by a smidgen of smoky sax. 

Throughout Inamine’s circular singing is seemingly achieved magically, supernaturally, as if without drawing a breath, while Akio’s techno twists on the traditional shape a time-travelling synthetic psychedelia. Tsuki Nu Kaisha counters frantically flickering fractal frequencies with a big, slo-mo, moonwalking B-line. Inamine, more distant, more ethereal, and the track paying tribute to the slightly skanking sounds of mid-90s chillout rooms, before briefly speeding up and then breaking down to spring reverb-like lightning and thunder claps. Harikuyamaku’s Liquid Moon Remix rides a reggae riddim, which drops into a gentle, rippling whirlpool of ambient acid. 

Ashimijibushi is also TB-303-tastic, but in contrast, jumping N pumping progressive house, peppered with excited omasturi / summer festival shrieks and shouts. Hounen Ondo continues the crazy carnival vibe. A whistleblowing, party-starter, it switches, suddenly, between Longsy D-inspired “skacid” and loon bird laced “paradise house”. The closing Ishikawa Koluta, an Inamine original, is a beautiful, beatless ballad. Featuring sampled surf, and spoken prose from Inamine’s uncle, a fellow sanshin virtuoso, its serenity summons Phil Mison’s remixes of Okinawa Delays and Kuniyuki’s work with Kakeroma Island icon Ikue Asazaki.

I think Glocal are currently looking for a western distributor, but in the mean time you can order copies directly from them, or Jet Set, and Ranamusica.