Episode 29 –Takaaki Itoh - Needle

It’s 1994, and Takaaki Itoh, a young Japanese dj with a passion for various forms of electronic music, is beginning to organise his own techno parties in and around the city of Morioka, in northern Japan. Like many people in Japan in the early 1990s, Itoh’s interest in techno has been influenced by artists from the United States and Europe, who tour the country and increasingly release their records there. The growing popularity of techno in Japan is apt, given that so much of the music is made with, and inspired by, devices housing Japanese electronics, in particular those manufactured by the Roland corporation. In the coming years, Itoh’s engagements with techno will expand beyond honouring this music through the parties he organises, to producing his own, soon to be iconic tracks, such as "Needle".