Guest Antic Posted February 15, 2000 Share Posted February 15, 2000 Joujouka - Joujouka Artist: Joujouka Title: Joujouka Label: Matsuri Date: 1998 Track listing: 01. 02'40" Kibiki 02. 09'32" Re-Psycle Frequency (Big Psyche) 03. 07'15" Aoki Uru 04. 07'46" Codeine Slash 05. 07'20" Tokio Drome 06. 08'37" Forgotten Communication 07. 07'28" Talking Drum No Maho 08. 08'41" The Right Stuff Review: Joujouka is a collaboration between well-known DJ and producer Tsuioshi Suzuki and legend of Japan techno scene - Takeshi Isogai (also known as Ubar Tmar). Together they created and album that can not be compared with any other. If you heard Prana's Kollage (on Forever Psychedelic/Matsuri), then this style would be very familiar to you - tribal ethnic percussions, lots of background noises, sudden rhythm changes and psychedelic acid riffs!!! Production is nothing less than perfect - very clear and precise and selection of tracks is pretty well too. Album starts off with "Kibiki", which could be described as preview of what is to come after - simply it contains samples and loops from the other tunes. "Re-psycle frequency" is a well known (New Psychedelic taster/Matsuri) break-trance track - it starts pretty strange, but when the funky bass guitar comes in ...wow! This is really full-on stomper that will rock every dancefloor (not only trancefloor!). After it changes to plain 4/4 it looses some of it's funkiness, but still is great. Then there is "Aoki Uru" - I wonder what it means? - that continues the path shown by 2nd track. It combines fast 4/4 beat with great breakbeat loops and ...hard guitar! I personally don't like guitars in trance but this one changed my mind. It's really well put together, and when the acid line comes in the end of the track you don't need anything more. "Codeine slash" and "Tokio drome" will let you catch your breath, because they are quite calm tracks - the first one could be easily described as drum'n'bass with a female-opera voice (sounds strange, isn't it?) and "tokio drome" is a dark, industrial track with trippy bass-guitar. With "Forgotten communication" we're heading back to the dancefloor - this one reminds me Chemical Brothers because of charakteristic bass and voice-acid (?) that is used at the end. And then there is "Talking drum No Maho" - for me the best track of this album - lots of tribal percussions that are perpetually morphing and changing, electronic twists and noises in the background and - finally - great acid line. Just perfect. The last one - "The right stuff" - is much in the same style, but more on stomping side than tribal. Very hard bass drum keeps the track in order to move your feet, then in about half-way to the end it brakes down - ethnic drums are comming in with a lot of digital effects applied to them and a voice starts counting form 10 to 0! And then is the acid! The best acid line of the whole album - very twisted and furious!!! Great track. If you still haven't noticed - I think this is an absolute buy. If you're looking for something new in trance, fresh ideas and new influences then this is for you. If you're traditionist (is there a word like this in English?) and like AP, MFG or other old-fashioned goa trance, then you'll hate this, because there is no melodies at all - this is pure psy-trance! I'll give it 8.5/10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RePsycled[at]yahoo[dot]com Posted February 17, 2000 Share Posted February 17, 2000 Great album! Much better live. Check out the full moon parties In Nagano, Japan. Great Production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mindbender Posted April 19, 2000 Share Posted April 19, 2000 This is definetly not goa. Most of the stuff is techno with some DnB. I've really got nothing against that in general, but for some reason this just does not work for me. If I started analysing every track, they're all around average, but for some reason this stuff just ends up boring me. Judging by feelings this is bad. No extatic feelings, no landscapes, and repetetive. This is not because the lack of melodies, as I do like trance without melodies as well. 3,5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pit-UFO Posted May 9, 2000 Share Posted May 9, 2000 Pure Energy. Full of metallic and fat breakbeats, rock influences and acid lines. Tsuyoshi and Ubar are totally crazy and don't give a damn about creating hits, they just like to make crazy muzik!!! BOM. 8.5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GlobalSteez Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 Superb album. It also knocks seven tonnes of shite out of any of Prana's offerings ever did. I would imagine this would work really well live too. Tsuyoshi pulled this one straight out of the bag marked 'tasty'. 8/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mikael.maros[at]pp.inet[dot]fi Posted May 23, 2000 Share Posted May 23, 2000 I've only heard talking drum no maho, but that song is so awesome that it enteres my top-5 straight away. These guys really know how to break boundries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomble Posted February 15, 2001 Share Posted February 15, 2001 I bought this the second it came out nearly three years ago. I listen again today and I love it just as much. This hasn't become a dust collector because what these guys did was creative and really activates the neurons. It wasn't following a trend it was just being itself and what a treat that was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joemrmeat[at]hotmail[dot]com Posted September 10, 2001 Share Posted September 10, 2001 I think this cd is good but not excellent. I prefer Ubar Tmar alone, but this team with tsuyoshi make a very strange and crazy musik. I'm agree with bomblehotmail.com, it was just being themself. 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest device6[at]hotmail[dot]com Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 This CD is interesting musically, but the production is weak. After playing this loud, I put on Infected mushroom. In spite of their dreadful name and ridiculous cover art (well on classical mushroom at any rate), they kicked the living shit out of this disk. Joujouka needs more bass and a lot more punch. THe music does rock though, even if its a little dull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Davidtolsn Posted December 22, 2001 Share Posted December 22, 2001 i did not like this album at all... too many samples, too random sounding. some songs are ok, but some are just bad. i wouldn't call this psytrance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fotis Psy Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 THIS IS THE BEST PSYCHEDELIC ALBUM EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i am from Kalamata in Greece and i have a problem.I can't stop hearing this samurai TSUYOSHI SUZUKI.i am listening this amazing cd more than 3 years almost every day.You must listen live this japanese brain!He is gonna burn your mind!No doubt the number 1 dj all over the planets!!!!!!eehh... guys it's time to listen something more difficult...not only tim schuldt and gms. Please mister Yoshi give us again this treasure of MUSIC!!!!!OPEN YOUR BRAIN'S EARS GUYS!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Defbydelta... Posted April 14, 2002 Share Posted April 14, 2002 Wicked stuff for sure! But wheres that little extra???? wild noise drums sounds crazy yes!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manuser Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 I do like a lot of percussions in psytrance but for some reason this album did not age well for me. It sounds very dated and too simplistic, the production could be better, even though it was made in 1998. A lot of passion in this album with potential here and there, but something missing for me to really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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