To many observers, there’s no place like Japan, seen as the country of acceptance per definition, if not thirst, for a whole bunch of different musical genres, with house being no exception. This month sees the return of our local correspondant, YuuOz introducing us with Tokyo-based 2some Dazzle Drums…

Let’s start with your self introduction if you will…
We are a Tokyo-based music duo named Dazzle Drums, the members of which being Kei Sugano (male) and Nagi (female). We DJ and produce tracks with the will to go further on our favorite sounds.
As far as Djing is concerned, we throw regular nights in common under the Block Party banner at Aoyama - Loop in Tokyo. Nagi is also the resident of the Wednesday night parties called Smoker at the same location, meanwhile Kei has his own party by the likes of "Gan" at Shibuya - Roots.

Why such a pseudonym?
We’ve gone for “Drums” first and wanted to add another name beginning with the same ‘D’ letter. Soon after, we thought of Dazzle because we love the way it sounds. We came up with the name right before sending our first release contract.

The way you came to work together…
Kei had worked as a buyer for a record shop, meanwhile Nagi was in charge of solving complaints procedure on the phone for a company. We started spinning together about 10 years ago, realizing that we had a common feeling in regards to music, club scene and DJing. For instance, we’ve agreed on the fact that there are only a few people catching up with messages and stories coming out of a DJ set, with a majority mostly reacting sound effets by EQ like isolator and of course to music they would already know. We’ve found on each other a precious company on many aspects which led us to work together and eventually get married.

Your respective backgrounds…
K: My mom gave me an album – Woodstock – which happened to be my first experience with vinyl. After that I became addicted to hip hop and then changed over house music while having a listen to Tony Humphries spinning. I remember how I got into Frankie Knuckles’s “Whistle Song” and the Def Mix sound, CeCe　Peniston, Crystal Waters, but also MAW, and checked the Tony Humphries radio show every week. I like many kinds of dance music. Not only house, both also both down and uptempo stuff.

N: I’ve listened to many kinds of music such as house, jazz, chanson. At the beginning I didn’t think about becoming a DJ, so I didn’t buy any records. After realizing that I couldn’t get a lot of music without vinyl, I began buy records. The first record I bought was CeCe Peniston.

First experience in a club…
K: At the age of 10, I was regularly brought to a club named Gold etc. in Tokyo. Then, I went to a hip hop party. At that time, someone played house music on another floor, and this had a special impact on me.

N: I first went to a club when I was a junior high school’s student. I felt an unsafe atmosphere with the drugs around and didn’t feel like I could deal with such a culture. Although I remained away from this for some time, I bought a mix CD. Then my love of house music started to become stronger than the feelings of a negative factor in the clubs. I got it back then when I was 21 with my friend who was gay and I guess the rest is history.

Which club or event do you remember as havin’ an impact on you?
K:  Body & Soul at Vinyl in NYC, and Shelter. At Body & Soul, the feeling of common identification got over race and sexual habit distinctions. I guess this followed the tradition of places and parties such as  The Loft, the Sound Factory Bar and the Zanzibar which were all in the NYC/New Jersey area. I’ve been affected by these experiences which I put in practise both for DJing and making music.

N: I could only go to Body & Soul right after 9, which wasn’t the best hour due to the hard club policy that was around at this specific period. 

What’s your perception of the club?
N: I see it as a place of socialization whereas people forget about their differences and personal troubles, while not only have fun but also exchanging with each other.

K: I like those places whereas we might be delivered messages in correspondance with our own moods and lives.

N: I have experiences of good parties here in Japan, even though there are difficulties as a result of the language barrier. I would like to have experiences without it.

Of Djing?
K: I started back in 1992. At the beginning, I simply played scratch and hip hop sort of tricks, then came a moment when I realized I could
communicate with the audience through my favorite music. So I guess I got deeper along the experiences.

N: I started DJing in 1997 at the bar where I was working. My boss suggested me to go behind the decks. Once there, I realized that I couldn’t stop doin’ it.

Why did you choose house music to express yourselves?
K: I suppose I first got into hip hop because I saw it as a form of resistance, although I knew it was associated with a whole bunch of negative things. I still love hip hop though, but the one using meaningful words as opposed to the current mainstream which to me is more of a business with trends.
House comes from the Paradise Garage, those old disco sounds and the gay culture. I like it best because it’s a peaceful genre displaying happiness with the potential to cross over due to its ability to mix about everything around.

Which media do you come to use while spinning?
N: I bring vinyls, CD’s and use a Yamaha sound effecter. I burn some vinyls to CD’s because records are very heavy to carry. I sometimes edit tracks for my performance after recording with control sound pressure through the preamplifier.

What do you think about the so called PC DJ’s workin’ from laptops?
N: Well, the laptop has opened new paths in terms of Djing, as demonstrated by Richie Hawtin for instance. This said, the PC DJ’s should be more careful about having the same sound quality when going from a vinyl to a soundfile and vice versa. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t plan to exclusively work from a PC at the moment. Simply because it’s impossible to get the same sound level as the one we get from vinyls.

What do you most keep in mind while DJing?
N: I see DJing as the meeting point between the things I want to express via the music I’m playing and what people want to hear on the floor.

K: I think taking good care of the balance is important.

Who are your favorite DJ’s?
We both feel a lot of respect for Nori, Fukuba and Danny Krivit. They communicate warmly with the audience.

Which influences do you get from the latest?
K: I’ve learnt a lot of things from him, beginning with the music itself of course, but also the aptitude to create atmospheres. I always get inspiration from him, not only musically speaking but also humanly.

N: He has recommended our first record to King Street, so we owe him very much in that sense as well. We can say he’s changed our life in a way. We never miss an occasion to meet him when he comes to Japan. We feel like we gotta do it from the bottom of our heart.

Tell us about your sources of inspiration as far as makin’ music is concerned.
K: I guess this comes out daily life perception. I often come up with rhythms first, then work on possible evolution from one loop and the rest goes on using Cubase as a sequencer and sampler due to the fact that we love its sound texture.
Although we don’t really share roles, Nagi is good at making melodies and chord progressions. So I let her go and we see whether we feel good or bad and the rest goes on or not. All our work is the result of self-education and a long testing period from home listening to club airing. Then when we’re okay with our music, we request the assistance of an engineer for the mastering.

Which elements do you get in consideration when you produce?
K: The sound we feel good with, which puts me in the position where I feel like I should learn music basically! But once again, we’re also very much cautious in terms of sound quality. I want to make sure we’ve got the same quality should it be on vinyl as on mp3 because more and more people buy music via Internet nowadays.

This leads us to your view of the downloading culture and the heavy changes of purchasing method which has come as a result…
N: Let’s make it clear, in the case that I don’t have a margin to release vinyls, I can get a cheaper way of putting out music via downloading. And the advantage is that I can also get music which may not be available in Japan. But I buy the vinyls as far as possible.

How do you see the future of vinyl?
N: I think vinyl will remain available. A very important point for me to survive is not only putting out quality music of course but also takin’ care of the presentation of the sleeves artwork. Labels like Buzzin’ Fly, Compost and Sonar Kollektiv have been excellent on that.

Looks like our attention is the subject of a whole bunch of sollicitations from countless releases to the continuous appearance of new faces…
K: Well, I won’t complain about the fact that the new technology has allowed us to make things at low cost as opposed to a recent period when only those havin’ money were allowed to put music out. True, we can hear people talkin’ here or there about a decline of quality, but I guess things as usual will improve with time.

N: Okay, some people try to take benefits from the house, although takin’ the basic elements of it and turn it into a popular phenomena such as the so called Otome house (Otome meaning girlish) currently doing waves in Japan comin’ in addition to that kind of house we may hear at restaurants and shops such as BGM but we prefer seing this as a positive thing with the possibility given to the public to get into deeper things as time goes.

I guess you have projects on the pipeline…
K: We have various things beginning with a remix of a track called ‘Good And Evil’ for a Japanese label + some work for itunes to be made only available as download. In terms of new music from us, expect a new tume called ‘Elem’ to appear on UK label Centric Music with remixes by Kiko Navarro and Formation Soul. In addition, Nagi writes articles about charts and interviews for monthly local club magazine Remix. So all on all, we’re pretty much busy…

More info: www.dazzledrums.com, www.myspace.com/dazzledrums,
                 www.block-party.info

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