Psychogeography: Takecha In Shiga Prefecture

 
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Takecha may not be a name you’re familiar with, but he’s certainly put the graft in over the years.

Hailing from Shiga Prefecture in Japan, he runs his own successful label GWM (Groove With Machine) releasing music since 1995 and counts Soichi Terada as a close friend. He’s just released his latest EP, Mood to Move, on the Trouble Maker imprint- music he created in the early 00s that will finally get to see the light of day. Here he takes us on a tour of his hometown.


"I live in Shiga Prefecture located in the west of Japan. In Shiga prefecture there is a big lake called Lake Biwa, the largest fresh water lake in Japan. It is geographically close to Osaka and Kyoto. I used to live in Tokyo and Osaka before, but why did I return to my hometown Shiga Prefecture? The answer is simple. The amount of people, and the amount of information I get from the surroundings is perfect for me. There are a lot of artists from Shiga Prefecture, but not many of them remain here.

In the premises of my house there is a well of an old legendary facility. The 'old bull horses curing place trace'. This seems to be built in the sightseeing tour, and often you can hear the tour guide explaining to the travellers at the end of the road."

"CLUB MOVE is the only fully-fledged club in Shiga. I have performed live here several times and I invited my favourite pal Joey and put on a party. I was also happy that I could do the same with Mr. Soichi Terada who is my old good friend in my local area."

"Of course there is nothing like the warm air of Tokyo or Osaka, but Shiga has a relaxed music scene that makes it unique. Since I am not interested in drinking at all, I entrust myself to music exclusively when I am in any of the venues.

I have been making tracks since the 1980's. From the first half of the 1990s, I started making house music that is now known to house music heads. Around 1995 I was playing Latin Jazz and Deep House at parties. Since there was no CDJ yet, I carried two very heavy record cases each time. The same thing is impossible with my current physical strength, but recently it is very useful as it became easier to carry music with data. Currently, I am mainly engaged in a live act that runs a sequencer on a laptop, and basically uses only my tracks when I DJ. It is to clarify my own artist name and sound."

"In the past I used a lot of hardware equipment. Now a variety of sounds can be output with one computer. I think that it is convenient and can be utilized because it has comparable past experience. I use both Reason and Ableton Live. But what I love is Renoise and Bitwig Studio.

Just making music makes me happy, so I will continue to compose to new tracks more and more."


You can buy the release HERE.

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