The musician and DJ Ken Ishii sits right at the pinnacle of techno's most noteworthy, but although a game changer for the artist personally -- and for Japanese electronic music in general -- his 1994 album Reference to Difference is something of an unsung gem today. Now reissued and remastered, released to mark the 30th anniversary of Musicmine/Sublime Records, and available on vinyl with its original track-list for the first time, this stunning, lesser-known classic is ripe for rediscovery. A futuristic confluence of unplaceable ambient atmospheres, space age techno, IDM and minimalist composition, Reference To Difference unfolds as an effortless series of exercises in pristine synth textures, robust man/machine rhythm and understated melodies. It teleports the listener back to a golden moment in the mid-1990s, when a dedicated generation rose out of Tokyo's storied clubs and took the innovation, energy, and creativity of Japan's unique techno culture to the world. Opened in 1993, Maniac Love was a new nightclub where Manabu Yamazaki aka DJ Yama promoted the Sublime parties, which soon became a crucial hub within the burgeoning Tokyo underground. It was here where Yamazaki rubbed shoulders with peers including Ishii and Susumu Yokota, and the trio's future became intertwined. Through talking with Ishii and Yokota, Yamazaki became emboldened to transform Sublime into a record label. Soon after, Yamazaki partnered with Hideoki Amano, who was on the verge of founding Musicmine, a now respected and longstanding independent Japanese music company. As Yamazaki tells it, Amano helped him turn his dream into a reality: Sublime Records. For Musicmine and Sublime Records' inaugural album releases, Yamazaki and Amano approached both Ishii and Yokota, resulting in the simultaneous drop of Reference To Difference and Acid Mt. Fuji respectively, on June 29th 1994. With the pair of LPs further stamping Japan on the contemporary musical globe, the scene was beginning to boom at home too. Specialist record stores, and club music magazines like Ele-King and Loud spread the word, and in the wake of Maniac Love's impact, new nightclubs like the legendary Liquid Room were opening up, bringing a steady stream of world-famous DJs to the Japanese capital. The new liner notes for this release were written Martyn Pepperell, a well-regarded music journalist who has covered Susumu Yokota for Wax Poetics and Midori Takada for Dazed, amongst numerous other articles.
