Takashi Watanabe — One

Although no stranger to the scene, Takashi Watanabe released his first album as an artist this November with one. Cutting his teeth with dance music in the London acid house scene, Watanabe worked on hundreds of releases as a sound engineer. After returning to Japan, he began to produce more dance acts before expanding into writing songs and playing his own instruments. This all leads us to 2023 where Watanabe's paean to his new home in Nagano, it's comfort, hospitality, and environment, come to play on a lush, ambient, electronic slab of joy.

 

Ambient dance almost sounds like a contradiction in terms, but Takashi Watanabe manages to merge the two with skill, precision, and aplomb. Drinking in the atmosphere, Watanabe gives the listeners an evocative treat with his expression of what home means. While to him it's in a lush, snowy environment, the underlying emotions remain the same; home is where the heart is, after all. Soft and fluffy like freshly fallen show, one is easily accessible and digestible from the onset, with it's synth loops and lines easing into the listener's ear and settling into deep recesses of memory. Whether using drums or propulsive keys, Watanabe switches gears throughout the album and within songs to keep the album moving and exciting. Soundscapes are a delight, but the purpose one is to invigorate and remind the listener of all the joy to be had in their own comfort. The more "beat" heavy tracks are at the onset of the album ("hachidori," "takasaki," and "221211"), but their afterimage can be felt reverberating through the rest of the album's more ambient tracks. This sets the stage for an album that feels and flows naturally, with the higher bits calming over time into an exquisite electronic bath, relaxing and warm. In addition, with the way this is set up to attack and decay, the album played on repeat in turn becomes its own loop, like the synthesizer note being held down.

 

Thousands of miles from the acid house that started his career, Takashi Watanabe's one still burns its torch with similar fuel. Built upon the electronics of his youth, stretched and slowed to mirror his new surroundings, this album embraces the growth of not only an artist, but of a style. Dancing ambiently on one's speakers like snow falling in the mountains of Nagano, one is a beautiful and relaxing piece of electronica that proves experience matters. To find out more