Various Artists — Disk Musik: A DD. Records Compilation
[Phantom Limb — 2025]★★★★★
Reviewed 15 September 2025by Colin Lang
You could be forgiven if you've never heard of the cult, mostly cassette-focused Japanese underground label, DD. Well, in the way that nearly everything ends up on YT, it is basically a lock that all rare and once-obscure releases will be re-released. Not everything that once was is worth being born again, but this is certainly not the case with Disk Musik: A DD. Records Compilation, an amazing time capsule that will engender envy in post-Pro Tools populations, or, in the case of this reviewer, a deep, aching nostalgia for the genuinely weird. Over thirteen tracks, listeners are treated to a wide swath of what the label formerly released, from noisy abstract textures to idiosyncratic pop hits.
Circadian Rhythm's "Shela" is a more ambient Liz Harris, shrouded in haze and pre-digital goodness. Then comes Kum's "One Day with Kakusuko" a standout among standouts, like a Japanese Daniel Johnston. Israel's contribution could very well have been the soundtrack to an Ed Wood film, while "NHK" by Abnormal Sex, is a series of off-kilter beats, lowbit sampled voices, all swallowed up by the casio crashes that contemporary plugins are at pains to approximate. The highlights are the pop songs, devoid of any self-conscious posturing, which makes them even more historical than their obsolete technology. T. Tukimoto's "Did the Thought of Love Surpass Everything?", features plucked acoustic guitar and falsetto crooning, and the Young Hormones' "Egg", is unfettered pop goodness, catchy as hell.
Today, stifled by the strictures of comparative language, it is nearly impossible to find equivalents for Disk Musik: A DD. Records Compilation within the limitations of the genre bureaucracy. Anyone in need of a good example of what outsider meant to those who were never really "outside" their intimate circles, will find something truly joyous here. More DD, please!
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