The mission statement of Hong Kong electronic stalwarts, Fauve Records, is to bridge the disparate worlds of Eastern and Western electronic music. That concept is brought to a head on their latest project, 西 WEST & 東 EAST Vol. 2, which pits together St. Petersburg-based duo, Radial Gaze, and Tokyo-based producing team, Que Sakamoto+NT on a collaborative EP. The two artists were each asked to produce one original track, and then remix their overseas partners’ track.
The result: two sets of mind-bending, hypnotic cuts of forward-thinking techno. Radial Gaze’s remix of Que Sakamoto’s “Ninja Wa Sugoi”, deepens the original’s cryptic, nocturnal vibe into a cavernous, multilayered club odyssey. The track’s relentless force seems to never let up throughout its 7 and a half minute runtime. This is due in large part to Radial maintaining Sakamoto’s original wheezy synths and tantalizing percussion as the foundation of the track. However, whereas Sakomoto incorporates elements of progressive rock into the fold, Radial pushes the song to even more alien, experimental extremes. With each sequential progression, and the arrival of a new outre-sounding instrument, the track seems to burrow deeper and deeper into a startling mix of gloomy, extraterrestrial dread and sleek, futurist-techno awe.
This kind of sui generis experiment can only ever result in the mixing and melding of minds of artists of different cultures and tastes. What this track––and the EP as a whole––displays, is the unique magic that occurs when you take two artists who appear to function in completely different lanes and afford them the opportunity to build upon each other’s artistry.
