N.D.E.

TRACKLIST Spinning Spirits Navigations Teaching Of Sphinx Strange Attractor Heliotherapy Higher Flyer Edge Of The End Aero INFO Ever since his days as a pioneer of Japanese electronic music in the 1970s, Haruomi Hosono has constantly pushed forwards musically. The 1990s was a particularly fertile decade for the Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder. Following two decades spent creating and releasing innovative electronic pop, imaginary sound worlds and inspirational ambient music, Hosono established the Daisyworld label to showcase cutting-edge ambient, techno and electronica, while also embarking on a wide range of often overlooked collaborative projects. N.D.E. - , one of the headiest, psychedelic, evocative and gently mind-altering albums in Hosono™s vast discography, is one such project. It formed part of a run of albums that saw the Japanese producer embrace contemporaneous influences  think Spacetime Continuum style ambient techno, DJ Spooky-esque illbient, weighty ambient dub and the ˜ambient house™ antics of The Orb  in his own inimitable, far-sighted style. He was ably assisted on N.D.E. by an undeniably impressive roll call of collaborators, most notably no-wave hero turned ambient explorer Bill Laswell (who Hosono subsequently worked with on joint album Interpieces Organisation), NYC DJ/producer Francois Kevorkian, and fellow Japanese ambient pioneer Yasuaki Shimizu. With such a stellar cast-list, it™s perhaps unsurprising that N.D.E. has achieved cult status over the years, despite being near impossible to find outside of Hosono™s native Japan. Remarkably, it never received a full vinyl release, with only five of the set™s cuts appearing on an ultra-limited sampler. Now Rush Hour is putting the record straight, delivering a DJ-friendly, remastered version that spreads that album™s seven tracks across two slabs of vinyl. N.D.E. remains an impressive, unearthly and otherworldly album. Its unique and distinctive sound makes use of multiple nods to Eastern musical culture  think Tabla rhythms, heady violin courtesy of guest musician Arun Bagal, and transcendental synth sounds  but also throbbing techno grooves, Pete Namlook style ambient electronics, spaced-out dub rhythms, bubbly melodies reminiscent of Warp Records Artificial Intelligence-era IDM output, trippy tribal drums, and immersive electronic dream-scapes that recall the greatest exponents of Japanese new-age ambient music. Highlights are plentiful, from the Test Department-at-dawn brilliance of Bill Laswell co-production ˜Edge of the End™ and the sunrise-ready, dew-fresh dreaminess of ˜Aero™, to the surging ambient techno hedonism of ˜Strange Attractor™  a near cult cut that remains a timeless slab of hallucinatory dancefloor excellence  and the slow-motion space-dub of Francois Kevorkian collaboration ˜Teaching of Sphinx™, whose oddly processed sounds and low-slung bass subtly reference the Orb™s earlier remix of YMO™s ˜Tong Poo™. There™s also the impeccable, pleasingly experimental ˜Spinning Spirits™  all addictive Indian rhythms, punishingly distorted bass, raw electronics and paranoid aural textures  and the sparkling bliss of ˜Heliotherapy™, a woozy chunk of sun-bright electronic hypnotism that encapsulates everything good about Hosono™s mid-90s productions.