An in-demand headliner in dark rooms worldwide and one of techno’s most distinctive producers, Wata Igarashi has achieved a perfect harmony between his work as a musician and a selector. Born in Tokyo in the late ’80s, with significant parts of his youth spent in England and Spain, he spent time in skate punk and avant-garde jazz circles before taking to DJing and production. His earliest explorations of Detroit textures and Villalobos-esque minimalism were released on buzzy labels like DJ Nobu’s Bitta, Midgar in Berlin, and long-standing New York label/party booking company the Bunker NY. His debut record, 2023’s Agartha, veered into Krautrock-tinged explorations of hazy ambient, Space Age easy listening, and the Moogsploitation of Wendy Carlos and Mort Garson. Earlier this year, his Kaleidoscopic EP re-centered Igarashi’s sound on classic techno, even if it still felt informed by the experimentation that fueled Agartha.
Igarashi’s latest album, My Supernova is the rare techno album that succeeds both as dancefloor heater and home listening gold. It’s a feat he achieves by leaving behind some of Agartha’s genre exploration and taking inspiration from his extensive time in the global club circuit. “Meltzone” and “Skin” rip straight from the sound of early Underground Resistance releases, with industrial acid riffs and 909 kicks that barrel forward as reverberation expands and contracts like a series of deep, conscious breaths. In the record’s most ferocious moments, Igarashi liberally draws from the heaviest strains of dub and minimal techno. “Unleashed” centers a pummeling and unrelenting saw bass that aims for the same crush as classic cuts like Basic Channel‘s “Enforcement,” blurring the line between a skipping record and the perfect loop.
Retro references are everywhere. The pulsating synth lines on “Shockwave” and “Supernova” feel indebted to 8-bit video game soundtracks, when composers had just a few wave generators to code entire orchestrations. Those tracks, typically short snippets designed to be endlessly looped, prey on the same illusion of infinity as techno, both designed to let the mind stew endlessly with little emphasis on phrases and true time. Although their flurries of melody sometimes distract from the forward groove, this source material makes for some of the more distinctive moments on My Supernova.
