Selections: Wata Igarashi
In this series, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their collections. This week, Wata Igarashi spotlights deep, weird and driving techno
Wata Igarashi’s ‘Agartha’ on Kompakt was one of DJ Mag’s favourite albums of 2023. As Claire Francis put it in her write-up, the Japanese DJ and producer surpassed the already high expectations on his long-awaited debut, “crafting a truly unique musical statement that incorporates krautrock and jazz, and winds up sounding a bit like the electronic album Pink Floyd never made.”
Before the album’s release, Igarashi was already established as an electronic virtuoso, with his releases on labels including Midgar, Delsin and The Bunker NY demonstrating his beautifully psychedelic strain of techno. He’s a prolific self-releaser on Bandcamp too, and he followed up the release of ‘Agartha’ in November with the ‘Forgotten Tales’ and ‘Lost Journey’ EPs, both of which were produced around the same time as the album and found him exploring the outer reaches of kosmische and dubby ambience.
In January, Igarashi debuted on fabric Originals alongside DJ Nobu. While Nobu’s ‘Flares’ is a deep and eerie dive into a trippy techno wormhole, Igarashi’s ‘泡 (Abuku)’ is an ecstatic spiral of light and colour tailored made for peak-time. Pure joy.
For his Selections, Igarashi swerves into techno mode, spotlighting the deep, weird and driving tracks that fill the high-energy peaks of his own sets. Dive in below.
“I feel some punk rock attitude in her productions, and this one is my recent favourite of her’s. It is mental and creates a proper WTF moment on the floor.”
“This is a very good acid track for me; a perfect track to get lost in.”
“Techno can be really beautiful – like this track.”
“This Temudo remix is super groovy. Very good for when you want the sensuous rhythm to put the floor in the mood.”
“Really loving all Stefan Goldman’s recent productions, but this track is the one I’ve been playing out the most. Weird and twisted yet very functional.”
“I love the energy of this track. It has a very nice driving feel.”
“When you need some lo-fi house vibes in your set. Mixes well in and out of techno.”
“One of the harder works by Terrence Dixon and it's crazy. When that badass synth line comes in, I just feel so glad that I liked this kind of music!”
“I just love this track. It sounds amazing in the studio. Very good sound reference for those seeking well mixed and mastered tracks.”
“Just listen to it loud. Please.”
