Name: N.D.E.
Brand: Haruomi Hosono

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RH-STORE JPN 10

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-06-16

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Rush Hour (new)

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

Black LP

Artist

Haruomi Hosono

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Rush Hour

Rush Hour is a Dutch record label and distributor based in Amsterdam. Founded in 1999 by Christiaan Macdonald and Antal Heitlager, the label has become a prominent player in the music industry. With Dirk-Jan Deckwitz as the label and production manager, Rush Hour has established itself as a trusted name in the field.

As a record company, Rush Hour has been associated with entities such as Record Industry and Clone Distribution. These associations have allowed them to consistently deliver high-quality releases under their RH logo branding.

In addition to their record label, Rush Hour also operates a publishing arm and distribution arm. This further strengthens their presence in the industry and enables them to support artists on multiple fronts.

Haruomi Hosono, also known as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history. With his contributions to shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades, he has also had a significant impact on international pop music. Haruomi's work has inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei.

Starting his career with the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, Haruomi gained recognition both nationally and internationally as a founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and Happy End. Alongside these bands, he helped pioneer the electro genre and influenced the later development of techno and acid house.

In addition to his work with various bands, Haruomi has released numerous solo albums spanning different styles including film soundtracks and electronic ambient music. He has also produced music for other artists such as Akiko Yano, Sheena & The Roketts, Tatsuro Yamashita, Sandii & The Sunsetz, Miharu Koshi and Hajime Tachibana.

Back In Stock

First ever vinyl pressing of Haruomi Hosono's full album N.D.E. Featuring Goh Hotoda, Yasuhiko Terada, Yasuaki Shimizu, Bill Laswell &amp; François Kevorkian. Big TIP!

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, cut at 45rpm.

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.