hypersongs

Soichi Terada

The Tokyo house producer and founder of Far East Recording, whose 1989 remix of Nami Shimada's "Sun Shower" reached Larry Levan in New York.

Tokyo and Far East Recording

Soichi Terada was born on March 19, 1965 in Tokyo, a composer, arranger and remixer whose first instrument was the electronic organ. He studied computer science and electronic organ at the University of Electro-Communications, and began sequencing on an NEC PC-8001mkII with an Amdek CMU-800. He first heard house at a private Tokyo party around 1987 or 1988, and in the mid-1980s played in the band Tax Flee and made music with Puzzle Jam Rockers. Wikipedia names RC Succession, Akiko Yano, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Sheila Chandra as influences.

He started Far East Recording with Shinichiro Yokota because nobody wanted his music; the founding year is 1988 by one interview, 1989 by Vice and Rush Hour, and 1990 by Wikipedia. His debut was the two-part Max Mess Mix EPs, very limited, and his first album for the label came in 1992. In 1989 he remixed six tracks from Nami Shimada's album Everytime I Look at You, including "Sun Shower", released that December on the mini-album Mix Wax ~Nami Nonstop. His gear in that era included Akai S900 and S1000 samplers, a Yamaha DX-7 and a Roland D-50; he told Vice his house sounds like it has an accent.

Jungle, games and the return

Around 1994 and 1995 he fell for jungle at the Tokyo club Yellow. His "Sumo Jungle", made from a Hawaiian sumo song with the tempo halved and pressed in about a thousand copies, led the director of Ape Escape (PlayStation, 1999) to ask him to score the game. He also made music for the TV series Psychometer Eiji in 1997, and as Omodaka, folktronica from 2001; Omodaka's Hietsuki Bushi won a new artist award at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009.

The 2014 EP The Far East Transcripts and the 2015 compilation Sounds from the Far East on Rush Hour, compiled by Hunee, revived interest and led to his first tours of Europe and North America in 2016, with an India tour with Nick Dwyer for Red Bull Music Academy in 2017. Asakusa Light followed on Rush Hour in 2022, and in March 2024 Far East Recording reissued the Ape Escape jungle material as Apes in the Net. Setlist.fm shows him at Dekmantel, Fuji Rock on July 25, 2026 and, upcoming, La Gaite Lyrique in Paris on November 4, 2026.

Albums

Songs

  • Sunshower Sounds from the Far East · 1989

    Nami Shimada's 1988 album track, remixed by Soichi Terada in 1989 and later re-remixed in New York with Larry Levan and Mark Kamins.

Sources

  1. Soichi Terada, Wikipedia
  2. Soichi Terada interview, Red Bull Music Academy Daily (2017-10)
  3. Soichi Terada on Far East flavours, Inverted Audio (2016)
  4. Artist to artist: Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota, The Ransom Note