Japan's trail-blazing techno king Ken Ishii has rocked massive crowds the world over with his dance floor beats, but for his latest album he drew inspiration from what some may think an odd choice much closer to home -- a luxury Tokyo shopping mall.
Ishii, 41, is nothing if not unconventional and even as his popularity has grown -- he has risen from playing clubs to the MTV Video Music Awards, made the cover of Newsweek magazine and composed the theme song for the 1998 Winter Olympics -- the master music mixer has tried to remain true to his roots even as his songs make their way into spaces as common as elevators.
"I didn't want to become commercial but music always does," Ishii told Reuters. "I'm an old-school techno kind of guy."
His new project "Music for Daydreams" has the formal title "Ken Ishii presents Metropolitan Harmonic Formulas" and is released in February, almost 20 years after Ishii cut his first track. (Reuters)
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