Cramming for math and releasing experimental music on the side – that’s what Japanese Tadashi Kamada was doing in the early 1980s: a student at Yamanashi University in Kōfu and an active member of the cassette exchange network »The Recycle Circle,« from which many of the people involved in the DIY label DD. Records later emerged. Between 1980 and 1985, the collective released 222 cassettes and several vinyl records – including Disk Musik, one of the few label samplers on black gold. The 1981 reissue documents an era of idealistic sonic creation between dorm room and subculture.
Fabulous contributions from an untamed parallel world can be heard: Kumio Kurachi aka Kum, still active as a painter and songwriter, delivers eccentric minimal rock’n’roll. With their intricate electronics, Abnormal Sex sound as if they had access to the Internet in 1981. The composer T. Isotani, who disappeared without a trace and once released over twenty tapes, contributes »½ Orange«, a hypnotic piece somewhere between early Steve Reich and Japanese minimalism. Y. Tabata, now active as Nonsense Love Letter, glides into buttery bedroom pop with »Summer Initiation«. Disc Music combines illusionistic ambient, infantile folk, futuristic sound collages, prog jazz and early computer music – sometimes conceptual, sometimes curious. An adventurous compilation between carefree experimentation and delightful accessibility. Disc Music reminds us that amateur musicians are often one step ahead of the present.
