Turntable Terorrists: Goth-Trad

By Matt Lyne | Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009

Goth-Trad

The rise of dubstep music has proven to be good news for Takeaki Maruyama, the Tokyo-based musician who records under the Goth-Trad moniker. As clubbers began to go mad for dark, half-step beats and enormous analogue basslines, his particular brand of electronica found a devoted audience across the nation, which in turn increased his global popularity and his renown outside of Japan, where he already had a solid, underground fanbase.

A unique producer with a unique style, Goth-Trad has over the past few years emerged from the Japanese electronic scene as one of the most arresting artists of his generation. Freely playing samplers, keyboards and even self-made instruments, Goth-Trad creates remarkable dance music with an abstract approach. From leftfield electronica to noise, from dub and reggae to jungle and rave music, grime to dubstep, Goth-Trad has always experimented and in the process has developed his own distinctive sound. He is constantly blending influences to delivering music that never stops evolving. His recordings tend to be deep, orchestrally-motivated pieces that heavily feature sampled instrumentation to create an elegant, soundtrack-esque sound. "A lot of people in dubstep and electronic music focus only on production technique," he says. "For me, this is less important. I believe that good music is made by things other than just technology. It's important that it has soul. Dubstep appeared out of many different types of music - there are no rules involved in making it."

Goth-Trad started making music in 1998, experimenting on his own at first before eventually forming the Rebel Familia unit in 2001 with Takeshi "Heavy" Akimoto (one-time member of Dry & Heavy, a legendary Japanese dub and reggae act). In the years that followed, he continued to develop his own sound alongside that of Rebel Familia, giving himself diverse avenues in which to experiment with different sounds, styles and structures. From 2001 to 2004 Goth-Trad burst out of the Tokyo underground and put his name on the map with his first European tour, the release of his first solo album, Goth-Trad I, showcasing his amalgamation of sounds and influences developed over the years, and by opening for The Mars Volta during their 2004 tour of Japan. Since then, he's had releases on UK imprint Deep Medi - one of the scene's most respected labels - as well as remixes on Planet Mu and tracks featured on Soul Jazz compilations.

Maruyama's club nights - "Back to Chill", which runs at Club Asia in Shibuya, and the recently spawned "Back To Chill Osaka", a bi-monthly event at Club Triangle - are the country's leading dubstep events. Mixing abstract beats and experimental sounds with cutting-edge dubstep and retrograde hardcore, these nights see him display his wide musical palette in his natural environment.

www.gothtrad.com

myspace.com/gothtrad

→ Read all of Jonti Davies's articles
Subscribe to Jonti Davies's RSS feed

Latest Forum Threads