Chee ir was great to meet you. Hopefully o

In the 2000’s Chee Shimizu helmed an untouchable Tokyo DJ collective called Discossession alongside Dr Nishimura (House music buyer for Cisco Records at the time). Balancing out this unit were a young Scotsman-abroad named Jonny Nash (who’d later form Sombrero Galaxy [ESP001] and Gaussian Curve as well as the Melody As Truth imprint), and the late guitar virtuoso and tattoo artist Zecky. Formidable DJs and multi-talents on the Tokyo scene, Discossession released two EPs on Kenji Takimi’s Crue-L imprint and various mixes individually on www.lovefingers.org, all holding well-deserved eternal cult status. Chee’s 'Denshi Meisou' [2006] and 'Follow My Dream' [2007] for Lovefingers as well as his legendary “listening sessions” at HiFi lounge SHeLTeR in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, laid foundation for what would become known to his followers as “Organic Music” or “Obscure Sound”, the former extending as the name of his record shop and the latter as the title of his 2013 book. 'Obscure Sound' chronicled his tastes in detail and has since become a sort of diggers bible for peers and younger generations.

At the ESP Institute’s inception in 2009, Shimizu contributed two tracks to Lovefingers’ 'Concentration Vol 1' compilation as apéritifs to a later release. “Later” eventually became “forever” and the mythical piano track (appearing only as a demo on 'Golden Age' and 'Dekmantel 061') is still, to this day, not ready for formal release. Skip a dozen years, musical interests and major life changes, and Chee has now unveiled something quite special in accordance with his Obscure Sound — rather than making new out of old rope, he presents a collaboration with Tokyo guitarist miku-mari a.k.a. Takahiro Matsumura. The artists frequently collaborate at the experimental audio/visual event, 'Sacrifice', held irregularly at Tokyo’s ForestLimit, and in 2018 when Chee was invited to DJ at Japan’s only Ambient festival 'Camp Off-Tone', he and miku-mari endeavored to expand these works into a 2-hour improvised performance. Chee collaged various percussion samples and personal field recordings utilizing four CDJs, supplementing with live windchimes and Andean chajchas, while miku-mari coupled a guitar-controlled synthesizer, 'Sound Tube' software (developed by Japanese Ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura) and more live elements such as Tibetan bells and pyramid crystals. Rehearsals for this performance were held prior to the festival at ForestLimit, recorded as multi-tracks and edited into these two cerebral Reconstructions.

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[ESP030] CHEE SHIMIZU + MIKU-MARI - Reconstructions - Vinyl/Digital EP

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch

This is a mix that long ago lived on the internet, then ended up properly mastered as one of the cassettes in our 15th anniversary box set. We're releasing it again now to bring attention to our friend, Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch, who's been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The liner notes for the cassette, below, lay out how formative our experiences of Optimo (Espacio) were as we built our thing. Keith played the very first Mister Saturday Night, and we went on to develop a long friendship with both him and Jonnie. We are forever grateful to them and hope you will support Keith and his family now as they deal with one of the most difficult moments of life. Love live Keith McIvor. Long live Optimo. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch


*Original Liner Notes*

Optimo were huge inspirations when Justin and I threw our first Mister Saturday Night parties in 2009. Justin had seen them play at the Motherfucker party at Limelight sometime in 2004, while I spent time at the weekly Sunday night parties that JD Twitch (Keith McIvor) and Jonnie Wilkes’ threw in Glasgow during my college days. We were both taken by Keith and Jonnie’s ability to incorporate just about any music into their sets while still pleasing everyone in the room, record diggers and punters alike.

This particular set is from the summer of 2010, a party we hosted in a Bushwick back alley, and it encapsulates Optimo's knack for party-rocking in the most unconventional way. Classic house gives way to afrobeat, builds up into a high energy Italo track that drips to a halt, before revving into a sequence that includes an off-kilter Comeme record, “Pump Up The Jam,” ‘80s electro, lo-fi techno and Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Somebody” speech, before Liquid Liquid's Sal Principato grabs the mic and sings “Optimo,” the track for which Keith and Jonnie named their project. To hear is to believe.

— Eamon Harkin

MSN Tape 1510 - Optimo

Part 1. A Fundraiser for JD Twitch / Optimo, 2010 in NYC (featuring Sal P from Liquid Liquid)

✨ vinyl only mix✨  

For edition 69 of our guest mix series, we welcome once again London-based record collector Ilan (Night City Life). A true Italo enthusiast, Ilan curated Night City Life (@spacetalkmusic), one of our favourite compilations of 2019. Night City Life II will be dropping this summer (and we can’t wait 🎷)

As a DJ his selections are always rich with nostalgia and emotion, taking us on a journey through time and sound. Here is a recording of his vinyl-only set from Flow Festival last year; an Italo-tinged expedition in the Helsinki sunshine.

H.A.N.D. MIX 069 - Ilan (Night City Life)

BIG DISH GO were great parties in Dublin about 15 years ago and the basement at Kennedys some kind of legendary place. The boys found back a few old recordings of our nights. They are what they are :)

IVAN SMAGGHE & ROMAN FLUGEL - BDG KENNEDYS OCT 2011

Recorded live at Giant Steps 09.02.25

@johngomezldn
@aneeshp

John Gómez at Giant Steps

HUNEE live from Giant Steps at GALA'22. 

A precious recording lifted from our archives ahead of Ten Years of GALA.

HUNEE live from GALA '22

Summer rain: our latest mix comes courtesy of San Francisco lifer Jeremy Castillo, a long time fixture of the SF dance music scene. He was a founding member of Club Lonely, a seminal SF institution that he ran with Vin Sol and DJ Primo, and he now runs what is "probably the best wine bar in the world" aka Bar Part Time. Jeremy is also responsible for curating the bar's impeccable bookings and its unmissable mix series and newly launched label Bar Part Time Recordings.

We've been bugging Jeremy to add to the Sharp FM series for years at this point, and we couldn't be happier that he finally found time to deliver a perfect summer mix. Some notes about from Jeremy himself: "[This is] a somber summer rain mix with a bit of off the beaten path synthpop, guitar laden disco, reggae dubs, and stuff played at the wrong speed."

Full tracklist here: https://www.sharptype.co/fm

023: Jeremy Castillo for Cordier Script

Apiento, a.k.a Paul Byrne runs the invaluable Test Pressing blog and releases music on World Building, World Unknown and more. His show has that esoteric techno thing and whatever suits the mood…
 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/test-pressing/episodes/test-pressing-26th-july-2025

Test Pressing 260725

Mix of the Week #600 is "Full Spectrum" by JAZ
Follow and include @j-a-z-1 in your track ID requests

A very special 4 hour mix from JAZ to help celebrate our 600th Mix of the Week!  Fresh from his recent record digging sabbatical in Holland & Belgium, JAZ has brought back some monster gems to play for you! Follow @j-a-z-1 and  https://www.instagram.com/johnzahl.jaz/

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✉️ DC Email list: eepurl.com/dN23Jw 🔈 Mix Archives: https://www.dreamchimney.com/motw 

⭐ More from Dream Chimney instagram.com/dreamchimney • https://dreamchimney.bandcamp.com • www.dreamchimney.com

[ESP030] CHEE SHIMIZU + MIKU-MARI - B - Reconstruction 2 - SNIPPET

ESP Institute

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