Soichi Terada Crack Magazine Feature
Crack Magazine caught up with Soichi while on the first leg of his European tour celebrating his forthcoming album ‘Asakusa Light’..
Words by: Marcus Barnes
Photography: Avesta Keshtmand
”Soichi Terada is just about coming through the other side of a bout of “hard jet lag” when he logs onto Zoom. He arrived in Europe a week ago from his hometown of Meguro City in Tokyo, and was thrown straight into a bracing touring schedule that so far has taken in Edinburgh, Manchester, London and Amsterdam – where he’s calling from. You’d forgive him for feeling a bit dazed; the gigs, he says, have been busy, in stark contrast to Tokyo, where there’s still restrictions on nightlife. Even so, Terada is in excellent spirits, his warm smile a balm for the soul.
Terada is in Europe to reveal his new live set, which knits together crisp variations on deep house from his cherished back catalogue with brand new material from his forthcoming album Asakusa Light. His first LP of new material in over 25 years, the album is a culmination of a successful five-year run – pandemic aside – that has seen the DJ, producer and computer game music composer discovered by a new school of clubgoers, placing him at the receiving end of long-overdue recognition beyond the borders of Japan. The late-period purple patch was set in motion by a 2015 compilation of music from his label Far East Recordings, masterminded by Hunee and released by influential Dutch label Rush Hour. A fortuitous turn of events for which he’s still thankful.”

”Thirty years on, this spell of discovery, excitement and melancholy underpins the entire mood on Asakusa Light. It is, he says, a deliberate attempt to capture the feelings of an era. The concept came to him during the first wave of the pandemic, when time itself seemed to unravel. “Initially, I felt like, ‘We just can’t do anything, no events or live performances?’” he says. “But I started to think this must be an occasion to do something that I have never tried.” Many artists, faced with grounded tours and paused projects, used the downtime to take stock and reflect. Terada began to harness this introspective impulse to create a new suite of tracks.”
Check out the full feature here.