Epic peals of piano, vast orchestral strings and ethereal female vocals intertwine with techno, house and IDM inflected percussion across each track. There are periods of beauteous ambient calm and heart rending chord shifts before things twist in new but perfectly feasible directions.
Brock van Wey 
returns with a six track opus inspired by a short trip to Tokyo. Whatever happened out there in Japan feels like it had a profound effect. I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting the place but anywhere that leads you to create tracks of this high a caliber must be good. More profound still given that the artist currently lives in Shaoxing, China which, in itself, must be a reasonably inspirational place.
As with previous releases these are epic tracks with the shortest clocking in at 11:35 minutes—the longest a chunky 14:07. But these are far from tedious noodlings. The word ‘tapestry’ appears in the press release—easily the best way to describe these pieces and it’s almost as if Van Wey’s musical history can be found within each of these compositions. Classically trained as a child, Van Wey became one of the many whose head, and life, was turned by early ’90s rave. He quickly sacked off a love of death metal and embarked on a DJ career taking in techno, deep house and ambient at parties around San Francisco. (For a full rundown of this period, and a reminisce about what was an incredibly formative period for anyone involved in rave culture at the time, this Resident Advisor interview has plenty more info).
In 2001, Van Wey sold his records, gave up DJ’ing and decided to head to China citing stagnation in the US party scene and, well, China—why not? This heralded the eventual beginning of a prolific production career that has successfully picked up that classical training, pulled it through a night of reverberating kick drums and beats then drenched it in the halcyon glow of hazy party music from many a dawn rave. It even feels like there’s a bit of a Chinese music influence in the mix too.
All these musical departure points can be distinctly heard within Born In Tokyo. Epic peals of piano, vast orchestral strings and ethereal female vocals intertwine with techno, house and IDM inflected percussion across each track. There are periods of beauteous ambient calm and heart rending chord shifts before things twist in new but perfectly feasible directions. You’ll find yourself drifting in one musical space before another sneaks up on you pushing things into a whole new area…
Vocals feature throughout—mutating into instrumentation via pitch shifting and effects whilst often breaking into song proper. In looser hands this approach could feel cheesy and inappropriately ‘soulful’ yet, although wavering close to the line on scant occasion, superior production and textural deployment thread these voices through that evocative gauze of 90s nostalgia Van Wey is so expert in crafting.
For those who are already fans of Van Wey’s work, you’ll love Born In Tokyo. For the uninitiated with a passing interest—I urge your immediate involvement and tucking in to the extensive back catalog.
Perhaps it was romance, perhaps it was just Tokyo. We may never know but whatever it was has been shared in this fantastic release that unfurls more of itself across each listen.
Born in Tokyo is available on n5MD.
