More interesting sounds from Kanpai come in the form of a remix album that tributes the work of Kitaro, a Grammy Award, Golden Globe and Artist of Peace Award winning japanese composer/musician known for his timeless spiritual music pieces, that blend "the ago-old and the space age", like "wordless poetry", they say of him. "Reinterpretations" brings together eright artists and their twelve remixes of his songs (most of them can be found on the 2003 "The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai") and takes his vision for a new spin, adding dub colors to it, flirting with electronic flavors and marrying his sound with their sound in ways that are unique and personal to each group. AudioMoe (a.k.a. Moses Truzman), Turbotito (a.k.a. Filip Nikolic/Junior Senior/Djosos Krost), Inside the Sun, Peas, Timmy the Terror (a.k.a. Tim Anderson/Ima Robot), Appogee, Occidental and Stephan Hauptfeur take turns to get their best shot at it.

I am excited as I start reviewing a bunch of CDs from this new label out in Los Angeles called Kanpai. They've been releasing some really dope shit lately, I must say, and the first one I picked out of the batch is Appogee's debut CD "Unconscious Ruckus". These dudes are based in LA and have been growing alongside Dntel (The Postal Service), Planktonman (Nortec Collective) and The Mutaytor, altough I must say they don't seem to lack anything in their approach. You can't really tell it's newcomers, they sound like they've been around for a decade. Their sound is pointy, full, well-produced, well-arranged, sophisticated sonic artifacts. No messing around, they know what they are doing, that's for sure. They shoot for the drumn'n'bass formula mainly, but let themselves be carried away with implants of electronica, industrial, rhythm-noise, rock and some ambient/idm. Particularly interesting is the use of acoustic guitars and vocals on some tracks, which definitely makes them stand out of the crowd for originality. Where else can you hear a fast-paced d'n'b beat pumping while buried underneath a Radiohead-ish ballad with an acoustic guitar, or a Beatles-like pop tune with an Autechre/Aphex Twin-like beat, or Lycia-like lush electric guitars with vaguely flamenco-sounding nylon guitars that try to keep up with a cut-up and frenzy beat. Most definitely an awesome sounding record! Well done indeed!