Moods 52: Otodojo
We welcome Otodojo (@otodojo) to the Moods network this month of October. Those who are familiar understand the depth and quality of their work from production, deejaying, digital image processing, and story telling. Below, Otodojo discusses their trajectory before and through techno and sonically lays out a video game-meets-dense-forest mood.
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# / Track Title - Artist
1 Shevat of the Azure Skies Where The Wind is Calling - Yasunori Mitsuda
2 Life in the Mines - David Wise
3 Intruder 2 - KCE Japan Sound Team
4 Bayou Boogie [Restored] - David Wise
5 Blue Blue Moon - Yuzo Koshiro
6 Cranky's Conga [Restored] - David Wise
7 Ice Groove - Yuzo Koshiro
8 The Grasslands of Time: Home World - 光田康典
9 Jungle Chase - Yuzo Koshiro
10 Yoshi's Island - Koji Kondo
11 Stealthy Steps - Yuzo Koshiro
12 Infiltration - Norihiko Hibino
13 Pokey Pipes - Eveline Novakovic
14 Water World - Eveline Novakovic
15 Oddworld - Ellen Meijers & Josh Gabriel
16 Listen to the Cries of the Planet - Nobuo Uematsu
17 Another Moon - Nobuo Uematsu
18 The Surface of the Water - Yoko Shimomura
19 Impact Crater - Kenji Yamamoto, Kouichi Kyuma
20 Snowy Mammoth - Soichi Terada
21 Huh!? - Yasunori Mitsuda
22 Battle - Yasunori Mitsuda
23 Dexter's Island - Soichi Terada
24 Piccolo's Theme - Kenji Yamamoto
25 Spark Mandrill - Makoto Tomozawa
26 Bombing Melee - Jun Chikuma
27 Crazy Motorcycle - Nobuo Uematsu
28 Battle Runner (3st BGM) - Konami Kukeiha Club
29 Fight Against Smithy, Who Likes Transforming - Yoko Shimomura
30 Trivial Battle - Noriko Matsueda
31 StarMan's Stage (Zero Gravity) - 細江慎治
32 Dr Wily's Castle - Makoto Tomozawa
33 The Arrival of Spring - Koichi Sugiyama
34 Friendly and Peaceful - Koichi Sugiyama
35 Dragon Roost Island - Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo
I grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn - right around Peter Luger off the Marcy Av JMZ stop. My early exposures to electronic music were through my mom playing Kraftwerk and through music in SNES games that my parents provided in my early life, as well as games that my friends had. Later on, our family acquired a Sony Playstation and it brought on a whole new level of audiovisual immersion for me.
I lived about an hour away from my schools, which made a good chunk of my early life spent traveling with the MTA. Gratefully, I had access to music to pass the time on my trips - I would subconsciously time my travel with this music, so when I got to a certain track I knew I was going to be late. When I got home from school sometimes I would skate with neighborhood friends at the Continental Army Plaza on S4th and Roebling St, or be traveling to the city again to practice Karate. I think it was my first year in High School that my friend Ryu started inviting me to Julliard pre-college recitals, I would go to those on the weekends. Otherwise I would be at home, gaming on my own or with friends.
In 2011 after I got back from a formative and tumultuous year in Japan, I listened to techno on a system it was meant for, with Richie Hawtin at Electric Zoo. That experience and friends I made through it led me to attend smaller functions in the city when I could take a break from studies, at clubs like National Underground. I went to my first Movement festivals in 2012 and 2013. Those inspired me to start making music more regularly and planted a seed that I could somehow help people with it. This all happened at the start of my first year of grad school, so while I was focusing on understanding the process of making music, I was obligated to teach intro chemistry lab, take difficult classes, and start research. I remember one of my advisors told me early on as I was showing him some loops I was making on my iPad, "don't let the music interfere with your research". That may have marked the start of a conflict of having to choose between science and music - I felt like I could do both, but maybe it wasn't realistic? I would be fishing for the 'right' answers and direction through signs in my life, but it all came with more questions. Starting an event series midway into my PhD also didn't make the conflict easier to resolve. I would be trying to complete experiments, gather data, and put together presentations while working all angles to produce events. With the luck of some successful experiments and support from many people I made it through grad school, but that conflict remains and I feel like I want to fragment my reality to do both full-heartedly. I moved to Detroit a year ago mostly to understand music better, so probably from the outside perspective it seems like I've made a choice.
For this mix, I listened to the soundtracks of pretty much every video game I could recall that I've played (+ some that were adjacent to the genres, which I didn't experience) and I compared them to my current production style. The process unlocked some buried memories and revealed how influenced I was with the style of certain composers. Of all of the composers featured here I knew I needed to include Yasunori Mitsuda, one of their productions being The Grasslands of Time: Home World, from Chrono Cross. I think my sibling rented this from a store near the JMZ station. We only had a short time with that game, but it left enough of an impression on me to revisit its music later in life. Initially I was going to pack every game track that I felt influenced me in one mix, yet this felt difficult to develop cohesion within an hour time frame. So from the selected tracks I made iterations of blends and tried to come to some concise story - let me know how it transmits.
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We've paired Otodojo's mix with a piece from Cleveland-based sculptor, photographer, and textile artist Laura Davies, whose work considers American manufacturing and the impact of global and internet economies on communities around Cleveland, Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Detroit.
For more on Davies' work, head here: http://www.laurendaviesprojects.com/
For more on Otodojo, head here: https://www.instagram.com/otodojo/