Soichi Terada is a Japanese electronic music producer, well known for producing the soundtracks for the classic PlayStation hit series, “Ape Escape.” He originally made a name for himself as an underground Deep House producer in the late ‘80s and early 90’s. Soichi gained additional popularity around the world with his most recent album, “Sounds from the Far East.”
Sounds from the Far East starts off with the track “Saturday Love Sunday,” where the low and gritty bassline hits you hard from the very beginning. The hypnotizing synths in the back kick in right after the beat develops into a repetitive chant of each of the days of the week. Very creative sampling done in the intro to this album.
My favorite track on this album has to go to the third song, Sun Showered. From the get-go, the song sounds like it’s straight from a Playstation 1 era Gran Turismo game. It gives me such nostalgia. This entire song is super bouncy and incredibly energetic. The progression of this song is fantastic with the long, stretched out, and almost heavenly sounding synths in the background interlacing the looped base beat of the song.
CPM is the most danceable song here, with the uptempo piano over an incredibly basic but effective bass-line. It’s honestly the most replayable song on the album. The echoey vocals intertwined with the masterfully produced beat give this song so much personality.
The easiest way to describe this album is just “90’s House” with a nostalgic vibe made by one of the old underground masters of the genre; I hands down recommend to listen to this album all the way through if you’re feeling adventurous. There isn’t one bland song on this album, and even from the first time listening to the record, you can sense how much personality each and every song on it has. On top of that, it goes so strangely well as background noise to anything you might be doing throughout the day. The hidden gem Soichi Terada deserves the recognition, but seems to not get enough of it.

Genre: Chiptune.
Japanese House, Deep House
Year: 2015
Favorite Tracks (In order): “Sun Showered,” “CPM,” “Rising Sun Up,” “Love Tension,” “Do it Again,” “Good Morning,” “Purple Haze – Edit.”
Meh Track(s): Voices from Beyond
Least Favorite Tracks: N/A
Rating: 9.5/10
Verdict: Can’t get enough of this album!