Nav Katze

Can someone explain to me what the deal with them is?

We all have heard "Never Mind the Distortion" 1 & 2, and correctly, they are absolutely amazing, just how did an obscure Japanese J-pop duos back catlog get remixed by the, then biggest names in IDM???

What sequence of events transpired to make this reality?

I've been listening to their other, non-remixed albums, "Gentle & Elegance" & "うわのそら" - they are both pretty good, I cant understand a word, but it sounds good

Nervous Cat general thread I guess.

The way I look at it the "biggest names in IDM" weren't big enough to turn away lucrative remixing commissions at the time (1993-1997; the period in which many Japanese artists were collaborating with the Warp elite). Ask them to do it now and it would be a different story obviously.

Also, Nav Katze weren't as obscure as someone extant of Japan would be led to believe... They were actually quite popular and when a Japanese band experiences sustainable success in their homeland 9 times out of 10 there is no need to expand internationally since musical success in Japan is so lucrative.

This reminds me a lot of how ninja tune and chocolate industries got a who's who (autechre, squarepusher, phoenecia, funkstörung...) to remix "tried by 12" by east flatbush project (nyc thug rap crew) in 1998. I'd love to know how this came together.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand remixing pop songs used to be very lucrative at some point. You got your track on some CD with the original that was selling tons and you got the royalties for each CD sold. I have some vague memory of Alex Paterson commenting that they get more money from the remixes they made than from the Orb albums.

It seems that now remixes of popular tunes are used more as a way to promote your own brand and are done largely for free by new producers to get their name out?

in case you haven't heard it....

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^ Yes, a thousand times fuck yes. I'd love to see them re-release remotion (maybe include a second cd of additional remixes for good measure ) - secondhand copies are f'ing expensive

Hard for me to think of this bunch and not think of Soft Ballet.