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Music by Mitsuaki Komamura

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Mitsuaki Komamura was invited to contribute music to the level that returns Pac-Man to his birthplace and spiritual home in Tokyo. Pac-Man is arguably Japan's most successful cultural export, having swallowed more quarters in the arcade than any other video game, and whose continual popularity is evidenced by his status as the top-selling mobile phone game of 2005.

Mitsuaki is one of Japan's newest cultural exports, with his first ever record out on Jeff Milligan's Revolver label in 2006. Jeff, of course, made the Toronto Techno level. Knowing that Jeff regularly tours Japan, and really wanting to do a level for Pac-Man's homeland, I asked him if he knew any local techno musicians who would be interested in collaborating, and he connected me with Mitsuaki.

His debut EP 'Weedis' has already received rave reviews from some of Europe's top DJs, including Groove magazine founder DJ T, Giles Smith, and Jennifer Cardini. The highest praise has come from De:Bug Magazine, who gave it the highest rating of "*****" (that's 5 stars!), and the estimable Laurent Garnier, who said "nice minimalistic funkyness on the A side, will play of course".

Mitsuaki Komamura was born in the mountains of Nagano in a mushroom patch, where he was raised by singing insects and birds. He soon descended the mountain and found his way to the centre of the hive in Tokyo. We are blessed that he has decided to share with us the rhythmic chattering of the bugs and the melodic warbling of the birds from his formative years in the form of funky minimal beats for the mind and for the feets.

view Tokyo Techno map

The Tokyo Techno level uses the style of Piet Mondrian to reproduce a cartographically exact map of the Tokyo wards that witnessed the birth, growth, and continually expanding vibe of techno in the city: Shibuyaku and Minatoku. The map of Tokyo's infamous "spaghetti streets" proved to be the most difficult, and most rewarding to create in Mondrian's horizontal/vertical opposition, emobodying the exact opposite of his aesthetic. The level shares with Broadway Boogie Woogie the ability to make your eyes jump from square to square, never quite able to rest for long. The end result looks like Mondrian on crack.

The Liquid Room is one of Tokyo's longest-running, and best loved venues for live bands and DJs/live PAs. The Liquid Room has special significance to me, for it was the Jeff Mills 'Live at the Liquid Room' mix that stole my soul for beats forever. Growing up in the early rave scene in Toronto, the first electronic music I was exposed to at dirty warehouse parties was breakbeats imported from the UK, with silly and funny vocals and a let's get fucked up attitude. For years, I went to raves but never listened to the music at home, thinking it was just foolish party music.

Years later, when I asked a friend to make me some tapes of acid squelchy stuff, my favourite at the time, to take up to a buddy's cottage so we could get off our rockers and go crazy, he said I'll make you those tapes, but you have to let me tape one other mix, the Jeff Mills one. After playing through the rest of the tapes, we got to Jeff Mills last, and it never came out of the stereo again for the rest of the trip. I never realised how much mixing could be an art form, and had never felt an energy rush like I did when listening to that mix. From the very first time I heard gritty Detroit techno I had a techno brain transplant and never looked back, to the point where I immediately started to and still continue to listen almost exclusively to techno, house, and its variants. Apparently it is a widespread phenomenon amongst the techno heads, as many many other people report having their conversion experiences due to this record. The crowd accounts for a great deal of the vibe, cheering on all the best mixes.

Japan is the world's largest market for music, with by far the greatest and most eclectic variety available in all genres, and Tokyo is its epicentre. Shibuya is generally recognized to have the most vinyl record stores per square foot on the entire planet, and Technique is the best techno shop of the bunch.

Maniac Love was a tiny club that hosted the most legendary after-hours parties of the Tokyo scene, where the party didn't really start until 6 or 7 in the morning. Located in the basement of a semi-residential street, it was probably the only club in the world that featured staff prowling the surrounding area to intercept approaching clubbers to ask them to keep quiet so as not to disturb the neighbours. Unfortunately, it shut its doors at the end of 2005, which marked the passing of the best-loved hard techno joint in the city.

Space Lab Yellow is currently far and away the hottest club in the city for house and minimal techno, consistently featuring the best DJs and producers the world has to offer. The oldest and most revered club is regarded by most as the best underground venue in Tokyo, due in no small part to the sound system, which is identical to the system that pumped out the beats in New York's legendary Paradise Garage. Closed off and on by the cops in its infant rebellious years, only the true heads party there, since there's no sign, just a yellow neon square. Yellow also has the distinction of being Mitsuaki's favourite club.

The ghost house marks the police station at the intersection of Omotesanando-Dori and Aoyama-Dori.