They have already racked up a variety of hits featuring guest vocalists from around the world.
And yesterday, March 19, Japanese production duo AmPm released ‘Tokyo’ – a new track that pays homage to the dance music of their roots, expressing their vision of their home city in the form of house music.
The song is being used as part of a campaign for CONVERSE×BILLY’S latest sneakers, ALL STAR J HI “SPARK”, and already it is turning heads within the dance music scene. Although it can be broadly classified as house music, this full-fledged dance track also flirts with tech house and deep house along with AmPm’s unmistakably Eastern vibe, resulting in a track that shows a new side of the two masked producers.
‘Tokyo’ is out on by Sushi Muzik, a Dutch label that was founded in Amsterdam in 2020. Despite being a new label, Sushi Muzik has already released tunes from dance music legends such as Norman Doray, Roland Clark, Kryder and Eddie Amador. As a European imprint named after a Japanese dish, it is a highly acclaimed label that is taking its own brand of dance music to the world.
‘Tokyo’ holds a special meaning for the members of AmPm, as they explain in the following comment.
“Up until now, we have released lots of tracks based on the dance music that we consider our roots, but we have never released a traditional dance track. Now, in our fourth year since our debut, we have taken on this new challenge.
“2020 was the start of an unimaginably long and difficult period. With everything that is going on, we felt that the word ‘Tokyo’ has taken on negative connotations both domestically and overseas. Since Tokyo is our home, this is a terribly sad situation for us. There is a limit to what we can do about it, but we hope that everyone can try to remember the positive perception they once had of Tokyo. We hope that you can even discover a new impression of Tokyo, and spread that impression to the world through dance music. Since it’s a dance track without any lyrics, it might ignite your imagination. We hope it’s not long before we can all get back to enjoying music at a loud volume again, and to dancing without concern. These are the things we thought about as we released ‘Tokyo’, so we’d love you to listen to it!”
In addition, AmPm will publish their previously unreleased track ‘Intro’ as a limited NFT, with an auction running March 19-31. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are one-of-a-kind digital codes verified by blockchain technology, and each one is completely unique. The auction for ‘Intro’ will be held on a special site, and only the winning bidder will be able to receive and play the song. This is the first time a Japanese artist has sold their music as an NFT – look out for AmPm as they release ‘Tokyo’ in the real world and ‘Intro’ in the virtual one!
