One way to describe Shinichi Osawa's debut album, The One, is as a dancefloor, pumping electro house album -- with depth.

And there are many reasons why Osawa's tracks have depth, especially if you know your 90's house, you will definitely, affectionately remember the band Mondo Grosso.

Shinichi Osawa was their "leader" / bassist and helped take the band to new heights in the deep house / acid jazz movement.

Now out on his own with his solo album, The One, he has created an eclectic mixture of electro house, breaks, chill and block rockin' beats. From the vocal-heavy, pop-like "Our Song (We Are All Innocent)" to the electro fury that is "Electro411". I really enjoyed the first listen through of this album. You too, will soon realise why Osawa has been described as the next wave of sound in the Japanese music scene and why he's collaborated with the likes of Fatboy Slim, Bob Sinclar, Digitalism and Felix Da Housecat. A number of tracks on this album, have a Daft Punk-esque feel to them such as synth-stuttering "Rendevzous", strum-laden "Last Days" and the guitar-fuelled "The Golden". Then there are the laidback, chilled as funk tracks like "The Patch" and my personal favourite "State of Permission".

Of course, the most famous song from this LP is his cover version of the Chemical Brother's "Star Guitar" featuring Au Revoir Simone on guest vocals. This is how most people have been introduced to the Osawa sound. I first cottoned onto this track from the Drum n Bass remix by the Brookes Brothers, but now enjoy all the other remixes as well.

Speaking of remixes, the CD version of The One, comes with 2 CDs. The second CD is The One Remixes with rerubs of Star Guitar by Armand Van Helden, Push by Tronik Youth, Maximum Joy by Van She, Rendezvous by Crookers, Two mixes of Detonator, one by Freeform, the other by Herve and Foals by the Streetlife DJs.

The One drops on the 26th January from Southern Fried Records (Fatboy Slim's label).

Samples