Artist: Shinjuku Thief
Genre(s):
Ambient
Gothic
Discography:
The Witch Hammer
Year: 1997
Tracks: 14
The Scribbler
Year: 1992
Tracks: 14
Shinjuku Thief was the alias of experimental electronic artist Darrin Verhagen, as well the Melbourne, Australia-based founder of the Dorobo criminal record mark. Taking his name from the Nagisa Oshima moving-picture show Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki ("Diary of a Shinjuku Thief"), Verhagen additionally integrated cinematic influences into his music by conceiving his work as soundtracks to nonexistent films; his debut, 1992's Bloody Tourist, drew every bit on ambient and industrial traditions, although in the future his more than industrial projects were recorded under the constitute Shinjuku Filth. (New Age-inspired works, accordingly, were attributed to Shinjuku Fluff.) The second Shinjuku Thief LP, 1992's The Scribbler, was a minimalist piece commisioned as a soundtrack for a stage performance based on Kafka's The Trial, while 1993's The Witch Hammer was the first gear in a series of in darkness orchestral records divine by the occult, complete with a nod to the German expressionist films of the 1920s. Branching out from the Shinjuku name, Verhagen adopted some other assumed name, that of Professor Richmann, to criminal record 1994's Succulent Blue Sway, a techno-inspired release composed for the Canberra-based Vis a Vis dance company. Detritus, a Shinjuku Filth collaboration with Black Lung's David Thrussel, followed in 1996. Two days later on, Verhagen followed with Raised by Wolves on Iridium.
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