Shinjuku Thief

by Jason Ankeny Shinjuku Thief was the alias of experimental electronic artist Darrin Verhagen, also the Melbourne, Australia-based founder of the Dorobo record label. Taking his name from the Nagisa Oshima film Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief), Verhagen additionally incorporated cinematic influences into his music by conceiving his work as soundtracks to non-existent films; his debut, 1992s Bloody Tourist, drew equally on ambient and industrial traditions, although in the future his more industrial projects were recorded under the name Shinjuku Filth. (New Age-inspired works, accordingly, were attributed to Shinjuku Fluff.) The second Shinjuku Thief LP, 1992s The Scribbler, was a minimalist piece commisioned as a soundtrack for a stage performance based on Kafkas The Trial, while 1993s The Witch Hammer was the first in a series of darkly orchestral records inspired by the supernatural, complete with a nod to the German expressionist films of the 1920s. Branching out from the Shinjuku name, Verhagen adopted another alias, that of Professor Richmann, to record 1994s Succulent Blue Sway, a techno-inspired release composed for the Canberra-based Vis a Vis dance company. Junk, a Shinjuku Filth collaboration with Black Lungs David Thrussel, followed in 1996. Two years later, Verhagen followed with Raised by Wolves on Iridium.