V.A. "Back to Fly School" (Double 7")
It’s been 20 years since the Giant Panda’s Fly School Reunion.
To celebrate the anniversary, four tracks from the album originally produced by Chikaramanga—“With It,” “TKO,” “Grand Prix,” and “Strings”—have been rebuilt into brand-new beats by four producers in Japan using the same sample sources: tajima hal, Chiba-Chiiiba, Lidly, and Chikaramanga himself. This special instrumental project is called Back to Fly School.
Chikaramanga brought the original records from Los Angeles. The four producers met in the same room in Tokyo, dropped the needle, and chose who would flip which sample. The same vinyl, the same grooves—reborn two decades later in an entirely new form.
Back to Fly School is available on 7-inch vinyl (Limited Edition of 150 Copies) and on all major digital platforms worldwide. The vinyl was manufactured in Japan, with high-quality craftsmanship that meets the label’s high standards for sound quality and loudness.
Artist Info
The collaboration began when Chikaramanga (of Giant Panda) reached out to tajima hal—now one of the most respected beatmakers in the Japanese scene—as a fan of his beats. A casual “We should do something together someday” conversation slowly took shape, and with Lidly—co-runner of OPEN1, a beat showcase event in Tokyo with tajima hal—and Chiba-Chiiiba, a regular at the TRES event the 3rd Party in Tokyo, the four-man team naturally came together. All three of them—tajima hal, Chiba-Chiiiba, and Lidly—belong to a younger generation than Chikaramanga, and Fly School Reunion was part of their teenage years or early twenties. That generational connection adds a deeper meaning to this collaboration.
Cat#: tr396-097
Artist: tajima hal, Chikaramanga, Chiba-Chiiiba, and Lidly
Title: Back to Fly School
Format: Double 7-inch Vinyl (Black Vinyl)
Condition: New
Track List:
[Side A] tajima hal / Still With It
[Side B] Chikaramanga / Grand Prix - Victory Lap
[Side C] Chiba-Chiiiba / T.K.O. - Rematch
[Side D] Lidly / Strings - Re:Strung