Valentina Magaletti plays the drums—constantly, in all circumstances, in every imaginable constellation. Her latest collaborator is YPY, Japanese producer and member of the band Goat. Together, they’ve musically approached the Kansai region, home to Osaka and Kyoto. It sounds just as expected—and just as good.
The hectic bursts of surprise in Magaletti’s drumming may have become routine by now, but the level of mastery with which she seizes control over entire tracks and elevates the drum kit to new heights of emancipation remains unmatched in experimental electronic music.
With so much front-line action, YPY doesn’t need to do much—and wisely doesn’t. Instead, he adds sparse but purposeful accents that support rather than dictate: lively children’s voices that feel disorienting in headphones, or jazzy synth chords on »Her Own Reflection«. Otherwise, Koshiro Hino focuses on noisy textures that amplify the frantic energy and urban urgency of Japanese metropolises. His brittle electronics only take a more central role on »Interlude For Fog Days«, a moment where Magaletti cuts loose on her entire arsenal of percussive objects.
Kansai Bruises is an album where the division of labor is clear—but that doesn’t mean the sonic landscape is tidy. Without leaning on the overused “tour de force” metaphor, these eight tracks unspool a chaotic program, darting unpredictably to reflect a concept that revels in disorder.
