Sometimes music has to stumble in order to reach its destination. That at least is true for »Floating Moutains,« the opener and title track of Soshi Takeda’s first album for 100% Silk. Starting off like a standard lo-fi house tune, its pumping kickdrum develops a hiccup already in the fourth bar. It’s a small rhythmic lapse that repeats itself throughout the track, making it unstable and thus contrasting the booming deep house bassline and the new age synthesizers with an expressive counterpoint. Admittedly, on »Floating Mountains« such sleights of hand are the exception rather than the rule, but in fine doses they save the Japanese producer’s album from getting hopelessly lost in clichés. Takeda is a hardware purist, his equipment comprises of samplers and synthesizers built in the 1990s. Musically, he draws on the conventions of lo-fi house and is thus somewhat behind his time, but contrasts the rough and rugged grooves with ultra-slick melodies and harmonies that evoke techno-pop and Balearic in equal measure. Of course, there is not always much friction between the delicate flute sounds and bulky percussion, but it does evoke pictures. After all, it was photos that inspired Takeda to write these six – seven if you count the digital bonus track – pieces: a coffee-table book about Chinese landscapes was the starting point of his studio work. He explores his own imaginary mountain worlds sometimes with slow, sometimes with faster steps, but always has his head above the clouds. If his music thus didn’t stumble now and then, it would probably float away smoothly, never reaching its destination.
Giuseppe Ielasi
Rhetorical Islands
Faitiche