Ippu Mitsui – L + R (Bearsuit Records, 2017)

https://bearsuitrecords.bandcamp.com/album/l-r

Japanese artist/musician Mitsui is one of the latest signings to the eclectic, mostly electronic Scottish imprint, Bearsuit Records, a longtime favourite around these parts. Last year he released a split LP with Annie And The Station Orchestra and here he forages out on his own, delivering hypnotic electronic beats that are full of energetic creativity and will make your pants get up and dance. The eleven tracks segue seamlessly like a classic DJ mix, with the stomping floorthrobber ‘Small Rider” sprinkling tinkling fairy dust over a ferocious backbeat. Inaudible vocal splicings slice through the patchwork quilt glitch rock of the appropriately titled ‘Patch Up’ and ‘Break Through 50 Watt’ and ‘In My Mind – Kokoro’ are chill out, romance music for the new generation; the former harkening back to vintage Warehouse grooves, while the latter reminds of the pronouncements of the backwards-talking midget in Twin Peaks!

Elsewhere, ‘Fine Spine’ tears a page out of Devo’s hyperkinetic dance pop and will have you jerking back and forth, ‘Bottle Neck U’ searches for extraterrestrial grooves beaming in from another planet in a galaxy far, far away, and a reprise of opener ‘Bug’s Wings’ takes a more propulsive Giorgio Morodor motoric approach. Finally, ‘Quick 919’ is a snappy little tune that’s predestined to soundtrack an Anime feature somewhere, someday.

It’s all very kinetic, aggressive, and challenging – a thinking man’s map to the dancefloor!

– Jeff Penczak
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