DAISUKE TANABE – PAPER PLANES

Beginning with an onset of fuzz, and what sounds like a faint Windows XP error sound, Japanese producer Daisuke Tanabe's latest track 'Paper Planes' is yet another step in an incremental climb to greater and greater heights, glitching onwards and upwards.

It's a complex weave of rhythms in three parts, going through some type of mystic lounge punctuated with reggae-esque soft-synth stabs in the first, to a volumised half-time-footwork mid-section, ending at the final third (not before an audacious & astounding second-long cut in sound) with a bristling beat that's filled with as many noises as you'd hear in some busy forest. The bass here skips in and out, cut beautifully and jiggling with fun wobble, double-timing what was previously slowed in a jaunty finale.

Throughout, it's a cascade of sounds: bells, chimes, sheafing metallics, blips and bops, and a whole host of percussion that ranges from thin, phantomatic snares to juddering woodblock percussion. Lush. That's the word.

I'm well excited to say that it's taken from Floating Underwater, a forthcoming album from the musicmaker himself – with mastering from field recording magician, Yosi Horikawa. It'll be available from 15th September on German label Ki Records and Cat Eat Mosquito, a new, independent label from Japan which (I think) is Daisuke's own brainchild.

• Check out our Lazy Interview with Daisuke Tanabe for YES/NO
• Also check out, if you haven't, check out Kidsuke, a collaboration between Daisuke and UK musicmaker, Kidkanevil.

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Check Daisuke Tanabe • Facebook • Soundcloud • Twitter

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DAISUKE TANABE – ALICE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I had been wondering what Daisuke Tanabe had been up to recently. A few months ago he posted a 3 second voice track that simply said: "I'm making a new album at the moment… Thank you." Checking back on his SoundCloud today it seems that he's been pretty busy recently, having uploaded a couple of older tracks alongside a couple of new tracks – presumably made for the new album; the awesome and fast-paced 'Replaced', sounding like a jungle track made for minimalists, with infra-kicks that seem to blast air through your skull and ticking chopped snares and hi-hats beautifully delicate yet still exuding a ton of attitude; and then there's this track: 'Alice'.

Beginning with a wondrous clinking and clanking of bells, insectoid percussion, and the sound of a tiny cartoon helicopter coming in to land, it begins, stopping and starting, abstractly playing with percussive sounds like a wicker basket of toys being poured down a specially designed course. When the beat arrives properly, we're treated to understated syncopated kicks that keep time beneath bustling thickets of clicking clopping crowded metallic clacking so rich and dense that they sound as though they are liquids; water sloshing around in a bucket of water. Gentle bleeps provide the pattern for the melody, which distorts in glitchy fashion before the final act of the story.

This end part throws the spotlight on a set of organ-like sounds, almost wheezing in their clear yet modulative wavy nature, from the stepping bass to the near-spooky and certainly weird microscopic soaring melody. A very high-pitched blip plays every now and again, like the sound of trainers (or sneakers if you) staccato-squeaking on polished floor.

As always, Daisuke Tanabe's attention to detail grabs your attention in turn, bidding you to come and have a look and a listen to these strange sounds; building huge cities, worlds, cave networks in miniature, and shrinking you down to the size of an ant so you can find vast universes in what you previously thought was mere minutiae. At the same time, he keeps a beat in this instance, retaining some rudimentary sense of conventionality but ultimately discarding it in favour of experimenting with noises, finding the richest flavours, the prettiest presentation, and giving us the gourmet experience with his music.

I don't know when his album's out but when it is, I'll be there. Where? Wherever it is I should be in order to listen to it; shrunken and inside a sprawling architectural model left sitting on some rocks by the sea. Or something.

• You can download 'Alice' for free.
• Check out this vintage interview that Daisuke Tanabe did for YES/NO.

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CUUSHE BUTTERFLY (KIDSUKE REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I've literally been listening to this song on repeat. Like, repeat. I couldn't tell you how many times I've had it on. Why? Not cause it's catchy, no. And not because it's too short (that happens sometimes). It's just cause I like how it sounds yo. It's the kind of sound that really suits an evening chilling, having a browse around the internet, answering a few emails here and there, tip-toeing around facebook or whatever - just a "general" evening vibe. Anyway, that really really doesn't do the song justice.

In fact, it's almost an insult to the song. I'm sorry. Err, maybe I could just backtrack by saying it's just a versatile sound. Yeah that's right. But then again it's not that versatile: I wouldn't wanna be cookin' up a storm in the kitchen to this music. Conflicting emotions.

Anyway. Enough of that. Cuushe is a songstress from Japan whose haunting voice has captivated quite a few people recently with the offerings we've had the pleasure of listening ('Twilight', for instance) to from her upcoming album Butterfly Case, out 23rd September on Japanese label, Flau. 'Butterfly' is one of those songs. But this time around, an additional dimension has been added in this remix thanks to Kidsuke: the dynamic duo of Kidkanevil and Daisuke Tanabe. I wrote about their debut, self-titled album and the pairing of these two thorough and glitchy soundscaping beat-makers was clearly a match made in heaven.

It's clear to see in this lovely remix, too. Giving it a healthy dose of bristling organic percussion seems to suit Cuushe's distinctively breathy voice right down to the ground, despite it sounding very much up in the air. The mechanical sound of those ticks, taps, whirrs and rattles give it a lovely glitching toy appeal - although it's busy and bustling, it's not a dark or overpowering beat, so there almost seems to be something cute about it.

Other noises join the show, ambient blips and static popping out from the warm stream of the song's atmosphere to augment and fly alongside Cuushe's soaringly dreamy vocals. The general resulting sound is something that's delicate, a glass machine with spindly legs toeing its way along the bright petals of a chorus of flowers all singing together. A world of beauty and emotion in fragile, detailed miniature.

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Visit Cuushe's official site

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DAISUKE TANABE INTERVIEW

Mr Daisuke Tanabe, everybody. I have been a fan of this guy for a couple of years now, ever since I stumbled upon some of his old stuff on Spotify I was hooked by his sound. It sometimes sounds like a computer glitching to a hip hop beat, sometimes sounds like a hip hop song painted in a circuit board pattern.

I wrote about a couple of his songs quite a long time ago, 'Cuculus Canorum' (which is no longer available sadly) and 'Ghost', both of which display his glitch-trip-hop style very well indeed. It's the experimental sound, and the resulting pioneering spirit of having an adventure with music that comes through in his songs, which is very enjoyable indeed. He is also one half of the very cool Kidsuke along with Kidkanevil (who answered these same questions two weeks ago).

And here are Daisuke's answers to my lazy interview...

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
My name is Daisuke Tanabe and I'm making music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
I was trying to make some sound with old keyboad when I was a kid and it was fun. And I'm still doing it.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
Can't explain. Too much thinking on this question.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
Whenever you want is the perfect timing.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
Good things to bad things. Everything around me.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
To travel around and meet interesting people is the best thing.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
I just got Nina Simone record from recycle shop last week and it was a great album.

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Can't pick one. Everyone is doing their own thing and it's a great thing about making music.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
...is what people will be?

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
Cannot tell my future. I don't plan anything at all. But I will make music.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
I grew up near nature. Nature is very important for me.

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Short and sweet. What's the saying? Still waters run deep? Does that apply here? I don't know. Maybe it does. You could say that his answers reflect simple-yet-effective minimalism that is the building blocks for many of his songs - you could also say that his brevity is yet more evidence (along with his musical style) of someone who won't be reigned in by any conventions. Not least my questions! But despite this, you can see that he is an honest person: he certainly doesn't mince his words.

There will be more music from this guy, thankfully. Alongside the Kidsuke stuff (which was confirmed by Kidkanevil in his interview), which Daisuke obviously enjoyed as he said "London is my second home", he also told me that he is "making a new album (finally)" which will be out "hopefully early next year". Looking forward to it! ありがとう！

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Like Daisuke Tanabe on Facebook
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KIDKANEVIL AND DAISUKE TANABE KIDSUKE

It's a beautiful thing when one or more already established artists come together to create something new that embodies and amalgamates each artist's style and dynamic. This much is true of the fantastic new partnership sparked and kindled between British Kidkanevil and Japanese Daisuke Tanabe (sketch of each just on the right here).

West meets East in an array of complex electronica that stuns, enlivens, chills and otherwise masterfully captures the imagination of the open-minded listener.

The album, Kidsuke, released 2nd November this year, marries the structural hip hop stylings of Kidkanevil and the likewisely leaning offbeat flavours of Daisuke Tanabe (whose delicious music we've written about before) perfectly - being similar artists, in that their sound utilises that unique glitchness that you find in the songs of each individual, certainly helps when trying to make an album that works harmoniously. The starting track, 'IntroOoOoO', announces the partnership with brash confidence ("Kid-o-suke!"), there being no coincidence that it is a child's voice proclaiming as much: the album certainly seems to be an evocative playground of the kinds of blips and bleeps that typified the video-game-centric collective childhoods of many people in their 20s now, as well as music box melodies - as in the lullaby-nightlight tones of second track 'Nanotrees (Out In The Woods)' - and merry-go-round aesthetics that otherwise conjure a childlike wonder, or love, for the sounds that make us smile.

That child-proclaimer is a recurring theme in the album, popping up here and there to remind us, perhaps, that both artists doing this for fun more than anything else. A questioning "Kid-o-suke...?", for example, marks the start of 'SGstep', which is a fun, pots-and-pan percussive dubstep-styled track, featuring much modulated synth bleeptude that drip-drops over the sound as a grinding sound comes in and out in waves.

Hip hop, however, is never far away, with the distinctive offbeat of 'MoOoOoOn' housing a foundations for flights of electronic fancy that whizz over and above. Those sounds, at once recognisable as part of both artists' separate repertoire, are heard best in the popping bubble atmosphere of 'Frogs In A Well', the fizzing cauldron of 'Sine Flowers' and the frantic, unworldly sounds in 'Harmonics Pt2'. How emotion can summoned with such obscure, unnatural noises is difficult to say, but it is done so successfully. The feeling, for instance, in the touching melodies of 'The Other Day We Thought Of Our Friends' is quite evident, in the bathtime evocation of 'Super Deformed', and even more so in final track, which even smells and feels like a drawn-out, modern-world goodbye, 'The Last Train'.

That the album should carry a name that is a portmanteau of Kidkanevil and Daisuke Tanabe says as much about the sound therein; it the work of neither artist, it's the work of both, together: it's Kidsuke and it's lovely. Stream it all below.

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Kidsuke // Twitter / SoundCloud / Bandcamp
Daisuke Tanabe // Facebook / Twitter / SoundCloud
Kidkanevil // Facebook / Twitter / SoundCloud / YouTube / Bandcamp / Official site

DAISUKE TANABE GHOST & CUCULUS CANORUS

Always up for something new; here is something new. For me anyway. For you perhaps not. If it is new, all the better. These are the lovely jazztronic glitchive triphopular sounds of Japanese producer, Daisuke Tanabe. Hailing from Chiba with an art degree and a pretty clear vision of the sound he would be crafting, Daisuke Tanabe has been going for a while, living and working in London for a while before settling back in Japan - Tokyo to be exact - to make beautiful beautiful music. He comes from a background working especially in the techno and breakbeat genre, explaining why his forays into the now with music taking elements of jazz, hiphop, folk and electronica have that hard dancey edge. You start with something, you can't get away from it. But in Daisuke's case, it doesn't seem to be a problem whatsoever.

Let's start with the irreverently chilled 'Ghost' (below). It's a handsome shard of a song, containing all the parts of Four Tet glitchdom you've ever loved. This edgy throwing out and pulling back of sounds, as if constantly casting out a line, as in fishing line - the fluidity of the song and the nearly wind-shook electro bells running through give a totally nature-inspired feel to the sound.

Add this with some cute major scale synth sounds and you have yourself a pretty trippy number with a slow nearly-disappeared beat. To beef the song up, he adds some thin cymbals to crash lightly over everything, as the ongoing ringing clacking twisting ghost beat grasshoppers staccato to the end.



See what I mean?

But you get something a little different with the much more offbeat trip-hop tripstyles of the jazz-electro-glitchfunk of 'Cuculus Canorus' (below). It starts with a totally stripped down beat, bitcrushed moderately to give it an 8bit feel in all its swagger-inducing glory. Here, everything gets a bit loungey, though with a killer clean bass foundation to stop you the chill from being just pure lounge and pure sit back. Again, we have a near-trademark cutesy melody in some high-pitched synth blips, and a breakdown featuring open-hi-hat sounds. Nothing wrong with sticking to your guns.



That SUB BASS at the end! Shudderingly ice cold.

So that is Daisuke Tanabe - no doubt you'll hear more from him one day. Hopefully he will be gracing the world with some new stuff very soon. But at the moment, there's so much on his SoundCloud that we're not exactly wanting. I urge you to listen to this man's creations whenever you feel like you need to. At work, walking places, or during an afternoon's worth of chill.

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• Please listen to more Daisuke Tanabe on his SoundCloud
• And here is his profile at Discogs
• But you may be more interested in following him on Twitter
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