SHELF NUNNY — CASCADE GLIDE

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Seattle producer Shelf Nunny aka Christian Gunning first came to our attention way back in 2013 — namely it was via 'About The Boy', a collaborative track between him and Berlin-based artist Eriko Toyoda. It was a vibe.

A decade and several releases later (via labels such as Chicago-based Palettes and Seattle's own Hush Hush Records), not to mention remixes from the likes of Kidkanevil (“who heavily inspired + shaped my sound,” Gunning says), his style of experimental beat-making remains addictively luscious.

With more than just a nod to ambient music and field recordings, his latest track 'Cascade Glide' begins trickles with natural-meets-synthetic minutiae from the outset. Synth bleeps and bloops ping and warp in the neardistance, clockwork ticks and mechanical clacks keeping time, fuzzy steps crunching on ground begin proceedings. It's like field recording if you were capturing sounds somewhere like Green Hill Zone, for example. Sonic has long sprinted through, leaving only the swaying grass and empty loops.

It morphs from this quiet, thoughtful beatscape, flying through cotton wool skies into something less pinpoint-detail, more dynamic loud-and-quiet festivities with stuttering chords and bold sections of dead air. It's a track that's equal parts chilled and exhilarating, study beats reimagined — a daydream worked into being by a novel approach to beat-led incidental music of the modern age.

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• 🔔 'Cascade Glide' is taken from Pronoia, Shelf Nunny's upcoming “concept album about the opposite of paranoia”, scheduled for release on 26th January; grab it on Bandcamp.

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☟ Shelf Nunny Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube

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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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KIDKANEVIL – MY LITTLE GHOST

From the first ambient whirrings into life on 'All Is Lost', the opener – and more of an electronic dawn than a big bang – to Kidkanevil's brand new album My Little Ghost is in essence a sojourn through soundscapes; it's a walk through the woods, through your city at twilight, down a countryside lane at early evening; it's a lazy afternoon watching TV with sun bulging through the windows, a rainy day spent watching a rainy day go by, a snooze on a beach. At the same time, these are spacey, fantastical, cosmically charged pieces that conjure as much unreality as your mind can imagine.

Songs with titles like 'Escape Pod' take us away on journeys; in an escape pod, or rather, the song itself is an escape pod. A cute menagerie of bleeps and bips great and small gives way to nebulose sounds, shooting through space on a hopefully homeward yet lonesome trajectory, mechanical percussion skittering all the way. Next track 'Dimension Bomb' (presumably named after the short animated film of the same name) starts with a boom, which pockmark the track later on as explosions in other planes of existence felt here & now, then follows an arpeggio as it mutates through thickets of ever-frenzied cymbal, kinetic fizz and organ-like synth. Fantasy atmospheres arise in piano-flavoured 'Shunkanido' ("Teleportation" in Japanese), whose melody seems fittingly in a Japanese scale of some kind; I imagine somebody trying to teleport somewhere – and nearly getting there, with the exciting clatter of cymbals and sub-bass bulges – but ultimately finding themselves in the same room. A very persistent image of persistence and hope in light of frustrating failure.

Playful yet serious vibes arise in the glisteningly FX-laden beats and relentless arpeggios of 'Keroro Dub', inspired by Keroro Gunso, the least perhaps "atmospheric" of the tracks. It's almost in direct opposition to Japan-only track 'Tales Of Moonlight And Rain', whose hip hop tilted beat harbours videogame sounds, clusters of invading glitch, and a final third that glows feel-good with electronic watery burblings and gurglings and warm synth chords like the sun peeking out just before rain finishes. Likewise 'OG San' (a pun on the Japanese for uncle, 'ojisan') commands its fair share of atmosphere, feeling like a dim and nowhere house with all its domestic noises of fridge hummings, distant TV sounds, contented breathing replicated by insectoid percussion, warm synth and snippets of tiny piano.

This comes after the pair of tracks, 'Ohayo' ('good morning') and 'Oyasumi' ('goodnight') – the first opens up with warmly stumbling successions of spherical tones, echoing a clumsy body and slow state of mind in the morning; the second is more structured, running on an insomniacally ticking beat, and restlessly reverbing marimba, a vocal sample nestled nonchalantly in there, breezy squelch synth following the marimba all the way to the chaotic ending. Given its busier setting, it's as if Kidkanevil (who gives his location as "Tokyorkshire") is trying to say it's more exciting being a night owl than an early bird.

'Earth to G San' is the first of a few collaborations on My Little Ghost, working on this classically glitchy track with Tetsuya Hikita to produce rippling arpeggios (that put me in mind of the Final Fantasy VII prelude) over scratching hiss snare and random noises. Next up, the organic-meets-synthetic bustle of 'Inakunaru' co-stars experimental hip hop producer Phasma, and is a shapeshifting song, changing form and tack a few times as it goes on. The ever-welcome singer/songmaker Cuushe appears, twice, once in arguably the album's strongest song, 'Butterfly/Satellite' – which, also featuring the beatmaking prowess of London's submerse, shows off the breathy richness of Cuushe's vocals and provides an addictively synthetic juke rhythm to bop along to; later on, Cuushe lends her composition skills to the glockespielic, music-box-like, touching toybox sounds of 'All Is Not Lost' – the direct antithesis to starter track 'All Is Lost'. Glitched-out beats underpin plumes of bass and organesque synth, melodic percussion flitting in the air alongside bleeps and buzzings, gloriously and fluidly transitional from start to finish. Whereas 'All Is Lost' is a drizzly, despair-filled morning, 'All Is Not Lost' is a golden afternoon with promise of more to come.

Also lending her talents to 'All Is Not Lost' is Cokiyu, who also features on 'Tomie' (named after the manga of the same name, maybe) – her ghostly voice adds a phantomesque quality to what is possibly the most minimalist track on the album. Its transition from worrisome breezes and xylophonic platitudes to a second half of plaintive singing and simplistic melody alongside disturbed white noise panning from ear to ear is not only effective but clever and beautiful too. It's a good illustrator for the album as a whole: with electronic noises and organic percussive sounds arises two feelings, one of cuteness and playfulness – with all its titular references to otaku and Japanese culture – which fades to one that's kind of a blank, directionless hope.

That's not to say it's negative, or even melancholy; My Little Ghost, in its very title, summons a more diminutive, more romantic, less threatening yet just as omnipresent and affecting version of "the black dog", a euphemism for depression. It might not be that, exactly – it could be more that a particular memory or another feeling, maybe even just curiosity, is the "little ghost" – but it's certainly a thoughtful, beautiful title for a thoughtful, beautiful set of songs. It's something to put on, leave on, listen to, walk in and out of, and lie back to.

• My Little Ghost is out now on flau and Project: Mooncircle
• Oh, and check out this interview w YES/NO in which Kidkanevil was kind enough to take partake

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KIDKANEVIL – INAKUNARU FT. PHASMA

Last time I wrote about Kidkanevil, it was to do with this madly bristling tree-laden remix of Polish producer UKU's track 'Forest 5 am' – further detailing the UK-based Kidkanevil as a master of glitchtronic atmospheres, of delicacy and dynamism. Not that his part in Kidsuke, the collaboration with Japanese glitch king Daisuke Tanabe didn't show off his talents well enough – it's just nice to hear new stuff with his mark on it.

Speaking of which, did you know that Kidkanevil has a new album approaching? Well if you didn't, you know now. And because of that, there are a couple of songs floating about in the digital sphere – new songs that are very good. One of these is the gloriously addictive 'Inakunaru', in which Gerard Roberts – Kidkanevil's name irl – shares production & creation duty with Yokohama-based Phasma. This is the subject of this post.

Now I've been having a bit of trouble translating 'inakunaru' – literally it means something like "be not here" or "not being here" or "being absent" and I guess in a way "disappeared"; on the other hand I google translated it and it gave me "poof" as a translation (as in "poof— it was gone") but I'm not sure about that. Either way, it's with that sense of un-here-ness, of transitional unreality, that we descend into the track, feeling its intricate organic percussion, its various mechanical clunks and clicks, drawing into its gallery of gently ping-ponging bloops and marimba and long flute-like bleeps. Cutesy yet ghostly vocals deliver sweetness above this cerebral beat, above the solid bass washed over by the harsh waves of noise (Phasma's touch perhaps?); the end of the track is a mash of sharp hi-hats and beeps 'n' boops bouncing like blops of neon.

The business in the track gives it colour, yet there's a sombre tone to it, perhaps in the simply fluctuating flute-like melody – an atmosphere that fits the name of Kidkanevil's aforementioned album: My Little Ghost – a name that instantly conjures a kind of endearing friendliness, yet within the frame of things passed, of phantomic proportions. And if it's all toeing this delicate balance of sombre fun, of cute lament – as well as featuring Japanese talent including the likes of Cuushe and Cokiyu – then it's gonna be a lovely album.

• My Little Ghost is out 9th May via a split between Berlin based Project: Mooncircle and the endlessly cool Tokyo label, flau.
• Get it from P:MC's Bandcamp (over here)
• Check out Kidkanevil's Q&A with YES/NO :)

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SEMAINE MUSIC #3

Bon…jour. Ça va? Ouais, je suis sûr que tu vas bien, probablement. Je vais bien aussi, merci pour me demander. Alors alors alors, c'est mars, le soleil flotte heureusement dans le ciel, c'est printemps. L'été c'est de pres – jusque-là, savoure les mers éclatantes des fleurs et la nouvelle vie. Pour l'instant, je suis dans une état d'esprit français; lis mes mots (en français) et écoute ces morceaux (en autre trucs).

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FVLCRVM – Notch EP
De la Slovaquie, c'est le producteur FVLCRVM avec son Notch EP. Disponible sur Gergaz Records, situé à Bratislava, c'est une collection des 6 chansons que fonctionnent grâce à une grande foi en rythme. C'est glorieusement écoutable. «Gospel of Juke» luit avec les rosées d'une matin d'été, l'electro bonbons écoulant; techno-inspiré «Yummy!» se pavane, sommant la boue-saleté pour un son futur-cherchant. Et puis tu as le disco house du «Prism Vision», où les vestiges de la population de la Terre danse dans la nuit galactique, avant «That's The Way It Is» avec son buffet des bruits: le crépitement ambiant, les voix harmonisants, les synthés brouillard-esque. C'est du futurisme, combiné avec l'antique culture pop.La musique pour aujourd'hui.

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HARRISON – Why You Make Me Happy
Ahh ce type est dingue; sa musique est dingue. Je veux dire «dingue» de façon que rapporte à vaporwave, et dans un sens totalement funky. Ben, normalement échantillonnant de tout choses funk et soul (presque trop?) HARRISON a décidé de ne pas utiliser beaucoup échantillonnage pour son récent morceau, «Why You Make Me Happy». Guidé par les synthés que rutilent dans la balade pétillant du rythme, c'est une chanson coupé-chirurgicalement mais elle conserve la nostalgie habituellement échantillonné par HARRISON, aussi un sens de l'âme, la romance, la cadence funk.

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Earthquake Island – 9 Tales About Galastrophy
Un album des remixes. Ok? Earthquake Island est un producteur italien habitant à Tokyo, appelé Emiliano Ruggiero. L'année dernière il lâchait son album premier, The Case Of Galastrophy – c'était charmant et dégageait le délassement intense. Maintenant voici 9 Tales About Galastrophy, 8 remixes des chansons du album original, également avec un nouvel morceau de Earthquake Island (appelé «So Bright», fondé sur des rythmes asymétriques). Sun Glitters fournit un remix pour «Fantastic», plaçant les sons originaux dans environs plus expansif. Le beatmaker japonais canooooopy ajoute son hip hop paranoïaque, et duo italien LIES leur electro nostalgique, et puis il y'a camarade italien Go Dugong, qui transformé «Super Strawberry» en une sphère bizarrement vacillant plein d'intention théâtral. Trop de sons pour moi d'écrire quand même, donc écoute.

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YES/NO Guest Mix 008 :: Meishi Smile
Guest Mix numero 8! C'est de Los Angeles habitant Meishi Smile: Meishi, le mot japonais pour «carte de visite», et Smile (le sourire), les deux à même temps indiquant des relations et interactions superficiels. Voici un type qui aime la culture japonaise, sa culture pop en particulier. Comme tel, le mix est ruisselant avec la musique japonaise seulement. Dès instrumental math rock, à les bandes sons des animes remixé, c'est une demi-heure tristement romantique (dans le bon sens).

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UKU – Forest 5 am (Kidkanevil remix)
Nom: M. Kidkanevil. Résidence: UK. Occupation: Créateur des beaux musiques. À savoir, sur le plan de hip hop glitch-chargé. (Si tu veux, regarde à l'interview entre moi-même – YES/NO – et Kidkanevil). Alors alors, ce morceau: «Forest 5 am» – c'est originairement par un producteur polonais appelé UKU, une liquide-brillant claire avec la percussion à grande vitesse. Le remix de Kidkanevil, cependant, est complètement différent. Un loop des bips implacables tourbillonnent le long des percussions – gazouillements, bruissements, bourdonnements, cracs – comme un torrent des aiguilles de pin et petits cailloux s'écrasant par les géants debouts de la fôret, l'air epais avec la nuit, tous embourbé avec des chocs de la sub-basse. À fin, un melodie naïf joue, la peur de la nuit est fini, les doigts de l'aube sur le point de s'écouler par les arbres. Euh ben, c'est comme si on erre à travers une fôret réel à 5 heures.

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De La Soul – Stakes Is High (Demicat remix)
Un autre remix. Celui-ci est par producteur coréen (sud) Demicat. Auparavant, il offrait son EP Out Loud, dont morceau «Singing Bird» avec chanteuse coréenne Neon Bunny j'écrivis sur. Maintenant ce remix de cette 1996 chanson par De La Soul arrive de célébrer le 25e anniversaire de l'album début de De La Soul, et elle a mon l'approbation. Demicat a un penchant pour des sons ensoleillés indomptables des années 90, et ici ça c'est très fort. Il y a des synthés chauds, l'élégance lounge-aligné, des basse écrasée. C'est une tranche du passé bien-aimé, mais maintenant encadrée avec de dynamisme occlusif actuel.

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KA-YU – UNXSUAL
Dingue dingue totalement dingue! Hamdoulah ce morceau va très bien. Quand d'abord je l'ai entendu, putain ça me fait exploser. Blasphéme! Mais c'est vrai. Je suis pas désolé. Il s'appel «UNXSUAL» et est par un producteur néerlandais d'origine des moluques appelé KA-YU. Ce morceau est vraiment intéressant car c'est un remix d'un remix, un film dans un film, un réve dedans un réve. Dingue non? L'originel, «Temptations», est essentiellement un remis de chanson par Beyoncé, «Rather Die Young», contenant des tas des échantillons de la chanson susmentionné. «UNXSUAL» est un succès instantané, un coup de dopamine, qui tient tendrement ton coeur qu'il devient fou, ton esprit inextricablement lié à les sons juke-aromatisés. Ce morceau connaît son immensité et est déborde avec la confiance.

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slinky – Dmndz
L'exploitation minière pour les diamants sur un autre monde. Y'a machinerie extraterrestre qui fait des bruits métalliques, plein de la menace toquée. Les filons des diamants sont gigantesque, plongeant profondément dans la terre. Ces sont les sons d'américain producteur, slinky. Le morceau s'appel «Dmndz» et en effet évoque les luisants multiformes des diamants, avec rafales fraîches de synthé – les scintillements des mines dans le ventre fracturé de la terre.

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C'EST ÇA OK?

SI TU HAIS MON FRANÇAIS JE M'EN FOUT.

BON WEEKEND.

À PLUS.

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UKU – FOREST 5 AM (KIDKANEVIL REMIX]

I don't follow Kidkanevil enough. I should pay more attention. I'm sure between when I last wrote about him – which was possibly in the form of the interview that I did with him back in like May last year – and now, he's made some pretty nice music; but as you can probably tell, I've missed it all. What a failure I am. Well, not really, cause I'm here now innit. Better late than never, but that's a cliché and I apologise madly for that.

So Mr Kidkanevil, or Gerard Roberts as is his true real-life name, has gone and remixed a lovely track – it's 'Forest 5 am' by Polish producer Łukasz Plenikowski, aka UKU. The original is a high-speed clean-cut percussion-bristling clear liquid gloss of sounds, like your own heart and mind would in a forest at 5am, cold perspiration prickling, eyes wide almost bursting from sockets, every sound inducing paranoia, yet with the natural wondrous beauty of the forest whooshing by perpetually. This relatively sparse offering turns into something completely different in the hands of Kidkanevil, who imbues it with his characteristic glitch-laden style.

An unrelenting loop of bleeps that muffle and sharpen with the song's changes in dynamic: this is its opening riff. Alongside this, swipes and swishes and buzzes and chitters of percussion tumble along like a torrent of small stones and pine needles, crashing through the standing giants of the forest, dawn on its way, night still thick amidst heavy magic of the forest's atmosphere. A new set of bloops, rich and percussive zoom towards the end, bogged with sub-bass kicks, soon turning mystically thin, the melody transitioning to the timbre of glockenspiel glistenings as the track slows to a near halt. Its very last moments pop and click, bop and beep, blip and bwop, with an endearing, minuscule sense of silliness, as the first shards of dawn cut jagged through the trunks and thickets, shining light and relief onto the once indecipherable, eidolic scenes of twilight, fading out into day.

Grab UKU's Intension EP – from which this remix is taken – over at his Bandcamp for 5€. A small price for such delicious sounds.

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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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KIDKANEVIL INTERVIEW

From bringing to us his glossy, minimalist beats to most recently teaming up with Daisuke Tanabe for side-project Kidsuke (which I wrote a bit about last year), kidkanevil (aka Gerard Roberts) has been pursuing music for a long time. Or rather - not pursuing, but living in it. Within the atmosphere of his music there is a certain love of the process and attention to detail that arises from something very simple: liking, if not loving, what you do.

The man himself was kind enough to allow me to send over some questions for his perusal, and kinder still to send back some answers. Gain some insight from a music man. Yes they are the same questions. Maybe it's a lazy interview. In any case, it's not like anyone can cheat or anything, can they? Every person answers differently. And here's what kidkanevil said...

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
My name is kidkanevil, I’m from the UK, I make music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
Music has been a passion since I was a kid, so it just happened naturally, I didn’t really ‘decide’ as such.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
I don’t know really, its rooted in hiphop and watching too much anime. I just try to make original and honest music and hope that myself and other people like it, if it stands out to some people then I am appreciative of that.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
Not that I know of.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
The usual – life, art, film, daydreaming. I have a far too active imagination, it’s kind of a problem sometimes.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
Wow, I don’t know if I can answer that, most of my life has been a musical experience. I met Arvo Part once and I bowed.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Arvo Part – Adam’s Lament

Tetsuya Hikita – Party of Autumn

Jameszoo – The Clumtwins

Who do you most admire in the music world?
I admire anyone who makes their own music and not someone else’s.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
Messy and unexpected probably, like all things.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
Messy and unexpected hopefully! I’m just making ideas for fun at the moment, I don’t like to engage with the ‘music industry’ until I have to. I feel in a really special place creatively right now, the place I’ve been working to get to all this time. I know my next body of work will be very special to me. I’m just trying to make sure I don’t rush it in the excitement.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
I’m currently in the process of fucking up my life to find out actually, I’ll let you know. ^ _ ^

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A glimpse into the world of kidkanevil. What shines through the most is his "far too active imagination" (be it sometimes a problem or not) - his music is filled with sounds that aren't the regular type to be cradled by a beat, nor are they the regular type full stop. I think it's a case of not being inspired by music itself, but being inspired by other things to create music (as he said); that's how you get a truly original and imaginative sound.

The prospect of a "messy and unexpected" future is a kind of fun uncertainty - it's difficult to predict. Uncertainty is the best policy. But his own musical future sounds good - the reality of that future, when it comes to us all in song-form, will probably sound even better.

As for a concrete future, Mr kidkanevil tells me there is "def gonna be more kidsuke!" amongst other things, so that is pretty cool, too. ありがとう！

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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