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.
Like Daisuke Tanabe on Facebook
Listen to Daisuke Tanabe on Soundcloud
Follow Daisuke Tanabe on Twitter
