For his second time around on the ESP Institute hovercraft, properly prolific Tokyo DJ & producer Hoshina Anniversary steps up with "Karakuri b/w Michinoku", two slices of jazz-fusion reconstructed as chuggy club music in his signature style. Built around a sturdy rhythmic frame, "Karakuri" sees him deploying a bouncy synth bass line, a spiraling Fender Rhodes lead-line, organ stabs and melancholic minor chords. Order becomes chaos, and from the heart of chaos, a deeper sense of order emerges. We're talking proper journey stuff, cerebral, but never short of a dose or two of strutting drum machine funk.
On the flip, "Michinoku", Hoshina continues with his Fender Rhodes theme, but sets it against a reggae groove built out of Roland TR-808 tom drums and a cyborg skank stabs. Much like on "Karakuri", Hoshina lets the beat (actually the composition) built, explode, breathe, and build again. From order emerges chaos, from chaos emerges order. Electronic music is often built around loops, and the thing about loops is they can make time feel like a flat circle. Beginnings can be ends, and ends can be beginnings.
"Karakuri b/w Michinoku" is out now through ESP Institute in 12" and digital formats (buy here)
