- The Japanse footwork specialist is back to boggle minds.
- When Foodman arrived with Shokuhin in 2012, people didn't know how to process the Japanese producer's work without a point of comparison. Though Foodman has said he's influenced by footwork and juke, to end the conversation there would be a disservice to his music—a living, beeping collage of disparate plinks and tones. It's a sound that you have to feel your way through. Several singles and a handful of albums after Shokuhin, Foodman's compositions seemed to take up more physical space, culminating with 2016's fully sketched-out Ez Minzoku and the witheringly crunchy "Thicket."
He returns from a semi-hiatus with Pokopoko, the second release on Container's new tape label Plastic Bags. Where some past releases represented a deeper exploration of the textures Foodman uses, Pokopoko introduces new rhythmic conceptions. The opening track is sunny and almost slinky, with low choral tones submerged in the background. "Pokopoko3" and "Pokopoko4" orient themselves pleasantly around synths imagined as quasi-slap bass, the latter track punctuated by a repeated "hey!" and a danceable rhythm.
And then there's some of what will take a few listens to thoroughly absorb: chopped-up organs, MIDI screeches and abrupt pulses of energy. If Foodman was previously using footwork and juke as a way to reflect upon the spaces between individual sounds, it's less clear (if it ever was at all) what his references are here. Several years after his first releases, he's still crafting new ways to move us.
Tracklist01. Pokopoko1
02. Pokopoko2
03. Pokopoko3
04. Pokopoko4
05. Pokopoko5
06. Pokopoko6