- Okayama's Keita Sano specialises in having no specialty, zig-zagging deviantly across the house and techno spectrum. This year alone he has clocked up some half-dozen releases, including an 11-track cassette for 1080p, each with its own line of enquiry. What binds it all together is Sano's inventiveness. Though his creations by no means lack technical proficiency, Sano doesn't seem so bothered about finessing them—he just poses a fresh set of questions and then moves on.
This EP for Athens' Lower Parts label plumbs the darker depths of Sano's sound, and presents an abundance of imagination. Contrast the title track, where a skipping beat locks into a tug-of-war with globules of bass, with the aptly titled "7AM," a sleepy dub techno track flushed with dawn light. Both are skillful executions of wildly different ideas, and are made all the more interesting for being thrown together on the same 12-inch. "Chaotic Death Strike" is the EP's best moment, its graceful feedback trails floating over a desolate house thud like a post-nuclear Levon Vincent. "VvvXvvV" is the weirdest, a doomy, down-pitched drum loop out of Actress's Ghettoville that slowly acquires a bit of house shimmy. It's more intriguing than totally convincing, but, like everything Sano does, Marin California elevates "intriguing" to a high art.
TracklistA1 Marin California
A2 Chaotic Death Strike
B1 7AM
B2 VvvXvvV