- Antinote prizes a personal touch: for a time, the label only released music from friends or associates in Paris. That changed when Okayama-based producer Inoue Shirabe debuted on the label last year, but the spirit of intimacy remains. Shirabe daubs his house music with a noirish, post-euphoric glow, and he brings that cosiness to the fore on Achromatic Illusion.
"Function Spring" is an attractive tangle of melodies and countermelodies, where synthetic sounds—resembling organs, flutes and electric guitars—twine together in neatly complex patterns. The percussion is straight and subdued, doing just enough to frame a twilight mood. On the flip, a staggered four-note bassline helps make "Gravitation Of Acidtree" the punchier tune, but Shirabe's delicate tastes still express themselves in gossamer idiophones and a smooth, flickering acid sequence. The producer takes a soft approach to his percussion, too—the snares splash from a distance, the shakers scuff and spit deep beneath the mix. As on "Function Spring," "Gravitation Of Acidtree" can treat its melody too deferentially, as if trying to stay out of its way. Shirabe needn't be so reticent. When his music gets confrontational, as it did on the squealing shoegaze of 2015's "Ysyeyxy," it's even more alluring.
TracklistA Function Spring
B Gravitation Of Acidtree