99LETTERS MACHINE

Here's something noisy. Cause, you know, sometimes you need something noisy and boisterous to purge your mind of those tiniest of feelings that can really do a number on your mood, like small occurrences that can - albeit irrationally - ruin a perfectly good day. So something that can knock some sense into you is a good thing. Music can do the job of that proverbial "knock", though, cause we don't wanna get too violent with our good selves do we? No.

So here is 'Machine' by 99LETTERS - an Osaka-based DJ and producer who spends his time between Japan and France, real name Takahiro Kinoshita (or just Taka). According to his SoundCloud page, he's made music since 1998, beginning the process using a Gameboy for its sounds. But everything evolves, does it not? And now what supposedly began as chiptune style stuff has grown into some pretty hectic dance music with more than a little nod to the industrial side of techno. That, at least, is what I hear in 'Machine', which is 99LETTERS' latest single & offering to the ears of the world.

The song, aptly enough, starts with the sound of some machine or mechanical process - the perfect little intro to what is a relentless grinding of buzz-saw bitcrushed bleeps, a shower of rapid-fire sparks of distortion. That is underpinned with a beat that at first combines well-rounded kick with almost-out-of-time hi-hat flourishes, later extending to the sheer fizz of open hi-hats alternating with a fat, whip-like snare. It grows with intensity after a break that pummels you with ear-crunching low-low synth like digital gravel or the spirit of chiptune awakened through a séance with a blender as the medium. Or something. Indeed, the Taka himself says that part of this song was created by "some sampling with my gameboy."

It's lively and does not pull any punches, laying itself out from the start as a track fully intended to get the blood racing. More of that crunchy bass appears at the end, until the track fades out but whether or not this is because the SoundCloud stream is promotional, or if it is actually intended, I don't know. In any case, it will be out soon (???) on Japanese dance music label, House Studio-R.

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