Shigeto
(Ghostly International)
Zach Saginaw's latest drumming gig is with School of Seven
Bells, one of the better indie-pop bands to arise since Generation Y discovered
the '80s. Onstage, he provides that group with a sneakily great combination of
pure oomph and straight-up technique. But when left to his own devices --
particularly as the electronic act Shigeto -- he's got a
strong hip-hop streak. Full Circle, his first full-length under that
moniker, is a heady blend of slow funk and reconstituted found sounds, but it
never gets tedious.
"Escape From The Incubator," for instance, has the potential to be a 3-minute gimmick, but Saginaw shows admirable restraint: The song begins with some hyperactive telephone tones and old-school video game blips, but before they become trite, he submerges them in a slow, minimalist groove with Asian undercurrents. It's clever, on the whole, because he's careful with the most sonically aggressive elements. And he reverses that West/East relationship on "So, So Lovely," where plunked, gamelan-style notes are subdued by a fat synth riff that wouldn't be out of place on one of Dr. Dre's better grooves. "Brown Eyed Girl," meanwhile, allows all of Saginaw's percussive influences to gather into a beat that recalls Prefuse 73.
Like those songs, the others on Full Circle each have some element of ebb and flow, give and take, or hemisphere-to-hemisphere travel. They don't necessarily begin and end with the same sounds, but they all have a round structure in one way or another. None of it, however, is overly arty; no particular motif -- Saginaw's Japanese heritage, his Ann Arbor, Mich., upbringing, his European travels, his love for his Tascam mini-recorder -- dominates. And it's mostly optimistic. When he dabbles in moodiness ("Relentless Drag," "Children At Midnight," "Look At All The Smiling Faces"), the vibe communicates a calm uncertainty more than outright sadness. Hip-hop only has so much time for brooding, and Saginaw knows it innately.
DOWNLOAD: "Escape From The Incubator," "So So Lovely," "Children At Midnight" JOE WARMINSKY
