Ken Ishii - Flatspin

I was perusing the local Book Off the other day, and stumbled across Flatspin by Ken Ishii, promptly snapping it up. I've mentioned before that I quite like his music with its very mechanical sound. A couple of things that I like about this album are that a number of the songs have a way of keeping this mechanical vibe going, but there's this sense of exploration at the same time. "Gap Accelerator" has one melody that and beat that stays prevelent throughout the song, while the track regularly slams to a halt, only to start up again re-invented. "Drums in Friction" has very organic-sounding drums, while the accompanying instruments are anything but (a nice juxtaposition of sounds). Both Mirage and Moonquake make nice use of pads where the first acts as a mellow mid-section to the album, and Moonquake feels like perfect night driving music. "Frozen Reminiscence" is a nice, laid back jazzy track, while Iceblink is more traditional Ken Ishii fair. About the only area that is a bit hit-and-miss for me on the album are three "Flatspinning Loop" tracks that feel more like beats that Ishii liked, but wasn't quite sure what to do with, but put them on the album anyway.

Overall, I very much liked this album, and it'll be sitting on my iPod for quite some time I think. I also picked up Sleeping Madness by Ken Ishii, but more on that in another post.