Sunday, June 22, 2008

Yasushi Yoshida - Little Grace

Release Date: 04/25/08
Genre: Instrumental

I love not paying attention to music and then having it go in sync with my life. Once I fully engage myself, this album is spectacular. I'm glad he has a new one out. "Secret Figure" was good, but I honestly never had the patient to fully digest it.

Review: So Anoice was my first Japaneses instrumental band, then sgt. completely destroyed every thing Japan had to offer muscially. Bands like mono, toe, té, LITE all felt the same to me even though their name gets throw around in conjuction with good japaneses post-rockers.

I really like Yasushi's calming style. In the opener, "Permanent Yesterday,"

"Thread Still" is a 10 minute song that unfolds gradually building layers and layers.

"Three winters our trace" is a gloomy dark piece. Like I don't know, it's 7 minutes long and it gives me this chilly, "fuck, what am I doing here" feeling in my gut. Reminds me of the later half of Sigur Rós's ( ) album.

Up until then, I was ready to give the album a 7, but the last parts of Little Grace really exceeded my expectations.

The hidden track is the shit

*will finish later

Summary: This album is better. I was expecting more of the same, but this one really connected with me. No, it's not catchy or epic, but he smoothly carries the musical ideas in a nice twirl. If that makes sense. Like I don't get bored with the patterns. This is an great album. No fancy distortion. Just nice crisp sounds.

Key Tracks: Lullaby for Rainsongs
Rating: 7/10