Bleep

Forging a new path in his career, Osaka-based producer Takahiro Kinoshita returned to his 99LETTERS project in 2021. Having released heavy-hitting house records throughout the 2010s, the indoor migration of lockdown forced a new perspective as Kinoshita turned to his home country for inspiration, pairing traditional Japanese instruments with four to the floor rhythms on the resulting IBUKI 息吹. Now one year later, he dives even deeper into the concept with Kaibou Zukan, and (while the driving beats remain) largely leaves his “gagaku techno” behind for an otherworld of more abstracted soundscapes.

The title “kaibou zukan” can be translated as “anatomical picture book” or “guide”; as such, these are anatomical excisions of Japanese instruments, with koto, shakuhachi, and taiko drums all surgically shredded through Kinoshita’s processing and production. The album also verges on diaristic, its conception within the four walls of the home evident in tracks like ‘Magoraga 摩睺羅伽’, where the boxed in feeling of small room reverb traps murky wails in between lurching electro rhythms, accompanied by the low hum and hiss of domestic appliances.

‘Owaranai Osaka 末終大阪’ opens with the howling winds of coursing, serrated bass, revolving around sharp bursts of retextured instruments. Tracks like ‘Shibun Goretsu 四分五裂’ and ‘Shishimai 獅子舞’ (or “lion dance”) land on the beat-heavy side, with their wonky hip hop-adjacent rhythms bouncing along to tribal drums and anxiously arpeggiated plucks. ‘Mano Hikari 真野光’ meanwhile is frazzled with submarine thuds and scintillating flares, its dark, weighted rhythm contrasted by collapsing waves of light.

99LETTERS lends his raw production to hushed and harsh meditations on club music and traditional Japanese sounds with Kaibou Zukan.