Tokyo-based electronic producer and graphic designer Taro Peter Little has been releasing tracks as Sabi since the start of the noughties, first emerging back in 2001 with his Colorblind EP on Eerik Inpuj Sound, before going on to drop netlabel releases for Monotonik and Cactus Island, as well as excellent remixes for the likes of Metamatics, Machinedrum and fellow Japanese artists All Apologies. In the wake of his 2008 split album collaboration with Kiyo 71:36, Glued On Thin Memories represents Little’s first true solo longplayer, and sees crafting an immersive and dreamlike collection that fluidly drifts between lush near ambience and more rhythmically energetic broken, glitchy electronics. Opening track ‘Halfspine’ gives good indication as to the abiding gauzy aesthetic here as soft burbling electronics murmur against sharp-focus rattling broken rhythms, robust handclaps rising up in the mix to propel the track forward as harsh bursts of digital noise counterplay off elastic-sounding Moog-y bass rhythms, the addition of tinkling classical keys calling to mind one of Plaid’s elegant yet treacherous arrangements.
By contrast, ‘Three Blind Queens In Cyan’ goes for a more widescreen atmosphere, using the vast wash of field recordings as an ambient backdrop for warm, lurking bass runs and shimmering electronic textures, shortly before the entire track descends into a hypnotic ebb of glittering reverb and tentative synth ripples, while ‘Screaming Bulb’ takes things off on an epic ten minute long ambient wander through shuffling, digitally processed breakbeats and winding Moog bends that manages to piece together a lineage between mid-period Tangerine Dream-style synth-prog and contemporary n5MD-esque glitch-IDM with stellar results. Elsewhere, there’s a remix of Leon Somov’s ‘Mano’ that offers up the one vocally-tinged moment here as rich female soul tones bleed out over a shimmering backdrop of melodic arpeggios and shuffling syncopated rhythms in an atypical Latin-ambient moment that perhaps sits slightly awkwardly against the rest of the original Sabi productions gathered here, before ‘Burning On A Tiny Black Lake’ and ‘Melting Antennas’ blend trailing, classically-influenced keyboards with a wash of soft-focus electronic ambience that calls to mind Harold Budd and Eno’s collaborations with its sense of inexorably slow-burning calm. An extremely impressive solo debut from Sabi that easily represents one of the ambient electronic highlights of this year.
Chris Downton
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