Tokyo-based electronic producer/composer Saitoh Tomohiro first formed the curiously named Shreber Harber Mole Flying Wheel alongside fellow bandmembers Yamamoto Shinichiro and Kohno Nagahiro back in 1999, the trio going on to release their debut album Air Comfort through U-Cover in 2004. Since the release of that aforementioned album, 2005 saw the departure of both Shinichiro and Nagahiro, with Tomohiro continuing alone as Shreber Harber Mole Flying Wheel. This debut six track solo EP from Tomohiro under the Shreber Harber… moniker for London label Rednetic Bloom sees the Japanese producer following a delicate downbeat / ambient trajectory, that’s distinctly tinged with a underlying sense of blissful optimism.
Opening track “Fizzle’ certainly provides a more than fitting introduction to the overarching aesthetic in place here, with feather-like rhythms slowly propelling things open from a vast, dubbed out environmental sounds intro that calls to mind mid-period FSOL, into a delicate drift of langorous analogue synth harmonics and rippling background textures that serves to send the listener off into something of a langorous haze, ala ISAN or Boards Of Canada. Just as things threaten to get a little too idyllic however, title track “Bloom’ manages to infuse its beatifically rolling treated harp washes with a underlying sense of crunchy tension thanks to the addition of some welcome growling digital distortion that nicely prevents the noodly ambient electronics on top from getting too self-indulgent. Elsewhere, “Twisted’ sees things returning to the opening track’s lazily planktonic wash, with hypnotically repetitive synth tones wandering against a cycling backdrop of dubbed-out synth zaps and breathlike textures in one of this EP’s most engrossing, headphone-oriented moments, before closing track “Nord’ takes things out amidst warm, glimmering organ keys and skittering broken rhythms in one of this EP’ rare open nods towards jazz-influenced downbeat electronics, and while it’s certainly the most comparatively accessible track here, it neatly avoids any of the overindulgences associated with the above genre. Rather than hitting you over the head with large gestures from the very outset, Bloom proves to be something of a subtle pleasure that grows with repeated listens.
Chris Downton
