Three years after he released the incredible "New Experience EP" (picking up plaudits from Bill Brewster, Tim Sweeney, Laurent Garnier, Horse Meat Disco, Leo Mas & 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft, among many more), Tokyo’s Kota Motomura returns to Hobbes Music for his debut LP, "Pay It Forward". This is the first vinyl release on Hobbes Music since the much-loved "Aranath" EP by Leonidas & Hobbes last Spring. While the label maintains the level of quality control for which it has become recognized, the artist continues to subvert electronic and dance music norms in his iconoclastic way on this extraordinary record.
He’s a mysterious character with an ear for idiosyncratic music that runs the gamut from ambient, exotica and jazz to disco, house and techno via post punk, new wave and funk. It’s highly original and all adds up to a confection perhaps best described as Balearic, despite how tumultuous that word has become of late!
Album opener "Paradise" is a certified jazz-funk jam. Destined for dancefloors worldwide, this one’s been dropping well with DJs, Motomura demonstrating his piano chops alongside Mutsumi Takeuchi’s sax. "Tropical" pushes the boat in a more rhythmic direction, some pretty wild drum programming laced with more sounds of the, um, tropics, before mad vocal yelps suggest something yet more tribal. "To Be Free" initially resembles early 90s progressive house (pulsing bassline, synth-driven melodies), before the arrival of some new wave guitar licks a la classic Talking Heads / David Byrne and ooh ooh vocal chants take it to another dimension altogether.
B-side opener "Emotion" features Takeuchi again (on flute this time) and more vocal chants before things take a dramatic turn, threatening to open up into a full fanfare before calming and then bursting into wild life again. Rhythm flirts with an energy and pace more akin to a techno record: drums, drums, more drums plus a fair few yelps and chants - the kind of DJ tool that will send a simmering dance floor wild in the right hands. "Flower" closes things in a more melancholy style, familiar to fans of "Aboy" from the "New Experience" EP, with plaintive acoustic guitar (performed by Akichi), birdsong and big piano chords.
Support from Bill Brewster, Leo Mas, Al Kent, Red Rack’em, Nick The Record, Phil Mison, Phat Phil Cooper, KZA, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), S/A/M, Dribbler, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail and more…
He’s a mysterious character with an ear for idiosyncratic music that runs the gamut from ambient, exotica and jazz to disco, house and techno via post punk, new wave and funk. It’s highly original and all adds up to a confection perhaps best described as Balearic, despite how tumultuous that word has become of late!
Album opener "Paradise" is a certified jazz-funk jam. Destined for dancefloors worldwide, this one’s been dropping well with DJs, Motomura demonstrating his piano chops alongside Mutsumi Takeuchi’s sax. "Tropical" pushes the boat in a more rhythmic direction, some pretty wild drum programming laced with more sounds of the, um, tropics, before mad vocal yelps suggest something yet more tribal. "To Be Free" initially resembles early 90s progressive house (pulsing bassline, synth-driven melodies), before the arrival of some new wave guitar licks a la classic Talking Heads / David Byrne and ooh ooh vocal chants take it to another dimension altogether.
B-side opener "Emotion" features Takeuchi again (on flute this time) and more vocal chants before things take a dramatic turn, threatening to open up into a full fanfare before calming and then bursting into wild life again. Rhythm flirts with an energy and pace more akin to a techno record: drums, drums, more drums plus a fair few yelps and chants - the kind of DJ tool that will send a simmering dance floor wild in the right hands. "Flower" closes things in a more melancholy style, familiar to fans of "Aboy" from the "New Experience" EP, with plaintive acoustic guitar (performed by Akichi), birdsong and big piano chords.
Support from Bill Brewster, Leo Mas, Al Kent, Red Rack’em, Nick The Record, Phil Mison, Phat Phil Cooper, KZA, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), S/A/M, Dribbler, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail and more…
TRACK LISTING
A1. Paradise
A2. Tropical
A3. To Be Free
B1. Emotion
B2. Rhythm
B3. Flower