Image: 100% Silk
When Japan’s Soshi Takeda set out to create a collection of tracks inspired by painted Chinese landscapes and the changing of the seasons using only vintage analogue machines,”balearic” may not have been the most immediately apparent description for what he set out to create. But then, across Floating Mountains it’s impossible to miss the breezy chill of the sound of Ibiza, albeit dressed for a Final Fantasy convention as the music straddles a strange midpoint between laidback house and retro video game vaporwave. This makes for a whimsy elevator ride to the snowy peaks of Takeda’s fantasy land, one which is instantly distinct from his previous work. While Memory of Humidity exists along the same lo-fi spectrum, that work is decidedly more ‘adult,’ full of sensual textures and steamy, mellow rhythms while Floating Mountains is far more fantastical in comparison.
Using only gear that’s reportedly no younger than thirty years old, it’s impossible not to harken Floating Mountains’s sound back to the most popularised use of these instruments in mainstream culture; video games. In particular, those quasi-futuristic race tracks or pixelated alien quests whose looping, lo-fi soundscapes are part of the reason why we have an entire generation whose concentration hinges on endless streams of Lo–fi Hip–Hop Beats To Study/Relax To. Floating Mountains kicks things off with a simmering house beat that has a distinct skip in its step and an electronic pan-pipe arpeggio, while Floating Fish oscillates between a slow burning conga soul groove and waves of glowing ‘choose your player” ambience. Quarry occupies a similar ambient space, with an almost tropical, dub beat beneath it. Lantern Reflection combines percussive patterns of both live and machine drums, easily the most outwardly upbeat track on the record that feels the most informed by the stylistic motifs of 90’s house. Hidden Wave, meanwhile, is the most vaporwave/retro arcade sounding of the collection, a crystalline, airy composition of chords and programmed wind instruments that conjures feelings of liminality in its half-sleepy meditativeness. It’s something that could potentially be left on loop for hours, quietly tethering itself to the background noise of reality.
The music Takeda formulates here is highly evocative. They’re soundscapes that have the potential to inspire dreamscapes, and in some ways they feel more programmed for deep, transcendental meditation rituals rather than the dance floor. Still, Takeda’s tracks twinkle with a sense of playfulness and whimsicality that saves his world from lapsing into new age fodder, inspiring a childish hubris that’s delightful to behold and experience.
Floating Mountains is released via 100% Silk. Download it here, and listen to the title track below.
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