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Kaito | Special Life

Pagodas of sound to soothe the wounded soul
CD, Kompakt

Tekst: Omar Muñoz-Cremers

Publicatiedatum: 06 november 2002

The new onslaught of single artist albums on Kompakt, also known as the coolest label in the world, has been decidedly working on two distinct levels: Closer Musik and Thomas Fehlman toying with the darker waters of techno while Justus Köhncke and Kaito produce totally different interpretations of pop-in-techno. Kaito at this point in time is the biggest outsider on the Kompakt roster, not so much due to his Japanese nationality as on pure aesthetic grounds. On a series of 12 inches released over the past year Kaito has introduced a sound that has been called both nu-trance and neo-trance. These allusions to trance do make sense, in spite of friendly protests by Kaito in recent interviews, his sound is mainly characterized by the use of the typical pulsating rhythms and melodic sense of trance. Special Life is rife with melodies, little arpeggios and tinkling piano's but Kaito never hammers his point home the way trance has been doing for some years, the pulses and stutters are moved to the background and weaved into a tapestry of sound that is unlike any form of dance music at this moment in that it possesses no dark quality at all. Special Life is pure Apollonian music: orderly, pure and light. Tracks like 'Intension', 'Scene' and 'Release Your Body' slowly shift shape, enchanting melodies spiral into earshot while sudden bass sounds and doubling synth lines produce goose bumps. Best still is 'Everlasting', a more minimalist slice of Kaito's music that creates glimpses of a transcendental river of the mind in which the ego is just a drop, lost. To be honest Special Life can be demanding, the loveliness it presents overpowering but its merits in calculated doses are beyond any doubt. Pagodas of sound to soothe the wounded soul.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/kaito/special-life/2012/
Meer Kaito op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/kaito