DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

Makoto – Situations EP

2000

As we venture along these reviews and continue listening to this music on this socially strange but physically beautiful planet of ours, the music seems to bond somewhere in between the two, which keeps the occasional wobbly plates of sanity, spinning. Music provides us a level of clarity and meaning providing a place for the palette of emotions. For me, since I could walk, it’s always been a powerful tool that feels its way through you and sends you on an infinite number of directions, while the world around seems focused on one at a time. The difference is, the places you travel remain yours and no one can remove them, criticize them or change them. Sounds, vibrations and molecules. Your experiences. 

    Makoto is back with his first of 2.5 EP’s in this series, following the 1999, 12” release ‘Enterprise / Sweet Changes’ on GLR036. The Japanese electronic workhorse was pushing a glittering amount of music with both down tempo (Earth Records) and drum and bass quality, out to the world and this EP, for me, wet the beaks of many with its energy and dynamic flavour. The added lift that this EP received was the inclusion of two of its tracks on LTJ Bukem’s ‘Progression Sessions 5’ mix, with MC’s Conrad and DRS. The music really takes the calmer water from Makoto’s deeper work and cranks up the machine with the tracks here. 

   It’s also worth noting that two of the tracks are written by Akira Shimizu who is Makoto’s brother, and is duly included as the artist on those pieces. What a fine musical duo!

    Nick Purser shows more of that striking imagery with his artwork. While we have our heads ducking as the airliner roars over us on the front and back covers of this sleeve, it’s the silent and still inside gatefold that returns us to the meditative calm. The bold orange and red colours reel in the Eastern Sun and we have Nick’s plant life back in its effective manner. It’s a cover that always pushes my heart rate up a little when tipping it out the shelf. 

Here’s the backstory by Nick Purser:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17y7xKNNiW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

   Shane McEnhill at Tape to Tape (I think it was Heathmans Mastering very soon after this release, in April 2000) is on mastering duties, adding that finely finishing touch to the product. The sound is mint. 

   Track one on Side A is ‘Innerself’. The strings alone in this track are enough to send your spine into eclectic chills, leading this air of smooth suspense. Everything about Makoto at the peak of his powers, is in this track, and within every one of the tunes on this EP. Harmonious bars and key changes, develop a world that Makoto sent hurtling toward us, encasing us with this symphonic taste of inward manifestation and outward beauty. Tracks like ‘Innerself’ showcase the sunset of Makoto’s most prolific and heartfelt work, prior to his post millenial projects which swept in more live jazz and less deep synth and orchestral pieces. Revisit this one and let your spirit soak in some of Makoto’s most infectious and mind blowing musical moments. 

   On the flip side is ‘Skyward’ on Side B. This track was featured on Progression Sessions 5, and for those that have that CD you know how bloody impressive this track is. Written by both Shimizu’s, Makoto and his brother, Akira, ‘Skyward’ raises the game in so many ways. Take the stacked clouds of intense rage and watch as this tune disperses them with an expanse of white hot light, freeing up a vast blue sky that then beckons you up, into a high velocity launch, up and out into a darting, brain exploding layer of the atmosphere that sits somewhere between two worlds. The beats send the chaotic ricochets of fused energy into overdrive, the funked up electro bass, and then the breakdown that resets the whole track again into a different key, and fits the pieces into this fucking masterpiece of music. To say this is not only one of the most monumental pieces in Makoto’s catalogue, but the whole GLR label, is an understatement. 

   All you have to do is listen to this and have the artwork on the sleeve to look at while it plays and something truly magical happens inside you. Pure heaven. 

   The next two tracks on this EP are up next.