DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

Makoto – Musical Message EP

2002

For the next record in Makoto’s ‘Musical Messages EP’, we have two more of the lively, jazz funked compositions that flourished that Makoto tonic. Of the two tracks for today, the first one is another that you’ll remember from Progression Sessions 6, from the year prior to this release. Bukem and Conrad were releasing those sessions as gospel to the atmospheric and drum and bass community. 

   Going back to the artwork, the labels themselves hold a really nice collection of images. Plate one has the shades of blue with that Makoto lettering and the portrait print too, splashing a slightly darker tint into the color and then on this plate, the darker claw clutching image that looks like two creatures devouring each other. The image on Side D is so incredible, on the way its static position still gives off a movement within its design. I swear it looks like it’s moving at times…and no, I’m not on drugs. 

Gareth explains a bit more about the art:

“Always loved the colours and use of white on this one. At the time, I was exploring various visual themes for MAKOTO, and I liked the idea of his silhouette being presented a bit differently than some of the other artists. The visuals in and around this (and on the gatefold) were all about some kind of abstract floating orbs. They were manipulated images taken of either a super old Mac (?) or this speaker system (?) we had, another case of using everyday objects we were using in the artwork department.”

   ‘Inside Your Love’ has an immediate smirk widening across my face just with those pumping and grooving beats. If you whack this one up loud and close your eyes, you’ll leave the ground and soar up into a viewpoint of breathtaking beauty. The rich soils spread out one way, the dense forests the other and the hills puncture the horizon with a saw like outline. You have the sun directly above you all the way through this tune, casting the smallest shadows and not a cloud to be seen. The breeze blows through and the vibrational waves pick up a new gust of life. There’s no question about it, that tunes like this had a colossal part to play in how the liquid sounds were crossing the plains of the scene. 

   The next track on the EP is ‘You Make Me Feel’ featuring (as with the last track), Takashi Chida on the guitar. Takashi worked on several pieces of music with Makoto, across Good Looking, and Earth. This track is a wonderful piece of music, swinging in one of those humming, background bass lines that I always love hearing on Makoto’s work. The electric stabs, rapid percussion, “you make me feel” vocal and the whisked in cream of the pads, bring a super flavor to this. “Mesmerize”.

   I really do love this one on the EP, as I feel it bridges the gap between Makoto’s most impressive Good Looking work, oiling up his springboard into the new direction of his music. It’s a real peach this. Get down and roast up the floor to the core. 

    Makoto will return in a couple of days time, we have one more fully released EP to review before then. Tomorrow, it’s back to another high frequency artist on the Good Looking label at this time. 

   If my blog is something you’d like to check out, it’s here, so I hope you enjoy reading some of it? A big respects to the many folk who reach out with their enjoyment, reading it. It’s an equal amount of enjoyment putting them together.