Foodman - Yasuragi Land (2021)

Foodman is Takahide Higuchi, raised and resident in Nagoya, a city between Tokyo and Osaka in central Japan. As a musician, the sense of freedom he found in Juke and Footwork in the early 2010's was a formative influence on his music. He channels that spirit and the sense that everything is a rhythm further out than most. He's produced for other artists and he's in a psych-rock / trap duo called Kiseki with Bo Ningen’s Taigen Kawabe, who also guests on the album. He was a teenage busker and he took inspiration on this album from getting together and jamming, something that wasn't possible while he was writing it. Extrapolating that sound and feeling with guitar VSTs, samples, and hyper-rhythmic percussion is at the core of Yasuragi Land.
As you may guess from his moniker, and the artwork to the album, Foodman is also a huge food fan and his instagram is full of culinary delights. This theme and some track titles from the album are inspired by eating at Michinoeki, Japanese motorway service stations and the simple pleasures of regularly visiting the local Sento (Japanese public baths). He writes ‘When I go to these places, i'm able to enjoy the atmosphere. I wanted to create an honest album that combines the sound of guitar and percussion with the sense of peace and community I feel in here amidst the uncertainty of the future. "Yasuragi land" is that place of 'tranquility’.

Unusually for a Hyperdub album, there's no bass. Instead Yasuragi Land is breezy and refined; hyper-rhythmic music, made with a few simple tools, dances around your head.