A rap song serving as the lead-off number to a label’s special compilation might not seem like usual fare for this blog. Yet rapper Tubaki’s “Soda Water,” the first cut from an album put out by the Pitch Odd Mansion collective, jumps out thanks to a beat far away from the usual boom-bap fare of Japan’s eternal revivalists and the at-times samey attempt at Atlanta sounds many younger artists go for. Rather, Tubaki recruits Avec Avec to create a big gloopy backdrop accented by bell chimes and handclaps, a sound familiar to anyone following the producer’s career but which has up to this point hasn’t been used for hip-hop (give or take a Phoenix And The Flower Girl remix). Yet his lava-lamp-paced approach to music sounds apt for someone to rhyme over, and Tubaki proves it by working over the track just fine. And it is structured in such a way to ramp up the drama within, with passages of more mellow sounds, featuring guest vocals from Yoco. Listen above.
