Tokyo producer mus.hiba has mainly worked with digital singers over the last few years. In particular, he’s favored Sekka Yufu, a Vocaloid character whose digi voice has been like snowflakes falling over his fever-dream-ish arrangement of synths. For “Hitomi,” though, he’s working with flesh-and-blood singer Abigail Press, from Brooklyn for his forthcoming full-length debut on netlabel Bunkai-Kei records. mus.hiba himself remains pretty unchanged – he’s still creating woozy, slow-motion backdrops that feel like pharmacy-issue medicine dripping down a wall. But now this slow-burn is joined by singing and words – his use of Sekka Yufu was always treated as another instrument, one that rarely said anything coherent and was more often another sound rippling across the surface. Press, though, comes through loud and clear and adds warm humanity to the song (even more so than the time he teamed up with bo en) that makes this one all the better. Listen above.
