Purrrrrrrfect Stuff: PARKGOLF’s Cat Walk

This last year has seen a handful of electronic-heavy acts, outfits unafraid to mess around with vocals and tempo to create something that a few have labelled “future pop” because of how left-field it sounds for something capable of topping charts. English acts like AlunaGeorge and Disclosure, Scotland’s Chvrches and Canada’s Purity Ring have been at the forefront of this, but as of late a lot of Japanese producers have been flexing their skills at this sort of sound. Like pretty much every one on Day Tripper Records, especially label head Seiho. Or someone like Carpainter. Or PARKGOLF, a Sapporo artist who has been getting a bit more attention as of late. His new album Cat Walk, out on Maltine Records, cements him as one of the brightest young producers in Japan today at this hyper style.

The bulk of this album is built on synths that speed by and pitch-shifted vocals that are often just a single syllable. The whole album finds PARKGOLF fitting in as much as he can into each song – the title track teases the hip-hop-inspired style of TNGHT but ends up zooming out of that duo’s gravity. What sounds like the album’s most calm cut, “Dream Goes On Forever,” morphs into a footwork-ish number a little over the halfway point. Footwork’s tendency to slice up vocals is a clear inspiration for PARKGOLF, but he hasn’t constructed something that could be slotted next to Picnic Women or Foodman or Paisley Parks. Rather, it’s one detail that makes already fidgety tracks even more jittery, like the neon-soaked “Metropolitan Neapolitan.” This rapid-fire style can sometimes be a bit much in album form…you need some time to breathe, too…but individually, these tracks are lovely hyper-pop. Get it here.