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New Seiho: “Triangle”

During this blog’s slight vacation from…existence…Seiho shared a new song that found him working with rapper 5lack. It’s solid, and a nice reminder that Seiho really does play well with others, but it also felt a bit more straightforward, especially in the wake of his “Star Guitar” but for Millenial Burnout masterstroke from earlier this year. Maybe it was just this lingering fear that one of the decade’s most intriguing electronic artists would just become a beatmaker for B+ rappers, a path that is fine but a little bit deflating given everything Seiho’s produced before.

Well, no worries for the moment at least, as Seiho is releasing a split EP with longtime collaborator/influence Matthewdavid* in early November. Advanced number “Triangle” is Seiho returning to his discombobulating take on sound, turning vocal snippets into airy gushes and matching synth notes that sound weightless against clattering drum beats (also…check those hoots lurking in the backdrop. Layers!). It’s woozy, but everything clicks just right to create a song that works both as one piece bouncing along and as something allowing for zeroing in on specific details. Most importantly, it’s Seiho front and center. Listen above.

*someone remind me to share the story about the time I became Matthewdavid’s last-second tour manager-lite during one of his Japanese jaunts, that was a weird four days but fun!

New Seiho: “I Lost Myself in His Car”

I Feel Tired Everyday” nailed a certain feeling of exhaustion so well, and did so with surprising deftness. It’s “Star Guitar” as imagined by someone going through Millenial burnout, though even they can at least have glimpses back to the more fun times. “I Lost Myself in His Car” still does plenty on the mood front, but the latest from Seiho in a year that is shaping up into something special prioritizes form. Not long ago, Seiho was really getting abstract, peaking with 2016’s Collapse. Those songs featured plenty of twists and turns, with beats often sliced out entirely. “I Lost Myself in His Car” offers up something just as prone to new twists, but does so well maintaining a beat throughout. From quieter stretches to full-on release, this one doesn’t get too heady, making sure the body is always engaged. Listen above.

Kid Fresino And Seiho Team Up Again For “720”

Rapper Kid Fresino and Seiho teamed up last year for the latter’s “Cherry Pie,” a number that found the prior navigating a track that sounded like a swarm of electronic bees. It was an effective pairing — I’ll go as far as to say that, personally, it is the best Kid Fresino has sounded — to the point where it got slightly reworked for last years Ai Qing, where the buzzing cacophony got scaled back a bit and still managed to be (alongside another Seiho-produced number) the highlight of a pretty uneven listen marred by one real big optics mistake (nobody in the room raised their hand? C’mon). Thankfully, Fresino calls on Seiho once again for “720,” a collab with Nike tied to the titular shoe that manages to rise above the sponcon origins. Seiho delivers a gripping beat that goes from gurgling electronics to spacious ambient passages, and Fresino melds right with it, even delivering some good lines about the end of Heisei that match the rising and falling drama of the music. Listen above.

New Seiho: “I Feel Tired Everyday”

Part of me just wants to point at that title and be like “eyyyy me too!” But…why? The key to the latest song from electronic artist Seiho comes from his choice to underline “tired” as the condition this track captures. Have all the fuzzy anime GIF loops you want — tiredness isn’t sitting in bed, it is moving from point A to point B before squishing into a train to go to point C. It’s staying up all night to try to find escape in a club but ending up at Fuji Soba before first train, head ready to fall into noodles. Seiho exists somewhere in that latter world, and right-clicking that “song info” option on Apple Music (our streaming overlords…offer some perks! I feel tired everyday) hints at where his mind might have been while putting this one together:

“I Feel Tired Everyday” is in constant motion, and a lot of the sounds Seiho has turned to in the past appear once again. This isn’t pure exhaustion…you can have fun while breaking down after all, and this one moves and bounces, with some late number passages being among the perkiest bits of music he’s offered up in recent memory (though for pure pleasure, turn to the “Weekend Version” on streaming, which swaps out the vocals tripping over themselves in favor of crystalline synths). But even in these moments of escape, a nagging exhaustion tugs at the song, which is Seiho’s masterstroke here. You can always be shooting forward…but everything can blur together and feel disorienting all the same. Listen above.

New Seiho: “Tear Off The Dress”

Seiho has moved in so many different directions over the last few years. He’s hit on abstract jazz and, most recently, rumbling electronic music…and that’s not counting his various pop-related productions.”Tear Off The Dress” finds a midway point between most of those styles. The horn toots meld just right with the warped vocal samples dripping all over the place, and pretty quickly Seiho ratchets up the intensity in a way that brings to mind “Purple Smoke.” Yet no one side dominates “Tear Off The Dress,” resulting in a nice mix between sides of Seiho. Listen at your preferred streaming service.