KASHIWA Daisuke - program music III

ALL (half) CAPS

KASHIWA Daisuke is back with the third entry in his 'program music' series of albums, typically and consistently as around one hour single tracks forming a similar themed running compilation.  Now that he is on Virgin Babylon Records aside founder Maeda Katsuhiko (world's end girlfriend), it seems he's returned a bit to his post-rock roots of playing guitar, instead of his long running stretch playing keys (on this album handled by Hiromi Kurosaki).  Daisuke still handles the knobs and production, and he describes the newest entry as "expressing everything in my musical activities so far": glitch, electronic, classical, post-rock, et al.  In some sense it almost appears like Maeda Katsuhiko's guitar tendencies of world's end girlfriend have rubbed off on Daisuke and vice versa with Daisuke's pension for glitchy electronics becoming more apparent for Maeda since his inclusion to the label.  

I need to dive back into 'program music II' to see where it fits in the middle, but my first listen of 'program music III' immediately brought me back into the first time listening to 'program music I', in a sense like two trains in opposite directions but parallel.  The track on this entry is called "sons", and a classical slow build turns into something brilliant around 13 minutes in, where his signature sound of these compilations becomes a bewildering and enthralling mix of electronic and classical, punctuated by a smattering of chopped and tagalong aesthetic vocals throughout.  The song lets off of the pedal (literally) for another comedown before entering into a concluding romp that even features a foray into rapping (by SHADI).  

The digital track is $16 dollars which might seem high, and it being included with the CD version for $19 may also seem high, but I would be surprised if anyone would be disappointed in that end result trade off.  Anyone not familiar with his catalogue, I'd definitely encourage and endorse seeking out his music; his works are as excellent as they are unique, even to his own albums.

Digital/CD