- "Zurhyrethm" is an incoherent jumble of drum machine sequences that's perfectly encapsulated by its quasi-gibberish title—you can make out rhythms in the fray, but they're almost beyond interpretation. As the title track and opener of Koshiro Hino's first non-cassette album as YPY, "Zurhyrethm" is also a useful analog for the Osaka-based artist's curious electronic music. According to a recent interview, it's the first track he made as YPY in 2012, and its title is a pun of "zure rhythm," which is Japanese for "rhythm out of sync." The ten-minute piece spends most of its time wedging square pegs into round holes, shaving off edges, carving in corners or finding new angles where pure force won't do. But then, roughly three quarters in, the chaos starts to cohere and something like a groove emerges.
Listening to "Zurhyrethm" is like trying to see the hidden image in a Magic Eye poster for the first time: you'll want to look for it again and again. And Hino's album does offer other chances at grasping the ungraspable ("Mild Mind Bending" is a highlight in that regard), at least when it's not veering towards anarchy. Previous YPY releases—including this year's The Rusted U.F.O.—imbued Hino's beats with more texture and melody, but Zurhyrethm experiments mostly with percussion, often favoring rhythmic abstraction over dance floor structures. When the techno stormer "Bugs Groove" finally shows up five tracks in, its rugged, rolling kicks and noisy snares feel like the colossal center of gravity around which Zurhyrethm spins.
These seven tracks were apparently drawn from a pool of 70, selected entirely by EM label boss Koki Emura and Yousuke Yukimatsu, an Osaka DJ and close friend of Hino's. "The ones that I think are the best are all left out," the artist told Juno. "I gave them no request for the selection. I just left my tunes to them and waited for the result... It feels like it turned into EM's piece rather than mine while I was away." Though it's hard to say exactly what he means, his current interest in techno could offer some explanation: recent productions like "Shadows," "Bad Life" and "The Bended U.F.O." are unadulterated dance floor fire. As an archive of bewildering drumwork, Zurhyrethm is irreplaceable. But after hearing what Hino can do with techno formats, you can't help but want more.
Tracklist01. Zurhyrethm
02. Mild Mind Bending
03. RIP 505
04. Gazing Beat
05. Bugs Groove
06. Doo Dah Dah
07. Dreams