- A pleasant, if familiar, escape to Balearic shores.
- Soshi Takeda's Floating Mountains from last year played like the greatest hits of the turn-of-the-millennium era, when computer aesthetics were starting to look more realistic but were still distinctly their own thing. His chintzy palette of old hardware synths suggested soundtracks to RPGs like Myst, late '90s or early '00s Larry Heard albums and the Soichi Terada-Shinichiro Yokota intersection of house and video game music. Same Place, Another Time, his new EP for Constellation Tatsu, keeps this sound intact while slowing the tempos down to the gentle crawl of Balearic beat. It's as luxe as anything he's made before, if also a little samier and less striking.
This is slow, soft music, with each hand drum sounding like it's echoed through miles of abandoned mall real estate just to reach our ears. The guitars are set to "wah," the synths lean towards breathy sounds like choirs or pan flutes and the chord progressions are poppy and pleasant. These six tracks are a little chillier than what you'd find on the typical Café del Mar compilation. "Two Weeks Later" jettisons chord progressions entirely to let its minor-key sequencers slither for six minutes. But there's no real tension—nothing that would challenge anyone looking for something to just chill out to for half an hour.
Same Place, Another Time has a more consistent sonic palate than Floating Mountains, but after a few tracks with similar tempos and presets, there's a feeling déjà vu that sets in. It'll be more acute for those who've followed the last decade's Balearic revival, with labels like International Feel and Mood Hut spending years pushing at the musical and emotional possibilities of the style. Same Place, Another Time isn't necessarily better or worse than the music of those crews, but it doesn't expand much on the conversation beyond nudging the thermostat down a few degrees.
Tracklist01. Analog Photography
02. Blue Dress
03. Peninsula
04. Same Place, Another Time
05. Two Weeks Later
06. Flower