Air Ni Ni

Hakushi Hasegawa

Hakushi Hasegawa is without a doubt one the most exciting artists around right now, for me at least. His Somoku Hodo EP was instantly one of my favourite releases ever upon our introduction. The clash of jazz, electronic, and J-pop was thrilling and the attention to detail in the compositions were, frankly, genius level. He's clearly a piano prodigy given the complex chord structures and his agility when moving up and down the keys. However, more than that, he is an insanely talented composer and producer when it comes to all other elements aside from the piano. Just listen to the drums on Somoku. I play drums, and I couldn't have written or programmed anything with that level of intricacy or feel. He can do it all. I've sampled a little bit of this album, which came out the following year, but I just kept going back over and over again to Somoku Hodo. Although, now it's been a little while now since we've had a substantial release from him; just a few one of singles last year and a more piano ballad focused covers album back in 2020. So I felt like I was ready to take on more of Hakushi Hasegawa's music, and I began to really dig in to his debut, Air Ni Ni.

The first half is super strong, and the two opening tracks mirror pretty closely the beginning of his previous EP. Only You is a joyous big band celebration with horn layers and a bit of a jazz shuffle. o(__*) sees the return of those skittering breakcore beats. It's not as bombastic as Doku, but it does feature a nutty keyboard solo followed by an exhilarating crescendo. Despite it being the shortest track, Scary Point is easily my favourite with the hyper-active start/stop passages and the staccato, somewhat glitchy intro riff. Desert returns to the crazy breakcore beats and this time brings the level of intensity that o(__*) was missing. Finishing up the first half of the record, we have Cold Goat which has an absolutely killer groove built once again by tightly performed staccato organs.

From this point on, Hakushi Hasegawa begins to get a little indulgent with the song lengths, but unfortunately doesn't pack enough excitement or musical progression to justify the length. This is especially the case for Stamens, Pistils, Parties, which is not bad track by any means, but I certainly start to lose interest by the end. I enjoy Evil Things a little more because of its enchanting, all-enveloping nature, but at nearly seven minutes in length, it does tend to drag as well. We slightly get back on track with the jovial I Can See Mountains before ending with a solo piano tune (Neutral). It's not the strongest last half, but really, this is due to the high expectations I've set based on the nearly flawless EP. Even though I don't find Air Ni Ni to be as instantaneously catchy in a melodic sense, there is still a lot of flashy playing, and the high attention to detail in the production is still very much here. This album is still something to marvel at.