aaamusic | On 02, Sep 2013

So our friend Shigeto has released his album, No Better Time Than Now. The main thing that strikes me about this album is that none of the songs jump out at me – and I’m happy about that. He’s not making music to appeal to everyone, he’s not thinking: oh well I like it THIS way, but I better make it more like THIS so that everyone else likes it and buys this song. Sticking to your gut feeling about something is sometimes quite difficult, and I admire him for this; it shows a lot of integrity.

The opening track ‘First Saturn Return’ is almost jazzy, a hint of blues on the keyboards and nice sustained chords. ‘Detroit Part 1′ was released as a single; it’s got a good beat and a nice lounge feel to it. In fact the whole album has. The rhythm of ‘Ringleader’ threw me off a bit as it wasn’t clear until about a minute in, with the pace picking up about a minute later. ‘Perfect Crime’ is quite interesting, but ‘Olivia’ I found slightly boring. I liked ‘Miss U’ because it has the most tune so far, and seems to be going somewhere. It’s got a recognisable melody, which most of the other tracks don’t really have. I’m afraid that ‘Ritual Howl’ didn’t really do it for me, and I’m afraid to say neither did the rest of the album.

However, people look for different things in music: I like a melody and an interesting drum beat, which is why this album maybe isn’t for me personally. But I like it as a whole and would definitely recommend it for background music at a party or something. And I admire Shigeto for sticking to his guns.

★★★★★

Emma Dodds