NanoSweep 17
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Album Title: Nanosweep 17 |
| Record Label: Nanosounds |
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| Catalog No.: NS-017 |
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| Release Date: December 31, 2013 |
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| Purchase: Buy at Sweep Record |
Overview
NanoSweep is an ongoing series of original music that was initiated in 2004 by various members of NanoSounds and SuperSweep. It usually features members from each of these companies and occasionally a guest composer. This is the seventeenth original album and features compositions by Hiroshi Okubo, Ryo Watanabe, Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, and Takahiro Eguchi, who is once more collaborating with XIO, and debuts by Fumihisa Tanaka, also known as cittan*, from Supersweep.
Body
The album opens up with “Ultra Voyager,” another tune from the collaboration from Supersweep’s Takahiro Eguchi and Japanese hardcore electronic artist XIO. While their last collaboration was definitely a high energy affair, their collaboration on this album is a much less intense composition. It is an extremely beautiful piece of music that focuses on beautiful piano lines, ethereal synthesizer, excellent vocal sampling and manipulation as well as swelling electronic tones underneath a drum n’ bass accompaniment. This is definitely one of Eguchi’s most beautiful compositions on the Nanosweep series. Shinji Hosoe’s “Valve Failure” is definitely more reminiscent of his earlier Nanosweep works. It features exotic vocal samples atop a fairly standard beat. There is a lot of fun things going on in the accompaniment, but compared to some of his recent Nanosweep stuff, it does fall a bit short; however, fans of this style will certainly appreciate it.
Ayako Saso’s “Please leave me alone” is by far one of my favorite Ayako Saso Nanosweep tunes in recent years. I love the blend of big band brass, reggae scat, and electronic beats. While it sounds like a jumbled mess, it goes surprisingly well together with moments where the brass gets to lead while at times, the reggae scat is the focal point with the brass only accentuating the mood. There are also a few moments where she throws in some female vocal samples with a calmer atmosphere to break the tension a bit, but it does feel slightly out of place. Ryo Watanabe’s “DESCENT” is another one of his retro inspired tunes and it is very much like his earlier Nanosweep works. There is a focus on piano chords and they really work well with the lounge-like vibe the groovy electronic components give off.
Hiroshi Okubo also looks into the past with “noboru,” very reminiscent of his earlier dance tunes from the early days of the Nanosweep series. It’s a pretty fun dance tune that gives off a bit of a lounge vibe with plenty of dance claps and some nice synth manipulation going on in the melody line to give it some substance. The album closes with “Addiction [Ctrl + S]” by Fumihisa Tanaka. It’s a very simple downtempo tune, but one that really closes off the album quite well, paralleling the slower opening of “Ultra Voyager.” Beautiful piano, a solid beat, and some vocal sampling dominate the piece and create a really chill vibe.
Summary
In the end, Nanosweep 17 is more a mix of old meets new. For fans of some of the more recent entries in the series, this one may take a step backwards in terms of enjoyment, but there is something here for every fan of Nanosweep and the debut tune by Fumihisa Tanaka definitely has me excited to see what else he might contribute to the series going forward.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
3.5
Posted on February 24, 2014 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on January 17, 2016.
About the Author
Don Kotowski Currently residing in Philadelphia. I spend my days working in vaccine characterization and dedicate some of my spare time in the evening to the vast world of video game music, both reviewing soundtracks as well as maintaining relationships with composers overseas in Europe and in Japan.
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