Those dismayed by the split of trip-hop godmothers Cibo Matto should find themselves happily sated by Miho Hatori's new recording moniker. While her debut as Miss Information doesn't reach the sublime levels of her former band's underrated masterpiece, Hotel Valentine, it does crackle with the eccentricities of a similar creative fire.
Hatori's sonic DNA resonates in the work, but at its most familiar, Sequence reframes and updates past songwriting ideologies, and at its most alien, it dives headfirst into uncharted waters, exploring thickly layered ambience and abstract noise sculpting between strange and beautiful trip-pop pieces that heavily emphasize the trippier side.
Unfettered from expectation, Hatori sounds freer than ever. And while that makes for a less polished or cohesive listening experience than the more commercially inclined art pop of Cibo Matto, her confident new explorations of the unknown make that experience all the more thrilling, especially when she finds her way to the dirty world psych trap jazz of "Viva! Madrid!" and the majestic, dreamy vapour pop perfection of "Theme."
(Pioneer Works)Hatori's sonic DNA resonates in the work, but at its most familiar, Sequence reframes and updates past songwriting ideologies, and at its most alien, it dives headfirst into uncharted waters, exploring thickly layered ambience and abstract noise sculpting between strange and beautiful trip-pop pieces that heavily emphasize the trippier side.
Unfettered from expectation, Hatori sounds freer than ever. And while that makes for a less polished or cohesive listening experience than the more commercially inclined art pop of Cibo Matto, her confident new explorations of the unknown make that experience all the more thrilling, especially when she finds her way to the dirty world psych trap jazz of "Viva! Madrid!" and the majestic, dreamy vapour pop perfection of "Theme."