Shuta Hasunuma

So often, glitch is portrayed as cold, clinical music that tries to get in the way of a good time and a natural emotional response. Not so with Shuta Hasunuma's music. His previous album was constructed from the unimpeachably warm tones of bamboo-generated sonics, and his optimistic compositional style continues here. The palette this time is full of bells, pizzicato strings and tiny synth blurbs, with nary a long reverb setting to be found. Hasunuma finds a nice balance between the often-bloodless optimism of indie glockenspiel usage and the dense and disorienting non-linearity inherent to glitch. Vocal content, in the form of well placed snippets, is highly suggestive of folk/pop cadences but never spells out anything concrete. Hasunuma knows when to back off and let silence speak, as in the two-part "The Play." Pop Ooga Plus is a dynamic yet relaxing drift into warm weather and exurban environments while at the same time bridging freak folk and post-Aphex-ian drill'n'bass.