Maju, "Maju-5"

Sakana Hosomi and Masaki Narita's fifth album as Maju finds them exploring meditative territory with electronics. While much of the material is atmospheric, they also use textural layers to give their compositions a captivating emotional resonance.

 

Extreme

The album gets off to a slow start. "Line" meanders with clicks, feedback, and awkward thumps before settling into a subtle melodic loop. Unfortunately, the monotonous preamble blunts its effectiveness. "Meguro" is better with its wavering drones and simple yet elegant recurring melody, but the pops and clicks that dot the track are too distracting for it to be completely enjoyable.

However, the album gets a lot better starting with "Fbk1," which uses prolonged hums, distorted sounds, and hazy pitches to create music that's peaceful and absorbing. "Fbk2" uses similar ingredients but the result is more like an underwater dream. "Recaptcha" is the album's most frenetic track with its rapid looping melody, yet it still retains the contemplative beauty found on the album's better compositions.

The best parts of the album weave together effortlessly. While the first two tracks seem out of place, the rest of Maju-5 is nearly flawless.