FLATPLAY releases advance single from 1st album “the Attitude for Prayers”

After about 6 years, Sohei Shinozaki’s solo project, FLATPLAY, has finally released his work “the Attitude for Prayers”.

After releasing a single song or several singles since their 1st EP “First Extendet Play,” this is their first work with a large number of songs, and moreover, their first album-sized work. FLATPLAY started out as a noise unit, but by the time the name was established, they had become a techno unit. He has gradually gained recognition through these activities, including providing remixes for DAN’s self-produced sound collections “DAN ZINE” and “EP” and participating in live performances as a support member of DAN since 2019, and released his 1st EP in 2018. “First Extended Play” was released.

He develops minimal techno with clear sounds layered in dubby, reminiscent of the collaboration between Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, which he said he was impressed with, or the sound of the famous techno group KOMPAKT from Cologne, Germany. . After that, he continued to release EPs, starting with “Scarp” in May 2020, “Slightedge” with 3 songs including a collaboration with Altone in September of the same year, and “Echidna” with 2 songs in 2021. He continued to perform live and DJ in the underground club scene. And here’s the thing: In terms of volume, it can be said to be the first album-sized work. To put it simply, the sound of this work can be said to be a work that approaches more minimal dub than “First Extendet Play” without losing its clear and delicate sound resolution. They have shown glimpses of this in their previous works, such as 2020’s “Slightedge,” but this is the result of further deepening their sound.

“Beginning Dub,” which can be called the intro to the album, reveals what kind of sound the album is aiming for. A reggae-like one-drop rhythm crawls on the ground, and his signature clear synth sound floats above it, accompanied by delicate echoes. This direction is shown in the middle of the album, with the melodica (keyboard harmonica) feature “the Attitude for Prayers” and its dub version, “the Attitude for Prayers II”, followed by “Skaavii”. In the late 1990s, Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’s Basic Channel fused reggae and techno, following the rhythm and sound style of electronic dub, which can be said to be an invention of electronic music. It can be said that it is a new expression spun through Shinozaki’s FLATPLAY filter, including the presence of clear sound texture that can be said to be his trademark.

However, in addition to this minimal dub-like sound, there are energetic and danceable minimal techno tracks that are even better than First Extendet Play, such as “Spirytus”, “You Got an Invisible Body”, and “How” in the second half of the album. to Play Well (the Case of lzabella)” and the last song “Massive Chimpang”.

However, the dub processing on these danceable techno tracks has been constructed with even more delicate control than before, and this work consistently shows the sound creation of this work, which has greatly deepened the steps in this sonic approach. .

Text by Yusuke Kawamura