How to count one to ten – Method Of Slow Motion (2014)

How to count one to ten, the Kyoto based five-piece instrumental face of algorithmic harmony, delicately restates the parameters of musical professionalism with Method of slow motion, the newest release since 2012’s Blue Building Blocks. Clarity: clean guitars, keys, bass, and drums hold this crystal palace of a structure together, all dimensions pronounced and ignited with deliberation emanating through every palm mute and stick-click.

I get the sense that this album celebrates the magical realism of novelist Haruki Murakami (who happens to be based in Kyoto) with stream of consciousness-like dreamy passages, paired with song titles representing real yet unrecognizably peaceful things that contain some potential for terror: ‘swimming pool’, ‘parade’, and ‘balance’. The nine tracks of Method of slow motion seem to have an affinity for unalienable progression, resembling that of Enemies‘ Embark, Embrace. Riff and groove transitions are fluid and intuitively complex. ‘swimming pool’ is an elegant interplay of inspiration and sonic majesty, each individual note complemented by following swing. If I knew Japanese I would examine the 11 and a half minute ‘mathematics:re’, but for now all I can really do is point.

Like their regional contemporaries Toe and LITE, How to count one to ten are inoffensive and polite in style, and Method of slow motion is a collection of work that should not be passed up. Method Of Slow Motion is described by the band as a ‘fusion of rakugo and radio drama to post-rock. Storytelling, almost like hip hop rapping, is converted into a radio drama form and constructs a fresh world view‘. This album should be treated as a piece of art, check it out and see if you can find a statement.