Yoshinori Hayashi's productions have been as confounding and unpredictable as his DJ sets, meshing lush, organic textures with fluid, sprawling rhythms and switching genres at will. His discography turned a corner with 2019's Y EP, largely abandoning the downtempo messiness of his earlier material for sharper yet still off-kilter techno and electro tracks. His second full-length,
Pulse of Defiance, is more focused and enjoyable than anything he's done so far, while conforming to no one's idea of a typical dance album. The brief "Callapse" opens the album with a hazy swirl of slow, trippy beats and glowing pianos. The next two tracks are filled with abstract synth melodies and fractured breakbeats that seem to uncontrollably fling off into several directions, finding common ground between trip-hop and free jazz. Then "Touch" is the type of spacy, atmospheric techno that sounds like it's trying to establish communication with aliens, through pounding beats and warm, celestial textures. "Go with Us" has a wobbling bassline and steady rhythm bringing to mind late-'90s electro-breakbeat, and "Morning Haze" seems to shake its way out of a hangover with skipping breaks, lightly meandering synth melodies, and samples that subtly nod to early-'90s rave music. "Flow" dives even deeper into this sound, and then the album's final sequence is more intense than anything
Hayashi has released so far. "Shut Up" is an unexpected venture into breakcore, with distorted breakbeats erupting over a mischievous pulse and a touch of dubby delay scattering things further. "Gallop" is just pure ear candy for the club, filled with playful acid house samples, sparkling rave pianos, and huge, comforting sub-bass. Finally, "I Believe in You" is straight-up jungle to match the best of genre revivalists like Tim Reaper and Coco Bryce, starting with echo-washed roots reggae samples before setting off with high-speed breaks and Star Trek effects.
Hayashi's music can be hard to grasp at first, but it's clear that he's interested in channeling the spirit of all the music he loves while taking it to a different place, and listening to his music is a fun and mysterious experience. ~ Paul Simpson