4 out of 5

Label: VHF

Produced by: Makoto Kawabata

Mesmerizing.  Contemplative and driving, Makoto’s first Inui release – long-playing drone solo works – reissued by VHF, is, for those with taste for this kind of many-instrumented, patient, minimalism, a must-own example of tiny touches adding up to a massively impactful whole.

Opening on the haunting Shin, floaty vocals and middle eastern touches morph through 11 minutes of ebb and flow.  This is echoed on closer Son, though slight tweaks – guitar is more present, raga elements are not – give the track a shinier, perhaps more celebratory vibe, burbling along for 21 minutes.  In between we get the totes drone Tai, which is the only note of the listen that loses me a bit, even though it’s the shortest track.  For the majority of its runtime, it’s simply unchanging in pace or structure, a guitar plucking back and forth.  In its final passage, Makoto starts to let layers build and build to something powerful, but it’s a tad too late in the song to really hit home.