Zurhyrethm

2016 solo debut release from YPY, known more widely as Koshiro Hino, Osaka-based artist, leader of acclaimed Japanese groups Goat and Bonanzas. He recently realized his first large-ensemble piece, Virginal Variations, in Tokyo. Springing up from the Osaka underground club music scene in 2006, Hino is a rhythm master, intimately examining and extending pulses and grooves in his various projects. YPY is Hino's long-running rhythmic solo DNA lab, in which he investigates impulsion and propulsion, using drum machines and synthesizers in an organic and vital manner to create living and evolving percussive biosystems which are more than electronic music etudes. With a strong sense of structure and space, development and dynamics, these pieces have an infectious warmth and humor. YPY utilizes and transcends the technical limitations of his chosen recording medium of cassette tape, and the quirks of relatively primitive drum machines and synthesizers, turning weakness into strength. The seven pieces here were recorded over a number of years and chosen, from a library of over seventy works, in collaboration with renowned Yosuke Yukimatsu. With the title punningly referring to the slippery fragmentation of the music, Zurhyrethm is an enjoyable and intriguing debut.