Shigeto
Lineage
Release Date: Jan 31, 2012
Genre(s): Electronic
Record label: Ghostly International
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Album Review: Lineage by Shigeto
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 3.5/5
Teebs, Shlohmo, Shigeto. They all make music that sounds so short and pleasant that you can't call them songs. They're more like interludes that perfectly soundtrack things like your walk to the bank, a wait in line for coffee or the moments you lie awake in bed before falling into a deep sleep. They don't make albums.
Based on rating 6.8/10
Above all else, Zach Saginaw respects heritage. Shigeto, his primary alias for recording homespun electronic music, is not only his middle name but also that of his grandfather; another of his aliases, Frank Omura, is a reference to his familial bloodline. Running through his past two releases, 2010's full-length Full Circle and his latest mini-LP, Lineage, is a series of songs titled "Ann Arbor", after the Michigan town that he grew up performing music in (another track off the latter, "Huron River Drive", takes its name from a stretch of road in Ann Arbor).
Based on rating 6/10
By embellishing field recordings from his personal life with loose grooves and homespun digital lushness, Zach Saginaw has established his Shigeto moniker to be just as much a standard-bearer for lovingly-crafted, thoroughly-modern instrumental hip-hop as a highly-personal affective historiography project. Indeed, both his debut LP Full Circle and its mini-LP follow-up Lineage represent abstract tributes to the time his Japanese relatives spent forcibly inhabiting internment camps during World War II. Only liner notes and artist profiles provide that information explicitly, though: Even the most organic parts of Shigeto’s seductive collages only bear vague resemblance to any Earthly time or place.
Opinion: Excellent
With his latest mini-album, Shigeto (aka Zach Saginaw) attempts to redraw the lines of connection back to his family origins in Japan and simultaneously to his musical roots as a jazz-obsessed drummer growing up in Detroit. Jazzier and more drum-centred than previous work, Lineage is rich with live instrumentation, including organ, percussion and sporadically even subtle use of his voice, creating a warmer, more organic sound. Despite the different styles explored, from hip-hop to funk and folk, the jazz influence and carefully restrained sound palette hold it together as a fully cohesive album throughout its 29-minute lifespan.