- It's a good backstory: obscure Japanese producer releases one 12-inch on Chain Reaction back in 2001, never to be heard from again until the two crate-diggers of Demdike Stare somehow get to him. The 2014 release of Butterfly Effect, via Demdike Stare's DDS label, and the subsequent reissue of that excellent first 12-inch, Ship-Scope, won Shinichi Atobe a small but devoted new following for his understated sound, which is reprised on the mini-album World.
Where Butterfly Effect also saw Atobe explore more experimental electronics, World's six tracks are contained to his loop-based rhythm compositions. Good news for anyone into the kind ambient caress found in opening track "Intro"—even better if you're a fan of narcotic house and subliminal techno.
As a minimalist, Atobe practices a deceptively simple melodicism, neatly looped—every track, except the almost purely percussive "World 2," displays some evidence of this. But his main strength is in his sense of rhythm and the way the rhythmic layers interact in elegant, elliptical orbit. Atobe also has an excellent ear for timbre and effects—from the gentle fizz that suffuses most of the tracks (but is different on each), to the dreaminess of his synth choices in "Intro" and "World 4," to the crispness of the latter's hi-hats.
World isn't as varied or adventurous as Butterfly Effect, but it still reaches the high level of quality we've come to expect from a producer we know very little else about. But both albums are mined from Atobe's archive, meaning that there's no telling at what point in the last 20 years any particular track dates from. Perhaps that's a reason that much of his work feels so timeless.
Tracklist01. Intro
02. World 1
03. World 2
04. World 3
05. World 4
06. World 5