Graffiti & Rude Boy 67'

As sure as the sun will rise, techno boffins will eventually find their way to dub and jazz. Such is the case for French techno label Logistic, who mark this as their first "downtempo" release. Yet much in the same way Logistic has carefully picked only the absolute best in the techno realm, from Detroit's strong and silent Robert Hood to their Post Office series focused on minimal music from Berlin and the rest of the globe, this release by Japanese musician Yoshihiro Hanno is the absolute best-of its chosen genre, melding jazz, dub, hip-hop and minimalism in a manner tantamount to the music's greatest, including Basic Channel and Pole. Opener "Sexual Fiction" sets the tone right, laying down a brass bed of dub with an indistinguishable rap chopped throughout the bedsprings. "Rock Steady" follows up, with a shockingly haunted key opener that would make Portishead quiver before discordant double bass, guitar and sax join in with the strapped beat that keeps things soothing. Guest vocalist Terry adds just enough melody to the otherwise molecular level beat of "Till the Dawn." African MC Black Crom of the Gabonese Republic proves one again that French is truly the best language of flow so smooth it will aid in digestion. Through all this, Hanno works his atmospheric magic, setting his reverb with the precision of Hitchcock editing a film, marking him as an electronic auteur who deserves the title of master.