Hidetoshi Koizumi – Number Face is not your ordinary Techno music album. Rather, its 13 otherworldly and often unsettling instrumental tracks see their composer fusing Japanese Ambient, Electronica, and Techno music, and as a result, creating a sound that is almost impossible to categorize.
Born in Saitama, a city in the southeast of Japan, Koizumi had lessons in classical piano from a young age but found his loyalties had switched to the more mysterious world of Techno by the time he reached his teens. Digging deeper into the world of electronic music he later found he had a passion for creating sound collages featuring samples of everyday sounds, something reflected both in his debut album Signal, which was released in 2022, and this release Number Face, which came out at the end of last year.
At an hour and fifteen minutes long, Number Face isn’t a quick listen, and the experimental nature of many of its tracks means it isn’t made to be background music either. One of the more immediately accessible moments is the fourth track Phantom, which establishes a solid rhythm early on, before gradually moving the focus onto waves of hazy, shadowy synthesizers and constantly shifting bleeps of percussive melody. Bule Core – a track from later in the album – has a similar feel, although at eight minutes long, its growth is much more gradual. Its ever-evolving electronic patterns mean that it feels barely a second too long, and by the end of the track, you’re listening to the choir-esque pads and plaintive piano and wondering how the warped beats of the introduction morphed into something so calming and serene. For those more familiar with the world of Ambient music and who are more than happy to dive into the less conventional sides of Hidetoshi Koizumi – Number Face, meanwhile, head straight for Border and Psychopath, the chattering samples and eerie feel of which make you feel as though you’re a fly on the wall in an unfamiliar place, a barely detected stranger listening in.
This album might not be your ordinary electronic release, but that’s arguably what makes it such worthwhile listening. In fact, if you’re a fan of any aspects of Japanese Ambient, Electronica, and Techno music, you really can’t go wrong.
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