Lambent

We’re not sure how Lambent ended up in Berlin from his native Japan, but his locale has had a bit of an effect on his sound. He’s not following the nu rave trend or anything. He says the inspiration for his sound comes from an island in Japan called Ishigaki. The weird thing is Lambent has never been there. It just inspires him. If that’s not in the samurai spirit, I don’t know what is. On the most recent release, 2010’s The Moon Comes Closer Compilation. Lambent augments the sounds of nature with staggering synths and drum beats. You’ll hear flowing water and gusts of wind suddenly get hit with a storm of synthetic sound. Each track is a walk through the park during the robot apocalypse. Check out “Biscuits” as well for a foray into his ambient genius.

The hip hop beat has gone in a million directions since its boom bap origin, and weird bloopy ambient sounds make more of an appearance daily. Sure, a few producers are leading the way (Flying Lotus, Daedelus, Tokimonsta), but the best Japanese producer in Berlin, Lambent, is taking it to new levels of warped abstraction. It’s head-bobbing music for anyone with a quadruple-jointed hydraulic-mechanical neck.