About

Until May 1, 2024, Shinichi Atobe was a man of mystery. That was when the Tone Glow newsletter published the first-ever interview with the Japanese techno artist, in which he explained that he simply had not given any before because nobody had ever cared to ask. However, it is easy to see why people liked to think of him as an elusive figure: following his 2001 EP Ship-Scope for Chain Reaction, he went radio silent for 13 years before returning with an album for Demdike Stare’s DDS label, the first in a flurry of records that appeared more or less every two years without much comment from the artist himself. It turned out there was not much of a mystery, but at least this meant that Atobe’s music was always allowed to speak for itself.

Silent Way is his seventh album since his unexpected comeback and a classic Atobe record from the moment the tape starts to hiss in the intro. Then come the bouncy kickdrums, the intricate chords and the swirling melodies. Much of Silent Way does not necessarily sound different from anything that came after 2020’s Yes. This is a dreamy yet groovy take on dub techno that prioritises radiant joy over the genre’s usual sombre introspection. However, Atobe takes some licence towards the end of the record with the almost 12-minute downbeat beauty 'Rain', the Drexciyan short piece 'Syndrome' and 'Fractal', a tune that sounds like his very own rendition of Underground Resistance’s 'The Final Frontier'.

Silent Way does not in fact feed on a sense of mystery, but feels familiar and comforting. However, it also recalibrates the coordinates for Atobe’s musical journey ever so slightly, as if slowly opening a new chapter. — (via HHV Mag)

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Silent Way commemorates a seamless yet noteworthy change in Atobe’s career. It’s his first full-length to be released on his own label, Plastic & Sounds, rather than on Demdike Stare’s DDS, whose long-running partnership with Atobe—maintained through airmailed CDs—played an integral part in publicizing both his unique sound and his taciturn character. Plastic & Sounds launched with a flurry of 12" singles through the back end of 2025, tracks that follow closely in the wake of 2024’s Discipline: dubby, uptempo odysseys in a constant state of flux, delays and metered oscillations teasing bubbly synth leads in and out of twilight. Silent Way continues in this tack while finding room for more reflective work to pad between the highs. Lead single “Rain 1” is a break-driven beat dotted with crystalline chimes, occasionally giving way to brusque melodies that peter out as though half-remembered. In its length and relative stasis, the piece takes on a neurotic, obsessive quality; like a ghost, it retraces its routine endlessly, as if clinging on to something that might slip away.

The album’s more frenetic tracks lean further toward the uncanny, developing chimeric grooves that brim with unresolved tension. “TRNS” stitches dissonant semitones into an insistent, threatening pulse that feels like an anxiety attack in slow motion. The slyly addictive “Blurred” submerges its jaunty bass-driven loop in an algorithmic haze of stuttering vocal grains and bleating sine waves. Played in full, Silent Way induces a pervasive nausea, reveling in gawky soundscapes that seem barely able to contain their outsized, clashing ideas. “Syndrome” whirls together oil and water, pitting spindly metallic percussion against dispassionate strings and a clipped, androgynous vocal to create a distinctly heterogeneous mixture. No Atobe album before has worked quite so hard to be difficult.

This sense of difficulty tends to prevent Silent Way from reaching the ascendant highs of Atobe’s best material. In its back-to-back knottiness, the album takes on an ungainly quality that, deliberate or not, sets up roadblocks to prolonged enjoyment. This isn’t to say that the album doesn’t offer its share of uncomplicated pleasures: “Phase 2,” a peppy lightshow of cascading, aqueous delays underscored with the warm chatter of a sound like shuffling playing cards, is among the most joyous tracks Atobe has ever produced. The stellar closer “Defect” draws deft microtonal contrast between its competing elements, crafting a dense, smoky panorama that lingers beautifully at the boundary of dusk. These tracks achieve harmoniousness because of Atobe’s quirkier, harsher instincts, not in spite of them; while he doesn’t always nail the balance on Silent Way, it’s heartening that he’s still willing to explore the boundaries of legibility. What lingers is a firm testament to Atobe’s capability to surprise within his modest range. Twenty-five years on, it’s one of the most valuable qualities he offers. — (via Pitchfork)

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- 2LP housed in gatefold sleeve
- Sides A, B pressed in transparent yellow vinyl
- Sides C, D pressed in transparent pink vinyl

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Label: Plastic & Sounds
Format: Vinyl, LP, Transparent Yellow, Vinyl, LP, Transparent Pink, All Media, Album, Limited Edition, Gatefold
Released: 2026
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, House

File under: Japanese Electronic
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