Foodman - HIKARIGASASHIKOMU Foodman

HIKARIGASASHIKOMU, the title of Foodman aka Takahide Higuchi’s new album, translates as ‘Light Shines in’ i.e. a  Japanese phrase that conveys a sense of hope in a difficult place. Opening new creative possibilities for Foodman, this astonishing album is an introspective yet hyperactive body of work, representing the clarity and light found after a period of self-exploration.

While deeply personal, the record also captures the now-universal experience of a brain stretched between hundreds of open tabs, multitasking into oblivion in a world where attention deficit is not merely a private condition but a global media environment.

Focusing more heavily on the use of voice, the album incorporates Foodman’s own looped vocals, singing elements of Japanese children’s songs, playground rhymes and fragments of everyday thought. Despite its charm and innocence, this soundworld constantly shifts and fractures. Foodman’s voice repeats, disassembles, accelerates and slows down, bouncing deliriously between layers of sound that call and respond around him.

Structurally and vocally, the album draws influence from footwork, ghetto house and baile funk, all of which are abstracted into bursts of spiralling psychedelic effects. The result is a uniquely immersive and restless listening experience that continues to push the boundaries of Foodman’s singular sonic universe.