Shigeto: Full Circle Vinyl 2LP

The opening bars of Zach Saginaw’s debut album as Shigeto instantaneously whisk you back to the late 00s, a time for many soundtracked by bootleg remixes, mp3 blogs, casual references to “the beat scene.” Doubling down on the Semi Circle EP, Full Circle is brimming with post-Dilla beats, 8bit synths, sidechain compression and wonky basslines; cheerfully avoiding quantization or pinning down of any sort. What separates this record from similar ones by Flying Lotus and the rest of the pack, for me, are the immaculate mixdowns and forward-thinking sound design - while his music present day may more closely resemble some of your standard jazzy Detroit deep house fare, Full Circle is laced with classic Detroit techno futurism. The counterpoint to these inventive synth textures is a generous helping of field recordings sprinkled throughout, which bring the record back down to Earth. Another thing that helped Saginaw rise to the top of a heap otherwise populated with Ableton dorks are his jazz bona fides, on full display here and still being embraced a decade later. Check out “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Relentless Drag,” “Ann Arbor Part 1,” “Look At All The Smiling Faces” and “Children At Midnight.” 10th anniversary repress on Ghostly International, recommended.

• black double vinyl pressing
• first time on vinyl since 2010
• printed inner sleeve
• digital download included
• music label: Ghostly International 2019

reviewed by Big Salad 12/2019