It can often feel like Kabanagu’s music is purposefully uncategorisable; that it is designed to flit between countless styles and instruments and yet still, somehow, manage to remain undistracting and cohesive. Hoboyume [Nearly Dreaming] darts from folk, indietronica and R&B to field sampling, club beats and industrial splurge. Longer and more consistent than 2021’s Oyogumane [Swimming Imitation], here Kabanagu is no less elusive but certainly a little more assured. Severe artistic restlessness, represented here as quite possibly the only properly identifiable feature of Kabanagu’s music, can itself be a rather thrilling and skillful form of continuity.

Listen to “Itsumoyori” below.