Lineage

The Brooklyn, N.Y.–based electronic producer and drummer Zachary Shigeto Saginaw does a U-turn with his 2012 mini-album *Lineage*. Where 2010’s *Full Circle* was overwrought with frantic rhythms and distorted synth outbursts, *Lineage* is an immediately mellower outing. “Lineage (Prologue)” opens with warbling tremolo tones undulating alongside the campfire crackle of dusty vinyl-record ambience. The proper title track has looped rimshots clicking and clacking under shuffling rhythms and fluttering synthesizer tones. All this is punctuated by a jazz-rooted foundation—part of Shigeto\'s upbringing in Ann Arbor, Mich. For “Ann Arbor Part 3 & 4,” vintage Wurlitzer tones hum and curl alongside timeless piano notes and instrumental hip-hop patterns. It vaguely recalls a time in the early \'90s when acid jazz buzzed through the pages of British music magazines. Following a flutter of stormy analog-synth cacophony, “A Child’s Mind” expands on jazzy soundscapes with double bass and a snare tight enough to bounce a quarter off of.

Zach Saginaw consistently grounds his music in a deeply personal, familial context; his grandmother inspired two releases, his producer aliases, Shigeto and Frank Omura, both reference family names and it's not for nothing that his latest release as Shigeto is titled Lineage. While only Saginaw could speak to the ancestral motivation being referenced on the eight instrumental songs that comprise the mini-LP, Lineage, it's easy to see it as an acknowledgement of debt to musical forebears, reverent respect due to the jazz, hip-hop, funk and folk that animates these eight songs. And while these elements aren't new to Saginaw's work, never has he demonstrated such complete command of his material. Each song is a complex constellation of sounds and ideas, but his compositional focus and restraint grounds songs that are otherwise cosmically inclined. "Lineage (Prologue)" eases into being with windchimes, effects, circular organ and little else, recalling a particularly subdued Sun Ra passage. That segues into "Lineage" proper, which props up the melody with shifty uptempo percussion and bass. "Ann Arbor Part 3 & 4" announces itself with lovely keys and falling rain before hip-hop beats steal the show. “Soaring” eases back into a handclap, acoustic guitar and harp sounds reverie, underpinned with lazy, spacey bass. Shigeto’s brilliant drumming takes center stage on “A Child’s Mind,” moving from a bombastic unaccompanied run into esoteric jazz and finally settling into a shuffling, prismatic hip-hop. Shigeto’s deft cymbal and snare work are also found on Huron River Drive, a dubby, smoky, soulful joint that dials back the lysergic digitalia that colors so much of the mini-LP as a whole. The title of “Field Trip” perfectly captures the adolescent joy and wonderment of the song, with live drums, ebullient toybox sounds and wide-eyed melodies. The understated “Please Stay,” which adds rare vocal sounds to Shigeto’s repertoire of claps and keys, gently guides listeners out of the journey through Lineage. ABOUT THE ARTWORK The front cover includes a photo of Shigeto's great grandfather's house from 1916 in Hiroshima, Japan. The back cover includes a photo of his great grandfather, Shigeto Ohmura, at the Amache Internment Camp in Grenada, Colorado after his family was transfered from Tule Lake Internment Camp. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war against Japan many Americans believed that the Japanese-Americans were spies or traitors. Thus, why Shigeto's grandfather and other family members ended up in these camps. Layout, text and additional design created by Michael Cina.

Zach Saginaw follows 2010's Full Circle with a mini-LP of homespun electronic music that traces his family bloodlines along with electronica's recent past.