Overview

NanoSweep is an ongoing series of original music that was initiated in 2004 by various members of NanoSounds and Supersweep. It usually features members from each of these companies and occasionally a guest composer. This is the fifth original album and features compositions by Ryo Watanabe, Akitaka Toyama, Hiroshi Okubo, Shinji Hosoe, and Ayako Saso.

Body

"Sacred Mushroom," composed by Akitaka Toyama, is an excellent start to the album. While it is nearly 8 minutes in length, never does it ever sound boring to me. There is a constant change in the development of the melody. At times, it has more of a club feel, at others, a bit more spacey and futuristic, with some industrial backing to help add a bit more diversity to the already diverse sound.

Hiroshi Okubo contributes "SignOn" to this album. Sadly, the entire album can't be excellent. I find Okubo's contribution to be rather mundane. Sure, it has a nice fusion of synth and jazz elements, but they really don't go anywhere. It's a shame too, as I really dig some of his other NanoSweep contributions.

Fortunately, "Stargaze," composed by Ryo Watanabe, is another excellent composition. The house beat combined with some interesting guitar work and some inspired soul-like female vocal work makes for an excellent fusion of elements, with a bit of a disco twist combined with a bit of a modern RnB vibe. Did I mention that the rhythm is absolutely intoxicating?

Shinji Hosoe's "Dyspepsia," is an interesting blend of futuristic sounding elements, a bit of an ethnic coating, and an industrial rhythm. The bass line beat doesn't really vary much throughout the piece, but fortunately, there is enough variation in the melody line to keep me interested, even if at times, certain sections seem to go on for too long.

"Jacaranda," composed by Ayako Saso, is easily my favorite on the album. It has this nice latin jazz sound to it. As the piece progresses, Saso adds some futuristic synth to serve as an accent. She really shows her skill at jazz composition here, with some excellent piano and sax passages. The vocal work is also particularly catchy and I find that the male/female vocal duo really add a bit more than just using a singular vocal sample.

Summary

NanoSweep 5 shows that as each successive album comes out the quality of the compositions seems to be heightened overall. While I think Okubo really missed the mark on his contribution and that Hosoe's was one of his weaker ones, I think that Watanabe, Saso, and Toyama really kicked ass with this one. They are the reason you should pick this one up!