Daisuke Hinata

𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙮𝙡 𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙤𝙛 𝙅𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙨, 𝙗𝙮 𝙖 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧, 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙪𝙤𝙢𝙞 𝙃𝙤𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙤-𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣 - 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙪𝙯𝙖𝙠 𝙥𝙖𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣 𝙃𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨.

’Tarzanland’ is the solo debut by Daisuke Hinata, a prolific composer, producer and performer during the explosion of electronic music in ‘80s Japan with bands such as Interior, who continued in the ‘90s and ‘00s with work for film and TV drama soundtracks. Depending on your tolerance for synthetic pungency, Hinata’s music is analogous to Dragonfruit for its extremely strong flavour, and likely a total miss if you don’t like shiny plastic FM synths, but absolutely worth the entry twice over if you like the sensation of laminating your ears while getting a footrub.

It’s patently the sort of stuff James Ferraro references in the aesthetics and overproof melodies of landmark 2011 album ‘Far Side Virtual’, and in that sense jangles the nostalgic nerves to flashbacks of montages from John Hughes movies or nutopian ‘90s animation scores in its unyielding, hypersaccharine nature. Where some of this stuff can be a turn off in its winky knowingness, there’s a chef’s kiss balance of naïf and naff to this one that goes hard from the frosted choral glaze of ‘Lake High’ thru the effortless glyde of his pads and optimistic kets to ‘Citrus’, or flashback to mall jingles attempting to entice into Iceland’s aisles of frozen beige promise on the likes of ‘DC3’ or the fanfare of ‘High Tech Tree’.