Yoshio Machida "Naada" (amorfon 2006)

Yoshio Machida tenor steel pan, double tenor steel pan, mid pan.

Something about steel pan music seems otherworldly, a little absurd, and very childhood-like. That means, it's beautiful in a way that is hard to describe. Of course, in Trinidad and Tobago, steel pan is serious business, with large bands, steel pan virtuosos and aficionados. It is an entire musical genre that has only rarely been exported. Fortunately, Machida has, here in Tokyo, started to help the steel pan become the exotic sound that cannot be heard often, but can be said to live and resonate in obscure situations, like this marvelous CD from last year.

Yoshio Machida clearly fell in love with the steel pan, and has mastered its tones, tendencies and subtleties. His recording, "Naada," captures his obsession with the sound of the pan. "The Pan," of course, sounds like a title from a film of some sort, and no doubt will eventually be. Yet, the pan has a clear, honest and fresh tone, as if a child is whacking on the overturned tops of some newfound toy.

Of course, in the land of the steel drum, and on Machida's CD, the tone rings out miraculous, profound and engaging. Turn the sound up and the steel pan tones ring through the room. In that sense, this CD had to be made. It captures the sheer beauty of the tones from each section of the steel drums without any intermediary interruptions. Machida knows how the tones work, and captures them on his home studio, with elegance and precision and a great sense of sonics.

The silence in between the tones works as powerfully as the tones at time, and yet, it's that lingering, half-ringing beauty to the tone that really grabs you. They sound like fireworks look: spectacular, shaped and yet so fleeting it makes you want to cry. The tones are somehow metallic, yet very organic and human. Machida works them over in various directions, with excellent recording quality. Each of the tunes sounds more like a prayer to the steel pan drum than an actual song.

Machida goes forward, backward and criss-cross—one can only imagine the actual direction of playing the intense metal orb—and in doing so, he creates a marvelous set of sounds that is sure to delight anyone that likes a mix of silence and golden sound in equal proportions.

October 2, 2007