Listening to “Departed,” the opening track from Hakushi Hasegawa’s new album “Mahogakko” (“Magic School”), is like riding one of those elevators that moves so fast it makes your ears pop. In the space of just over two minutes, it assails you with sugar-rush rhythms, ecstatic chipmunk vocals, big-band fanfares and a sudden detour into autotune balladry — all executed at a breathless 232 beats per minute.
“That’s the fastest tempo where I could count (the BPM) myself,” the 25-year-old says, speaking at a record label office in Tokyo’s Nakameguro neighborhood. “It’s like a physical experiment.”
There’s a similar kind of science at play throughout “Mahogakko.” Released on Brainfeeder, the label run by Steven Ellison (better known as Flying Lotus), it’s an album that pushes the limits of comprehensibility. Radiant melodies suddenly melt down into pitch-bent goo; luscious textures are paired with frenzied beats.