Since beginning his career in the late 90s, Japanese producer Yasutaka Nakata's maximalist take on electro-pop has turned two acts (techno-pop trio Perfume and model-turned-performer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu) into household names and chart staples in his native country. Capsule, his personal outfit alongside singer Toshiko Koshijima, racked up critical accolades while his more mainstream projects changed the nation’s pop landscape. Recently, his influence has spread across the sea—North American artists Grimes and Passion Pit cite his sound as an inspiration, while his fill-every-second-of-the-track approach predicted the booming EDM sound (popular producer Zedd has mentioned Nakata in interviews).
Caps Lock, Capsule’s 14th studio album and first for Warner Music Japan, could have been his opportunity to jump into the EDM scene he helped shape and turn the spotlight on himself. Instead, he’s made an album thematically structured around a computer keyboard. This is Nakata’s most spacious creation yet, a recording that finds the usually manic Nakata taking time to let ideas develop slowly and indulge in some experimentation. He’s chasing down his own artistic ideas—after spending so long developing others—and ends up with a muted full-length. It isn’t his best work, but it’s among his most interesting.
Nakata's decision to mix things up isn’t a huge surprise, however. Capsule has always been a shifty group sonically, originally working with the globe-hopping sounds of Shibuya-kei, a late-90s style popularized by Cornelius and Pizzicato Five. Those artists jumped to pounding, club-friendly electro-pop, which the pair explored up until the more headphone-friendly Caps Lock. Nakata has included one excellent gateway into his music here with “Control", a busy number highlighting the cornerstones of his production style. Save for a sparse intro, “Control” bounces forward on a cascade of synthesizers and Koshijima’s digitally warped vocals. He even stuffs in some laser sounds, a nod to his earliest constructions.
Yet nearly everything else on Caps Lock finds Nakata entering new territory. Whereas nearly all his past work burst into life right away, the songs here take their time to develop. “Delete” and “Space” start as minimalistic chugs, Nakata introducing new sonic elements slowly as each plods ahead. His newfound interest in delayed gratification is intriguing, but Nakata still needs to work on finding a climax, as both “Delete” and “Space” press forward without ever reaching a real payoff. It brings to mind the similarly aimless work of (frequent Capsule comparison) Daft Punk on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.
Nakata also shows off a newfound interest in sampled sounds on Caps Lock. A ticking clock appears during the first leg of “Delete” and plays a more prominent role on “Esc". The latter track is the most left-field work he’s ever done, less a song and more a field recording of a haunted attic complete with footsteps and whispers. “12345678” places sampled sounds of floorboard creaks and a car horn into a more conventional song structure, and this collage approach makes for an interesting three-minute experiment. Unfortunately, the song lasts just over six minutes, and Nakata’s charming approach soon turns tiring.
Of all the changes to Capsule’s music on this album, the only big misfire is Nakata’s decision to rely on Koshijima’s voice less in his final mixes. She only appears on half of the songs here, and in two instances she’s reduced to nothing much more than single-syllable topping, her addition failing to add much to either “Delete” or “Space". It’s not that Koshijima boasts great chops—every singer Nakata has worked with gets put through layers of digital manipulation. Yet the processed singing fits in seamlessly in Nakata’s buzzing tracks, and add warmth to his songs. The two best songs on Caps Lock are the ones that let Koshijima linger; on a song like “Shift", Nakata slices up his singer’s words thin but also rearrange them into catchy android speak.
Caps Lock is the sound of a producer who has spent the last few years dealing almost exclusively with the demands of pop songwriting getting the chance to dump a bunch of ideas out of his head at once, resulting in an album that’s all over the place. It’s a strange, albeit brave, album, given Nakata's current visibility. Caps Lock isn’t the easiest entry into his music, but features enough great moments to hopefully make people dig into his rich past.
