A guy named Ross drops me an e-mail. He wrote before about Nobukazu Takemura, saying something about hearing an amazing track in concert that wasn't on any of the man's records. Now he tells me that this track is on the new EP, and wonders if I've heard it. I haven't. I didn't even know there was a new EP, somehow. I pull out my wallet and fish for the credit card while surfing over to thrilljockey.com. I find the record in question, something called Mimic Robot. A couple of clicks later and it's on its way.

It arrives in four days, incredibly. When I ordered Mouse on Mars' Instrumentals back when it was vinyl-only, it took them a month to get it to me. Mimic Robot has a beautiful pink cover, with a small graphic of a robot getting all 'two turntables and a microphone' in the lower right corner. It has four tracks, and I don't recognize any titles.

The first is "Mimic Robot (12-inch Single Mix)." This tells me that this track will be found on the next Takemura full-length in pared-down form, just like the vinyl-only Sign EP that preceded Hoshi No Koe. It's not too terribly far from "Sign" or "Meteor," in that it's upbeat, with prominent vocoder. But "Mimic Robot" is much sparer than Takemura's recent pop work, with just an acoustic bass sample, some flailing drum hits, and the familiar voice. I like it better than "Sign," because the Nintendo palate saturation of the latter gets old after a while. There are hints of that here, but "Mimic Robot" is much subtler and more effective.

Next is "Cons (Plant Mix)."This simple piece is one the latest in what's become very long line of Takemura CD-skip tracks. There's almost nothing to it, just one note on synthesizer chopped into pieces and repeated for several minutes. It still works for me, somehow, but to me the CD skip has become sentimental, invoking emotion as dependably as lap steel does for a country music devotee. And that's the warmth that Takemura always brings to this shopworn technique. If you say it's boring as shit, I won't argue.

Side B starts with a major disappointment: a track called "Resign Part 2" that's actually yet another mix of "Sign." I like that song just fine, but this is my fourth version, including the twelve-inch version and an a capella mix on the original EP, plus the single mix included on the full-length. I don't need another, even if this is a serious reworking. Most of the busy midrange is jettisoned, leaving space for deeper, gurglier beats.

Finally comes the track that brought this EP to my door, the one that Ross heard Takemura doing live. It's called "Lost Treasure" and it again samples an acoustic bass, but the tempo is relaxed and the beats are hip-hop in Toyland style. Another voice through vocoder doesn't so much sing as scat, with unrecognizable words tumbling in unpredictable clusters. This is as stripped-down as Takemura has ever been in a pop context, with room enough for a all sorts of weird noises to pass through, rounded out by a couple vibe solos. I like it, but not quite as much as the title track. And it falls prey to Takemura's greatest weakness-- his inability to end a track at the appropriate time and leave the listener wanting more. Still, here's an EP that's got me back in Takemura mode, looking through release dates for the next full-length. Thanks, Ross.

-Mark Richard-San, May 7th, 2002