THE RECORD CABINET

The Review

A friend described this as one song lasting roughly half an hour, which sounded either brave or intolerable. He mailed me a cassette copy with no explanation beyond “play after midnight.” That instruction was correct. Long Season does not behave like an extended rock performance built around solos. It drifts through repeated phrases, dub space, water sounds, keyboards, percussion, and Shinji Sato’s delicate voice until time begins to feel circular. Because the album is one continuous composition, selecting a favourite track is wonderfully unnecessary. I especially love the moment when the patient pulse gathers force without losing its dreamlike character. Some evenings I am too restless for it; trying to use it as background music only makes both the album and the task suffer. When I give it proper attention, the ending feels as if a room has quietly changed shape. The import CD cost too much, but it became one of the cabinet’s essential records.